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HTPC Graphics Card

IcE-ColD

IcE-ColD

IcE-ColD

Associate
Joined
1 Oct 2006
Posts
385
Hi, I'm looking to build a HTPC and would like to know whats the best graphics card to go for. It needs to be quiet cheap as im trying to keep the costs as low as possible. The HTPC will only be used for playing back movies in 1080p on a 37" TV. The HTPC will have a blu-ray drive to play disks but i will also play HD material from files. I've been swaying towards ATI as they seem to have more card which are HDMI capable.

Thanks in advance.
 
Your best bet would be an ATi 4XXX card. The cheapest at the moment would be the 4850 for £101 here, but it's not exactly cheap if you're just wanting the card for 1080p playback.

I'm not to sure when the 4470/4670s are due out, but I think they would be your best option. ATi's cards are pretty good when it comes to multimedia, and their 4XXX cards can do 7.1 surround over HDMI if you're interested in that.
 
Thanks for the reply I'll look into it and see if i can find anything reasonable? Would you say the best bet is to go ATi or is there any Nvidia options available?
 
If you are building from scratch and don't plan on playing any games save your money and get a 780G motherbord, it takes AMD cpus but has the Ati 3200 onboard and is currently the best bang for buck for HTC video playback.

You shuold be able to build an entire HTPC for around 3-400 quid based on that mobo.

Don't get a 4850 for a HTPC they are gamers cards and run very hot. They will do HD and video very well but if you did want a separate card because you don't like AMD or something, you could get an ATi 3650 or Nvidia 8600 which would be perfect.
 
The 790G boards are starting to launch now. These are essentially slightly faster 780G with newer South Bridge chips in the Chipset.

Still more then capable of playing Blu Ray at 1080P with a Sempron, although I would pair with an AMD x4850e which is 45W 2.5GHz Dual Core CPU so should last well, but is still low energy use.

If not looking to play games then anything more then this is overkill.

Yes the Core2 is faster but you don't need the extra CPU power for what you have said that this machine is to be used for.
 
The HTPC will be used just for playing movies. I have a gaming PC already i just want something seperate to play music and movies on. I have a budget of around £500 for the complete system bar the RAM because i already have 2 spare sticks of DRRII 800.
 
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