Need help choosing a Video Card

[mleeber]

I have read all the threads and looked at the comparison charts but the number of video cards have quadrupled and now they seem to be optimized for either gaming, or HD playback, or intense graphics but not all three.

I have abandoned my big tower machine with my Radeon 9800 in favor of an HP Small Form Factor PC. I need a low profile card that will allow me to watch the occasional HD video, play an occassional game (all of which are pretty ancient), and deliver the best speed using office apps on my 24" Dell flat panel.

I was considering one of the many ATI based 3450 products, HIS seems to be priced well, comes in the low profile form factor, and runs cool. Any better suggestions? I would like to keep it under $100 but that is not criritcal. By the way this machine uses a PCI-e 16x bus.

On another note, my monster box has the All-in-Wonder 9800. I would like to add TV tuner capabilities to the HP but I see that for the most part they have separated that functionality these days. Any reccomendations on a PCI tuner card? Most of my TV watching on the PC will be an escape from the chick flicks that my wife and daughters watch when they monopolize the family tv so this will not be used in a media center application.

Thanks!!!!

[Lacus]

Hmm, i guess your're looking for a budget card eh? Maybe you would like to wait for the new 4000 series ATI card which is about to be released this month and thus the price of 3000 series card will be much cheaper ... How bout considering for the 3650 card?

[Adrian Wong]

The ATI Radeon 3000 series cards should be pretty suitable for HTPCs, especially the smaller ones with passive coolers.

Actually, most of the current graphics cards provide hardware acceleration of HD decoding. Higher-end cards like the GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 8800 GT not only offer better performance but also better HD capabilities like the ability to render two HD streams at the same time.

Of course, it is currently questionable if such features are really necessary. Since you are not looking to play highly graphics-intensive games like Crysis on your HTPC, lower-end cards will do just fine. They are also quieter.

[Rraven]

If you poke around the web you can find the ATI3850 series for roughly $100 US, Theres several at Newegg that are just over that after the rebates. Pretty decent card for that kind of money IMHO.

[mleeber]

Thanks for the info! Yes Lacus, sort of looking for a card on a "budget". I did not realize that the ATI 4000 stuff was already that far along. I like the idea of waiting a month for the price change. Adrian, are the passive coolers enough to keep a card cool in a small form factor machine? I have not seen any high-end GeForce cards in the low profile format. Rraven, I regularly hit newegg and zipzoomfly and the prices do seem pretty good but the only low profile ATI 3000 series card that I have found that is truely low profile (low profile card with law profile back plane) is a 3450. Am I missing a 3850 that is low pro?

Any comments on whose 3rd party ATI based cards are better? Sapphire and Powercolor are familar to me but the rest are not.

Thanks!

[Lacus]

Sapphire,His, Powercolor all should be not bad.. 3850 is mid range i think since the price is much more expensive

[Rraven]

CHeck on Albatron also, I see they are coming out with a 8600 /8500 series of low profile cards. While prob not currently available I would think they will be in the near future

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by mleeber

Thanks for the info! Yes Lacus, sort of looking for a card on a "budget". I did not realize that the ATI 4000 stuff was already that far along. I like the idea of waiting a month for the price change. Adrian, are the passive coolers enough to keep a card cool in a small form factor machine? I have not seen any high-end GeForce cards in the low profile format. Rraven, I regularly hit newegg and zipzoomfly and the prices do seem pretty good but the only low profile ATI 3000 series card that I have found that is truely low profile (low profile card with law profile back plane) is a 3450. Am I missing a 3850 that is low pro?

Any comments on whose 3rd party ATI based cards are better? Sapphire and Powercolor are familar to me but the rest are not.

Thanks!

Passive coolers should not be a problem for the lower-end cards. But don't expect to see them on the higher-end cards. They are just too hot to run without active coolers.

[Zenphic]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Passive coolers should not be a problem for the lower-end cards. But don't expect to see them on the higher-end cards. They are just too hot to run without active coolers.

... unless you grab yourself a Arctic Cooling Accelero S1
Arctic Cooling
But that's not going to fit into a small form factor PC lol

You might also consider grabbing yourself a new motherboard. A motherboard equipped with the AMD 780G chipset is excellent. The IGP that comes with the motherboard, which is the HD3200, is more than capable for your needs:

bit-tech.net | AMD's 780G integrated graphics chipset

[Lacus]

Yeah,i wonder why the AC S1 can't fit into SFF systems =/ Btw i did hear that passive cool gpu need at least a fan blowing it to cool it down a bit although it won't get hot... Err, Dr Adrian, i did see my friend using the AC S1 for his CF setup of 3870..No fans at all and temperate is way cooler then stock hsf o_O... Btw just got for something passive, if i not mistaken..Only Asus has the Passive 3650 ..