Best Non gaming card? But something that handles 2x24" well.....

[Combat squirrel]

As title, just sold my 8800GTX as I really dont play games anymore, and stuck in an x800 128mb, while doing a fine job, windows REALLY has slowed down some.

Running 2x 24" monitors, so I need a good 2D card for photoshop and the fact iv lost 2x DVI also bothers me, the 2nd monitor is now on VGA and you can really tell , also running windows media center, and watching telly on one monitor and working on the other seems to make it chug a little........didnt think my computer would have a problem with a 'slow' 2d graphics card (rest of system is quad core at 3.6ghz,8gb ram, which I used for photoshop, vista64bit)

So I want a good 2d card that can handle all my requirements, also being able to watch TV while working would be good, also dual DVI is a must, so far got it down to:

1) Asus ATI Radeon EAH3650/HTDI/256M HD 3650 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

2) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB DDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Now the 2600 has all the media stuff listed which it can do that looks great,does the 3650 do all that as well?

Also the 'chugging' in windows isnt an ATI driver problem is it ?, iv DEFO removed ALL nvidia drivers so thats not a worry.

 

[J.D]

I would think the HD3650 will have the same hardware but I'm not 100% on that. Pretty stupid if it doesn't have it?.

If it hasn't then the 2600Pro is your card. Also you will be able to play a game now and then on the 2600 but just not at 1920x1440 @ 4xAA/16xAF .

 

[hp7909]

Now the 2600 has all the media stuff listed which it can do that looks great,does the 3650 do all that as well?

Yes it does & somewhat improved...

AVIVO HD with second generation of UVD and hardware surface tessellation

But if not gaming, I'd recommend NVIDIA's 8600 GT over the 2. You can get a passively cooled 512MB version which thanks to RAM size should handle those screens nicely, i.e. 128MB is causing the 'chugging'

 

[craptakular]

I have been a fan of nvidia cards for HTPC use for ages, I'm tempted to tell you to get a 3450/3650 as my 8600GT has mega poor driver support in Vista.

If I use the 163.75 I get a green line on the screen during blu-ray playback. If I use 169.25 and above I get choppy playback of avi's when playing in fullscreen mode in Vista MCE.

I have sort of fixed these issues by using a 3rd party driver - omega drivers.

Im tempted to buy a 3450 and see what happens for my HTPC.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Cheers guys, traditionally I thought the nvidia cards were not so good at video, etc, looking at the available 8600GT's there all way more expensive than say the Asus ATI Radeon EAH3650/HTDI/256M HD 3650 ?? surely 256MB ram will be enough for windows on the 2 monitors ? or even the 2600 512mb would be better for 2d/video than the 8600gt stuff ?

EDIT: looking around it seems that the 3650 has the same or more media features to the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB, this for sure, before I buy it ? lol

 

[postmanfw]

just sold my 8800GTX

You might want to close the for sale thread then as there are 3 of us waiting to hear back from you

 

[RaiderX]

the 3650 is just the 2600 with a smaller die and DX10.1

 

[ArcAneTSGK]

I would get the 2600 for what you are using it for. Good value for money.

 

[Combat squirrel]

You might want to close the for sale thread then as there are 3 of us waiting to hear back from you

Woops really ? sorry its sold, someone emailed me, yikes £190, get ouut of it

the 3650 is just the 2600 with a smaller die and DX10.1

If there both the same (media playback features and all) makes sense get this I guess? There the same price more or less?

I would get the 2600 for what you are using it for. Good value for money.

As above, there the same/similar price? makes no sense, unless the 2600 has more media features?

 

[flexo786]

can i ask what card you went with at the end as im in a similar position to you