Recommend me a video card for an HTPC

Post by **lordofduct** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:39 pm

AGP cards are either in the 1X/2X realm... OR 4X/8X realm. If you buy a 8X AGP card it is supported as 4X in a 4X AGP slot. It will just run at 4X speed.

As for Dual-D DVI ports. The best way to find out if it is supported is to look for a card that supports resolutions up to 2560X1600 or higher. Also 2 DVI ports is another good marker of it. The really high end cards tell you flat out... but the lower end cards don't, so you need to look for the DVI-D signs.

2 DVI ports usually (sometimes one... , it's just 2 is a very good sign)
Very high resolution support (tends to say max res supported only via DVI)
Nearly as high resolution, but with really high refresh rates (i.e. 85Hz)
Natively supports "High Definition MPEG2 Decryption" through Hardware

I will advise though I've sent a 1080i picture to my TV set and it looks awful! I stick to the 720p... unless you have a 1080p televsion! Then you need to make sure you get a card that supports over 1920X1080 (which the 2560X1600 does).

I found a few cards that support these resolutions around the 90-100 dollar range on newegg here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rchInDesc=

take a look through those. From what I can tell most of them are DVI-D.

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On a second note. How is MCE treating you? Did you get it to run? Also when your done with the disks I certainly could use them back as my buddy needs them for a machine I just built him.
Oh do you have a encoder that is supported by MCE? It needs to have onboard hardware mpeg2 encoding... I have a PCIe 1X sitting here if you have any PCIe slots that I can sell. I've tested it in my MCE 2005 machine and it records very good picture quality and doesn't get very hot. I just recently bought a Hauppauge dual tuner card so I don't have use for it anymore.

Post by **neohx_7** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:00 pm

If I were you, I would get an HDCP capable card so that you have some buffer for future technologies on your PC.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2874&p=3

Also, that P4 will struggle with some 1080p content so it might be wise to get a card with native x264 decoding if you are interesting in 1080p playback. I'm guessing your TV is not 1080p resolution so it may not make a difference.

Post by **lordofduct** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:42 pm

All the cards you listed don't come in AGP with out costing an arm and a leg... Racket needs a card that is AGP 4X compliant and affordable.

Post by **neohx_7** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:41 pm

lordofduct wrote:All the cards you listed don't come in AGP with out costing an arm and a leg... Racket needs a card that is AGP 4X compliant and affordable.

Oops. Ya you're right, these are all PCI express. Well, any decent 4x AGP card has MPEG-2 acceleration, but have fun finding dual link dvi for cheap...

Post by **metaleggman** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:43 pm

neohx_7 wrote:
lordofduct wrote:All the cards you listed don't come in AGP with out costing an arm and a leg... Racket needs a card that is AGP 4X compliant and affordable.
Oops. Ya you're right, these are all PCI express. Well, any decent 4x AGP card has MPEG-2 acceleration, but have fun finding dual link dvi for cheap...

Well, even if racket had a 1080p TV, he really wouldn't need Dual link DVI considering Single link DVI (aka current HDMI sans the digital audio) can do a bit past 1080p. You really only need dual-link if you have one of those perty Apple Cinema series monitors or a monster in that vibe.

So, just get a fanless 6-series or 7-series. Simply for movies and photos, it should do fine.

Post by **lordofduct** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:19 pm

metaleggman wrote:
neohx_7 wrote:
lordofduct wrote:All the cards you listed don't come in AGP with out costing an arm and a leg... Racket needs a card that is AGP 4X compliant and affordable.
Oops. Ya you're right, these are all PCI express. Well, any decent 4x AGP card has MPEG-2 acceleration, but have fun finding dual link dvi for cheap...
Well, even if racket had a 1080p TV, he really wouldn't need Dual link DVI considering Single link DVI (aka current HDMI sans the digital audio) can do a bit past 1080p. You really only need dual-link if you have one of those perty Apple Cinema series monitors or a monster in that vibe.

So, just get a fanless 6-series or 7-series. Simply for movies and photos, it should do fine.

like me?

(not an actual picture of mine... and its the dell)

Post by **racketboy** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:22 pm

What size is that?
I just ordered a 20" Dell WS

Post by **lordofduct** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:27 pm

30 inch, 2560X1600 resolution

Post by **metaleggman** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:32 pm

lordofduct wrote:30 inch, 2560X1600 resolution

Yep, like you >.< urgh...What's the response time on that bad boy anyways? Is it good with fast games, like doom 3, half-life 2, etc?

Post by **lordofduct** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:45 pm

amazing. I don't notice any blurring or anything on it.

specs I read on the web (which I can't verify as I don't have the tools to do so) state anywheres from 8ms to 14ms depending on the colour change. 8ms is most likely grey to grey (shades between white and black) and the 14ms for more difficult changes like dark orange to very light blue/turqouise.

I've played Phantasy Star Universe, Call of Duty 2, and Half-Life 2 on it and all look gorgeous in their max resolutions! (though PSU didn't support the 2560X1600 and you can really tell... not the monitors fault though).

I have to say though... first my machine specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67 Ghz)
2 GB DDR2 800mhz
Geforce 7950GX2

even with this really REALLY good system, playing games like Call of Duty 2 with all settings maxed out really kicks your computer in the ass hardcore. Levels with snow and explosions playing with like 10 people on a gigabit LAN pushed my computer a lot. I kept frame rates of about 80 or 90 fps, but strange glitches started to occur despite the great frame rate. Some models wouldn't skin, others would turn into weird cube objects randomly... but like I said this is EVERYTHING turned on and it is playing for long periods of time (about half way through a 10pm-7am LAN party). And this monitor doesn't have a built in video controller, it depends on a proprietary driver from Dell and your video card to handle all the syncing and actual guts of the video controlling. So if you want one I advise a GeForce as the drivers developed are geared more towards GeForce cards instead of ATI cards.