• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Gpu for light gaming on low powered htpc

really id think at 1024x768 a 5750 would be overkill wouldnt it?

Any way, i was thinking along the lines of an 8800GT or 4850 to fit the bill? my previous card before my 5850 was a 8800GT though it was a release day one without the revised cooler inlet hole so was allways a warm puppy so im not sure how the revised ones were with temps. That and i have never used a 4850.

Like i said above my board has Geforce 9300 graphics that support hybrid sli, problem is i cant find any decent bench's using it with a 9400 or 9500 card only 9800gtx+ which dont fit the bill. Does any one on here have any exeprience with these.
Ive tryed dead space on the igp and allthough not smooth its playable though everything is on low so i wounder how well hybrid sli scale

Edit****

Reading back what wrote im not sure if the output on either of those cards will fit my needs in terms of video/audio to my av reciever?
And it turns out that hybrid sli can actually hinder performance.
 
Last edited:
Actually the challenging part at the moment is that having to find a graphic card that's
a) single slot
b) cool enough in your HTPC case that's with little air flow comparing to standard cases
c) fast enough for gaming AND single slot.

Older tech cards runs hotter (e.g. 8800GT 60-80°C, 4850 can reach over 80°C at gaming), where as ATI's 40nm (nanometers) cards would be a much more ideal choice since they run cooler than nvidia cards, especially when you are using HTPC case as oppose to standard PC cases.

I got a few more questions for you to narrow down the options:
a) Would your case be big enough for single-slot card that got a dual-slot size cooler? (Most 4770 and 5670 are like this...)

b) Are you only going to play older games, or if you would be planning on playing new game titles too?

c) Do you have Windows 7 and would you want to play new games in Direct X 11 mode smooth at 1024x768?
 
Last edited:
A) Unfortunatly the riser card only lifts the GPU enough to give one slot and a touch of clearance. I suose i could work around this problem with an itx mobo, loosing the pci slots and the sace they occupy but i dont really want to invest any more money into this than i have to

B)Ill be laying joyad games, SFII, bioshock 1 & 2,Dead sace and id also like to play 2 on release. The range of games isnt going to be massive but there are allways going to be a few new titles ill like. i know ill have to mess with settings to get things running smooth but i think with 1024x768 being such a low res by todays standards, it should give me a little leway in the performance stakes?

C) i use vista on my HTPc, my front end media ortal hase issues with 7, as for DX11 as much as it ains me to say this having invested in a 5850, i havnt noticed massive gains so its not something ill chase in a light gaming situation like this so dx10 would do just fine.
 
After looking around long and hard (I actually spent hours googling around looking at reviews lol), the cards that seem to be the most suited for your HTPC is either the GT 240 512MB or the Sapphire HD 5670 512MB. They are most likely the the only graphic cards that's cool enough in your HTPC case, and fast enough for play majority of games (not demanding ones like Crysis or S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky) at 1024x768 smoothly without having to worry too much about minimum frame rate dropping to lower than 25fps. Although you can save £10-15 getting one level lower a 5570 or 220, but it would risk the minimum frame rate of games dropping to lower than 25, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Sapphire HD 5670 512MB review:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1187/1/

ECS GeForce GT 240 512MB review:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1194/1/

The coolers of this two brands for these two cards are are probably the best since they are using Arctic designed GPU cooling, with the HD 5670 temperature at idle 31°C, full load 56°C, and the GT 240 temperature at idle 25°C, full load 50°C.

Have a read at the reviews and look at the picture to see if they will fit in your case. I going to sleep now...see what you think of them, and I'll get back to you tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Forget it, the hardest game that HTPC will ever play is mine sweeper, any video card you can get for will have to be a low profile i.e half width (which in turn means its rubbish for gaming) and even then I wouldn't trust it with that PSU which is going to be hard to replace due to the size of case and ITX PSU's are limited in selection.

If your serious about getting a gaming HTPC I suggest you look at the Lian Li PC-C33B if not don't worry about gaming.
 
Freddie1980 said:
Forget it, the hardest game that HTPC will ever play is mine sweeper, any video card you can get for will have to be a low profile i.e half width
Click to expand...
Ah but here's the thing...his HTPC case- Silverstone Milo ML02's design comes with a expansion slot/PCI-Ex16 riser card, which would allow him to install a single-slot PCI-Express card horizontally:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=796&num=2

There's should be no doubt the case is spacy enough for the board of the single-slot graphic card, the only concern I'm having is whether or not it would be spacy enough to accommodate those gpu coolers.

As for PSU, the op already mention he would probably get another more powerful PSU to sit outside of the case, and try to feed the cable from the rear (while hiding the PSU away from line of sight).
 
Last edited:
batchelord said:
What about getting a zotac 9300 itx motherboard with an integrated 9300?

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1798/zotac_geforce_9300_itx_wifi_motherboard/index9.html
Click to expand...
It's a good thought...but the spec of Silverstone Milo ML02 listed the motherobard compatability as "MoDT Micro ATX, Mini-ITX, DTX"...I'm guessing ITX is different and bigger than Mini-ITX board right?

Also, using onboard graphic in this case has the disadvantage of if the GPU chip dying on you, you'd have to remove everything to replace the entire motherboard, instead of just the graphic card.
 
Sorry, should had made it clearer..... It is mini itx, but looking at it, the asus p5n7a-vm already has an 9300 built in (thought it was a 8200 for some reason).

I would have thought that the 9300 should just be able cope with games at 1024x768, have you tried playing any games with it? How many FPS are you getting?
 
batchelord said:
Sorry, should had made it clearer..... It is mini itx, but looking at it, the asus p5n7a-vm already has an 9300 built in (thought it was a 8200 for some reason).
Click to expand...
I missed that part in the first post too...thanks for pointing it out.

I agree...try gaming with the onboard 9300 and see if it would turn your games into a slideshow first. If it does, THEN you can think about upgrade.

But seriously though...a 120W PSU...don't think I've came across one until now. But that's probably because I have never built a HTPC with cases like this before.
 
the onboard 9300 plays dead space. fps wont be massive but playing with a joypad eleviates this somewhat as look speed is decreased sevearly, its smooth at 800x600 full settings but its not that good looking not being at the native res.
1024x768 i can run with low /medium mix and its ok not as smooth as id like but playable, so id like a card that plays it full settings smooth. my wreckoning is it wont have to be too much more powerfull than the 9300 though has to be 9 series/hd4 series onwards to be able to deliver the specs for av features my current igp does.

Liking the look of the hd5 series card marine, should have a fair bit grunt to it aswell.
 
Kanifee said:
Liking the look of the hd5 series card marine, should have a fair bit grunt to it aswell.
Click to expand...
The 5670 is in fact a tiny bit faster than the GT240. I know you said dx 10 or dx 11 don't matter, but may be...just may be if there are any dx 11 games that are not graphic demanding, you can probably run it in dx 11 mode with the 5670 for better looking 3D models...that's assuming the frame rate is high enough of course. I know normally the dx 11 support of the 5670 would be 'decorative' at most for people playing games at 1280x1024+, but since you are only playing at 1024x768...who knows...:D

I guess you would still have to make sure if there's enough room in your case for the GPU cooler though.

I read an review of the 5670 in the current issue of Custom PC. It is a bit slower than the 4770 and 9800GT in terms of frame rate, so I'm guessing it is more or less around 9600GT's speed and performance. Just thought you should know.
 
Last edited:
I'll give you some figures for comparison:

Test kit: Core i7 965 3.2GHz, 6GB Corsair 1,333MHz DDR3 RAMs, Win 7 64-bits.

Fallout 3
1280x1024 0xAA, 16xAF
HD5670 32-57fps
HD4770 35-67fps
9800GT 38-67fps

1280x1024 4xAA, 16xAF
HD5670 22-50fps
HD4770 23-58fps
9800GT 27-59fps

Call of Duty: World at War
1280x1024 0xAA, 16xAF
HD5670 40-54fps
HD4770 48-71fps
9800GT 43-67fps

1280x1024 4xAA, 16xAF
HD5670 31-45fps
HD4770 34-59fps
9800GT 32-56fps


At 1024x768, frame rate should be higher than these at 1280x1024.

By the way, you still haven't mention if you think it will fit into your case or not :P
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom