Time for a video card

[adam1991]

I've seen all the video card threads. Alas, I haven't paid all that much attention to them since my i3 Clarkdale has done a superb job with its onboard graphics. Plus, I'm not a hardware geek. I don't follow all this stuff.

But now I have a spare computer lying around, needing only storage, memory, and video card. I thought I would build WMC machine Mark II out of it.

So, for solid performance without fiddling, with the sole purpose being to go HDMI to my TV and watching TV, and with my currently using digital cable, what's the current solution?

Cheap in and of itself isn't the answer. Value is the answer. I will spend money for the performance I need, but the goal here is not to show that I can spend money or to play the latest video games. The goal is to have the same "it just works and no matter what the cable company throws at me I never have to think about it" experience that my current i3 Clarkdale GPU gives me.

[LuckyDay]

To be perfectly honest, if you're looking for video performance and nothing else, any card in the current series by NVidia or ATI is going to serve the same purpose right now. The higher models are all about 3D performance, nothing at all changes other than that.

I would go with ATI myself, but that's because I've been more familiar with them for the last couple of generations.

Something like this is passively cooled, low profile, low power, good price, and will do everything any other ATI card can do for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... lsrc=aw.ds

[LuckyDay]

If you wanted to spend a little less money, that card or something similar could probably be found for less if you look around.

The NVidia equivalent if that's your preference would be something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... lsrc=aw.ds


To me, if you're looking for value over high performance you want to choose between brands, not as much between models. Check warranty lengths and stay away from the budget models.

[Crash2009]

You might want to check and see if you have a pciE slot open. Also, how many watts is your power supply. These 2 factors will narrow down your choices.

[LuckyDay]

Neither of the cards I listed, and nothing that's not meant for performance gaming, will need anything more than a 300W power supply. If you don't have that you've got other problems.

If you don't have an open PCIe, you've probably got an AGP slot, which again points to you not being likely to use this for anything useful.

[deihmos]

Not sure why you would want to spend that kind of money on a video card for wmc. A 20.00 video card would do fine. I used ati 5450 for years and paid 20.00

[Scallica]

Not sure why you would want to spend that kind of money on a video card for WMC. A 20.00 video card would do fine. I used ati 5450 for years and paid 20.00

Indeed, I use the Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 210 card which is around the same price. A few configuration tweaks to bypass the 29/59 issue, and the card works perfectly.

[LuckyDay]

Not sure why you would want to spend that kind of money on a video card for WMC. A 20.00 video card would do fine. I used ati 5450 for years and paid 20.00

The only reason I would go with one of the $50 or so models would be the build quality compared to the likes of the 5450 and 210 cards. Those do work great, but they have some pretty questionable heat sinks and parts on them.

I used a 5450 for about two years and it worked great, but it did fail in what I would consider an unacceptable timeframe.

Meanwhile my mid range NVidia 300 series is still going in a machine 7 years after I purchased it. This could be entirely coincidental, but he asked for quality as well as value.

I also found more issues with picture quality and flickering/refresh rate problems compared with my other video cards.

[Ed]

NVidia 300 series

Those are just 200 series GPUs for anyone interested. Just rebranded. Luckily Nvidia doesn't do that as much as AMD.

[LuckyDay]

NVidia 300 series

Those are just 200 series GPUs for anyone interested. Just rebranded. Luckily Nvidia doesn't do that as much as AMD.

They do it pretty often with the lower end models, just not as much with the mid range cards as AMD does (the 5770/6770/7770 for AMD being a good example).

[DavidinCT]

I just grabbed a GTX750ti card for under $100, it even does 4K @ 60hz never mind everything else I dump at it...a little overpowered sure but, 3 years down the line, I wont have to worry as much as people with a lower end card now. If MC dies, I could use it as a mid line gaming machine if needed.

For best driver support no question Nvidia over ATI (years of gaming from experience told me this)...

My Powersupply in my HTPC is a Antec 480w....(had 2 cheap ones in there and they died, time for a good one)...

[mcewinter]

I've been using the ATI HD5450 since 2009 without issue.

You don't need to be so scrutinizing these days as they all support hardware accelleration. I would simply look for something fanless from a reputable maker in your favorite flavor of ATI or nVidia.