Video Cards Under $100

steveklein · Post by **steveklein** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:09 pm

Hey guys I've got a dual core system (Intel E6400 2.13 GHz) with the following motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131043

I got it 7 months ago and am now ready to add a video card.

I'm looking for a video card that does the following

- is cheap (around $100 or less)
- is silent, or at least really close to it
- will allow me to encode my dvd library into h.264 video format at better speeds and possibly at better quality than what i've got now
- i don't want to add any more cooling than i already have.

i'm not a gamer, i just do a lot of video decoding and playing and i use my htpc as a pvr (dual tuner, but don't record in hd).

also, i'm working with a 380W power supply so nothing ridiculous (although those are $300+ cards anyways).

whatcha recommend...

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:39 am

Sounds like your best bet is a Nvidia 8500GT or 8600GT. There's a passive MSI 8500GT on newegg right now for ~$75 shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rder=PRICE
Also, video cards won't improve the speed at which you encode videos, only decode. A card like the 8500GT will however reduce the processor load during decoding, and allow you to playback H.264 1080p video smoothly.

steveklein · Post by **steveklein** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:05 am

Elixer wrote:Sounds like your best bet is a Nvidia 8500GT or 8600GT. There's a passive MSI 8500GT on newegg right now for ~$75 shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rder=PRICE
Also, video cards won't improve the speed at which you encode videos, only decode. A card like the 8500GT will however reduce the processor load during decoding, and allow you to playback H.264 1080p video smoothly.

do you think i would get more of a performance boost by adding 1 GB of ram (to go from 1gb to 2gb) and add something like you sent me (cheap 8500GT) or am i better off just spending 130 or 140 all on a video card?

...because 130-140 is my budget and the only question is if i need to fit a gig of ram into the equation

Zsan · Post by **Zsan** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:26 am

If you use Vista, yes, try to get another GB of RAM. Otherwise, it's not neccesary. Yet.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:47 am

Iâ€™m not aware of any software that utilises the GPU for encoding video using H.264.
ATIâ€™s Catalyst Control Centre can encode/transcode video and is supposed to be very efficient but it doesnâ€™t actually use the GPU; Iâ€™m not sure if it supports H.264. Itâ€™s possible that a newer version of the ATI software may support GPU acceleration of course.

If your current system can handle all your video playback requirements then I wouldnâ€™t bother adding a discrete graphics card. If you add an 8500GT it will lower power consumption when decoding HD videos but at the cost of adding about 32W power consumption at idle. You lose much more than you gain in terms of power efficiency. The same applies with the HD 2400Pro but to a lesser extent.

Youâ€™ll only gain from adding the RAM if your workload can actually use it. Check to see how much RAM your system currently utilizes to see how much headroom you have. With RAM being very cheap right now and 1GB being too little in my experience when multi-tasking I would upgrade.

Tommy Jefferson · Post by **Tommy Jefferson** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:35 am

smilingcrow wrote:If you add an 8500GT it will lower power consumption when decoding HD videos but at the cost of adding about 32W power consumption at idle. You lose much more than you gain in terms of power efficiency.

Well said.