Please help me pic a graphics card

[pvt_awol]

^

"should" have no trouble. But I can vouch for a fact that my setup struggled with 1080p content all the time. Bad screen tearing and dropped frames.

[nightrnr]

I have a PC that's getting kind of old (Pentium IV 2.8 Ghz single core), and my cheap video card (Radeon 1300 pro, AGP) does most of what I want it to.

However, I find video gets kind of choppy if I try to view it fullscreen. I keep my resolution fairly low too (1024x768, 32-bit). But on aging PCs, I wonder if a good video card would even help much. I just assume get a new PC and a PCI-E card at some point.

Which leads me to my question to the TC: Does your PC have a PCI-Express Slot? If so, My sister's PC is older like mine, but has a PCI-E card (Geforce 6600 or something) and plays video very well.
Also, upping your Ram to 1GB (or at least 512MB if it's not already) can really help
(I agree with Hobie, you must have given your HD space by mistake).

[marurun]

A lot of times chunky video implicates system memory or an aging hard drive.

[isiolia]

A lot of times chunky video implicates system memory or an aging hard drive.

Also can depend on the size of the video, or the encode. Trying to play HD video may pose an issue for some older machines. I know my P4 2 Ghz wasn't quite up to it without decoding features on a video card.

[pureevil return]

@ Hobie-wan

windows says 1.68 gb and cpu-z program says DDR 1792 mbytes

[pureevil return]

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.

Thanks that a good straightforward answer did you find that the fan on cpu calmed down after putting graphics card in ?

[Hobie-wan]

@ Hobie-wan

windows says 1.68 gb and cpu-z program says DDR 1792 mbytes

Ok, you're fine on ram for emulation of older stuff then.

[pvt_awol]

Thanks that a good straightforward answer did you find that the fan on cpu calmed down after putting graphics card in ?

It did to a degree. I'm running a very small HTPC case, so there isn't a lot in the way of ventilation. With the stock cooler and fan on the Athlon, I can hear it ramp up sometimes, but waaaay less than I used too.

As for the video card's fan, I can never hear it. I'm not sure how everyone else has their HTPC setup, but mine is in a rack with all of the other AV gear near my TV. When I'm watching a movie or TV show with the sound on, I can never hear my fans. I don't know if my house is noisier or not, but that's my experience. I'd go so far as to say that I never even really hear my component fans at all. The only one I seem to hear from time to time is the HTPC case fan which I think has a bearing going out.

Also, the reason I chose Nvidia over ATI, has nothing to do with fanboyism. There are alot of video programs that take advantage of CUDA cores very well, and some programs like PowerDVD have specific Nvidia enabled options. So, from an HTPC standpoint, it just made more sense.