Hi,
Can anyone recommend a reasonable graphics card for use with Cubase 8 Pro ?
I was thinking the Nvidia GTX 750 ti - would this be any good?
I’m not sure…does that support two monitors?
I’m also unsure if this upgrade will require a PSU upgrade. I currently have a 650w
I tried some on-line usage calculators but they seem to give very different results, which is unhelpful.
Any help or suggestions appreciated 
I’ve been using a AMD Radeon HD 6450 for about 12 months now on my latest PC build. It has no fan so it’s quite. It has VGA, DVi and HDMI outputs which all work fine, the graphics are good and it works sweet with Cubase.
Recommended!
Regrds
A top-end graphics card is pointless with Cubase - it’s not a graphics intensive application - powerful cards usually require big noisy fans which don’t do DAW users any favours - any DX9 or better graphics card with enough memory to support the number of monitors at the resolution you want to use will do the job.
The only time I’d say a graphics card is a must at all if you’re a 32 bit user that wants to free up the shared memory used by onboard graphics or you require more monitors than the onboard one supports.
Agree with that. I’d say a noisy high end graphic card is irrelevant if you’re not a gamer.
That IS the card that I was using. However, I ran into major problems after installing Cubase 8 Pro in relation to performance and performance load.
These are problems I simply do not get in Cubase 7.5 (7.5.30 or 7.5.40)
Nothing else changed in my system other than my upgrading to 8 Pro. And no matter what settings I tried with buffer size, latency and AsioGuard, performance was dreadful.
This was improved a little when I switched from the HD 6450 to my on-board Intel HD4600 (it transpired that the HD4600 easily outperforms the 6450).
I was surprised to see that the performance load in these projects had improved - slightly but enough to notice.
Apparently, from what I have been told, the new engine in Cubase 8 Pro does off-load processing to the GPU. It’s a brutish approach, but ergo, if I have a graphics card that is over and beyond what Cubase should ever need, I can definitely rule that out as an issue. At the moment, I cannot move to version 8.
Considering I have no issues with Sonar X3 or Cubase 7.5.4, and that the only change has been to upgrade to Cubase 8 Pro, what else could it be and how can I sort it out?
The noise factor doesn’t bother me too much as the PC is isolated from recording/mixing room.
I have raised about 5 support requests with Steinberg about this but so far, I am disappointed to say that they have not come up with a solution and have not even replied to some of the requests and emails. Very disappointing to be honest.
I just want this to work!
I really do not know what to do now.
More powerful graphics cards will have more rendering engines more shaders - better memory bandwidth for loading textures - all of which are irrelevant to a 2D application like Cubase - this is why your on-board video seemed to outperform the Radeon - on-board video whether CPU based or discrete is generally optimised for 2D stuff first and foremost.
What is undeniable is CB8 seems to be much more sensitive to various PC setups than previous flavours of Cubase - and there does seem to be issues with certain drivers (graphics card wise) I wouldn’t like to guess what card suits Cubase 8 Pro the most - I don’t know if anyone knows! And I bet it turns out to be luck rather than price or official performance as to which dictates what’s “best”. It would be nice if a developer of the Cubase graphics engine could come on here and explain what sort of hardware will suit his product most - someone internal to Steinberg must know.
I agree.
Do you think it would help to use an SSD as my system drive rather than my samsung 7200rpm HDD?
i run my DAW Cubase 8 with a nVidia GT 620 (not a “new” graphic card) together with a Matrox Dual Head to go in a three screen setup and all goes well. I don’t know if it’s luck or something else, but the truth is that what works for one guy may not work for another… you can read the specs in my signature. And an SSD will be a fine upgrade. All the best
Ok, but I can only advise from my own experience and choosing that particular graphics device has been successful enough for me to recommend it whole-heartedly. I usually update my PC every 2 to 5 years or so and I’m always apprehensive about which components to choose. With Mother board, CPU, PSU and memory it’s a mostly a no brainer but, for me, the graphics card is important for more than music production. Whilst I don’t play games, my Computer is a whole more to me than just a DAW. I need my Graphics device to work smoothly with at least two monitors, be quiet and provide good work-horse quality displays. The card I use and recommend does all of that with ease and will not break the bank.
I just want this to work!
I hear you! I’ve been at it for many years now. I rarely take on clients, or do DJ gigs any more, other than favours, so I would class it as more of a hobby these days, except it’s more of an obsession really. If I wanted a hobby I’d buy a set of fishing rods. But I digress… Tis a good idea to do some research on what components work well together
An SSD won’t fix your particular problem - but it will make the whole system more responsive.
I just recently updated to an Asus GT730 2Gb fanless. Cubase 8 requires Aero to be turned on. If you try to disable it - as I used to - it won’t run. Whereas we used to disable it to improve overall performance, it is now required. A better video card will now take some work away from the CPU.
Any Direct X9 onwards video card will offload the GUI processing from the main CPU - as long as AERO is activated.
I’ve had the exact same issues. I thought it was going to be down to the graphics cards, but started to read reports of people upgrading and still having problems.
Since the latest update, I’m putting it down to Cubase. I can have Ableton open for an epic 24 hour Max/MSP session, where I"m actually rinsing the computer. No issues. Fire up the latest version of 8 with a single midi track and it doesn’t even stay open for 24 seconds without crashing. In the very rare instances where it does stay open the performance is woeful and won’t play back most of my projects. Open the same project in 7.5 (regardless of which version it was made on), and the performance is back to normal. I had no crashes in over 2 years on my machine (it’s offline and has about 4 bits of software on there), since I upgraded to 8 it’s been a nightmare. Unless Aero mode is inherently buggy, the only thing that’s changed is Cubase 8.
I use the card you mentioned dman2014 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti) and it works perfectly driving two monitors. It has a pair of fans for the gamers but I’m not sure they fire up when running Cubase, I never hear them. This card will drive four monitors according to the spec.
What graphics cards have to do with Cubase ?!
We’re not talking about video editing or 3D program here.
Any decent video card powerful enough to display properly your resolutions, with the number of outputs you need for your monitors, and preferably quiet, will do the job.
If you encounter problems with a graphics card, it cannot be only with Cubase, but with the whole OS and/or the rest of your hardware.
I currently use a GeForce 520. It is rubbish. The blank Win 8.1 desktop has moving pixels and when listening to audio, there are Mechanical noises that can be heard when moving the mouse etc. It’s rubbish because it cost me £20, 3 yrs ago! 
I asked a very similar question a little while ago and about the same card as you’re asking about…
I have decided to just spend a little bit more and get a GTX960. I think the price difference at the minute (in the UK) between the GTX 750 Ti and GTX960 is about £50 - £60.
I decided on this because it allows 4 x Monitors at 4k of which although I am not interested in getting 4 x 4k Monitors at the moment, perhaps I will in the future. And if I don’t, I am definitely planning on using Slave PCs for Sample Libraries and VIs so the card will not be wasted. I certainly am going to have 3 x 2.5k Monitors (and a 50 inch TV for Video).
Oh, another thing about the GTX960. The fan only turns on when you put the card under stress which means the fan is irrelevant whilst using Cubase. It shouldn’t ever turn on. Guess it depends how much money you want to spend? I tend to find that you get what you pay for with things like this.
Just to weigh in on the side that you don’t need to have the latest and greatest graphics card to use Cubase8:
I’m using an ATI Radeon 3800 series graphics adapter with 2 DVI-D ports going to 2 Samsung 21" LCD monitors at 1680x1050 res. The card has to be a good 5-6 years old and giving me no problems w/Cubase 8 on Windows7 Pro 64-bit.
Why am I having so many problems with Cubase?
I’ve installed the Asus GTX750TI graphics card and it works perfectly with Cubase 8 Pro. It has 2 DVI outputs, 1 analog output and HDMI so can support up to 4 monitors although I’m only using one at the moment. I previously had an ATI Radeon 5770 card and was getting some blue screen crashes but the new card has solved that problem.
I also had an issue with Windows Update KB2670838 which prevented Aero from working and then Cubase 8 would not start up, but having uninstalled the update, everything now works fine.