Is there something in particular that the integrated Radeon isn't cutting it for? Nothing you mentioned is particularly dependent on the GPU, outside of maybe offloading some video decoding to it.
That said, at the bottom end, the AMD Radeon 5450 still seems fairly available for around £25 on Amazon UK. The typical configuration for that card is low profile (usually including a bracket for both) and passively cooled.
If you're willing to put a little more money into it, the more recent 6450 is only a few pounds more (ASUS still has a model under £30). nVidia's offerings are a little pricier. The GT 610, 620, and 630 are probably in your target range, all being variants of the GT 430 (the 620 is closest to what that card was). The 610 is particularly cut down, the 630 is a bit better than the original card. They're in the £35-45 range in general, and give that, I'd probably just try to find a better priced 630.
Personally, I've had both a Radeon 5450 and a Geforce GT 430 in my HTPC (among others). I had a flickering issue with the 5450, but that may not be the card itself. It works fine in my server. Currently using the GT 430, which is a solid card for non-gaming (though it'd cut it for old games I suppose).
The 5450 is a great choice. most of them are passively cooled and low profile. it does not use much power and is more than capable for what you need. I have one in my htpc and it plays blu-rays and 1080p h.264 encodes in mkv containers flawlessly with hardware acceleration. all streamed from my server to my htpc with media browser. Emulation runs fine and I can play some older source engine games as well.
1.can not run mame or amiga emulators with out being jerky with some games.
2.you tube ect sound and graphics run out of sink sometimes and cpu fan goes nuts
web loads slow and sometimes machine freezes when you have 2,3 or 4 web tabs open at same time and I have to quit out of web.
A graphics card is not going to help you much, then, except to free up some memory for the system, a problem that could also be solved by simply adding more memory. Methinks the CPU may be getting way too hot and throttling itself. Get a new CPU cooler for it with a focus on performance (don't neglect noise levels or you won't be able to spend any time near it) and then maybe consider a memory upgrade. That'll do you far more good than a graphics card at this juncture.
Good point. If emulators aren't running up to speed, that isn't going to be because your graphics card isn't good enough. Amiga output can be 1024 × 1024 at absolute most, and that's still just 2D. That's a piece of cake.
How much memory do you have though? You put 168 G of ram which is not right. Did you mean you had 168 G of HD space? XP can only effectively address just over 3 G of ram and surely you don't have 168 M. If you do have 168 M, then that's your problem.
I have a similar setup, and your processor is fine for MAME (with the exception of certain games like Street Fighter EX, and newer Ridge Racers etc.)
Your onboard graphics is certainly slowing you down. Although your computer can push HD content, if you're using your computer as an HTPC and you're trying to push HD resolutions (1920X1080) then the onboard ain't going to cut it. I have the same setup as you do for my HTPC and I spent $30 on an Nvidia GT 520 low profile.
That woke the beast up fairly nicely. I still don't get great performance from super high end MAME emulation, but Neo-Geo, Naomi, CPS2, etc plays fine. It's also an HD video beast now. For what it's worth.
pvt_awol wrote:
Your onboard graphics is certainly slowing you down. Although your computer can push HD content, if you're using your computer as an HTPC and you're trying to push HD resolutions (1920X1080) then the onboard ain't going to cut it. I have the same setup as you do for my HTPC and I spent $30 on an Nvidia GT 520 low profile.
No video card made within the past 5 years should have any problems displaying 1920x1080 video in a timely fashion. There have been no major 2D display advances for the past 7 or so years. Everything has been 3D advancement or accelerated decoding for key video codecs. There's no reason at all integrated video should struggle with HD resolutions. The only on-board video I would suspect as slowing down at those resolutions would be the basic Intel on-board solutions from that era. Everything else you'll find on-board, at least anything by Nvidia or ATI, should have no trouble at all with those resolutions.
