Page 1 of 1

What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. videos?

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 10:54 am
by capoeira
What's the most budget video card wich plays high-def. videos AND (you guessed it) doesn't make much noise.
I do no gaming, so the weakest card wich plays high-def videos is perfect for me.

Thanks

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 11:48 am
by ces
Get a Sandy Bridge CPU with its integrated graphics processing unit. Make sure that it is a 2600K, 2500K or 2105. They have the stronger version of the graphics unit.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:35 pm
by Mr Spocko
Whilst the onboard GPU with SB is quite adequate for most folks I'm still a fan of a seperate GPU
I've used a few Radeon 6450's Sapphire 512Mb ones mostly it's worth pointing out the new updated budget cards now outclass the Intel HD built in graphics (for now) performance wise

Obvious reasons to use a dedicated card..
It will have it's own memory and not rob system ram
GPU power is now being used by more an more applications (video encoding etc etc)

It's actually quite a bit better than the older 5450 series
Also I'm not going to assume the OP is building an Intel based system

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:28 pm
by Mats
Mr Spocko wrote:Obvious reasons to use a dedicated card..
It will have it's own memory and not rob system ram
How's that important for video playback?

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:17 am
by Mr Spocko
It's important for system performance..

Or it could be..as it is I've no idea what the OP is using he might be using an older pc with not as much ram..could be a new system no idea.
Whilst onboard graphics have improved quite a bit we're a long way off of "don't bother" with a seperate graphics card.

I've fitted lower end cards to older pc's that were prevsiously incapable of playing back HD video or doing so in an unsatisfacory way jerky etc. With modern graphics you get acceleration for many types of video playback, flash etc etc. It's gone far beyond "just games"

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:40 am
by Mats
Mr Spocko wrote:Whilst onboard graphics have improved quite a bit we're a long way off of "don't bother" with a seperate graphics card.
I never said that, we're strictly talking about video playback here.
Mr Spocko wrote:It's gone far beyond "just games"
Who's talking about games? :? The OP isn't interested in games.

However, this is going off topic since the OP wants to upgrade a computer and not buy a new one.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:51 am
by ame

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:01 am
by Mr Spocko
Mats wrote: Who's talking about games? :? The OP isn't interested in games.

However, this is going off topic since the OP wants to upgrade a computer and not buy a new one.

Why create an argument over nothing?
I'm simply giving my own personal view and if you disagree fine no problems.

I see a case for a budget dedicated video card simple as that really. As I don't know the spec of the PC of course I'm simply working off of common sense. As capable as the SB built in graphics is it is subjective and down to taste if a graphics card will indeed produce better results. This can vary from model to model.
For the meagre outlay of a budget card it's really not worth an extensive debate.

As I've explained GPU's do more than just decode video and yes having some built in memory might be relevant to end performance of the pc overall..it might not matter, but it's not going to hurt ;-0

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:41 am
by capoeira
I will wait until end of year, when I buy new mainboard-cpu-set. I thought requirement would be lower, I wont buy one of those cards for 1/4 of the price of a mainboard+CPU since I'm planing to upgrade anyways.

thanks.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:27 am
by Abula
capoeira wrote: I thought requirement would be lower, I wont buy one of those cards for 1/4 of the price of a mainboard+CPU since I'm planing to upgrade anyways.
Any Sandy Bridge cpu should play fine HD videos, Intel HD2000 should be more than enough. Even the slowest cpu, G620T handles HD videos fine, my guess is even the upcoming G530T ($50) CPU should handle it fine, though this are not out yet so not 100% sure, coming in september. The only reason for going for a cpu with HD3000 is if you want a little better performance for playing low end games, or to have faster encoiding using quicksync. If you have some free time and you wish to read more about the HD playback and sandy bridge, check AVS Official Sandy Bridge / LGA1155 for HTPCs Thread.
capoeira wrote:I will wait until end of year, when I buy new mainboard-cpu-set.
If you are going to wait till the end of the year, i would probably wait for Ivy Bridge, coming in march/april 2012, the replacing platform for Sandy bridge.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:58 am
by Mr Spocko
Simple solution buy a second hand graphics card..you can use it on any new build you make later on as well.
There are lots of them around some for very little outlay just pick any lower end one from the last few years and it will offload work from the CPU in playing back HD video.

I don't know why folks are saying build a Sandybridge based PC if there is a cost effective solution to HD video playback..this isn't it! Fine if you need to update the pc or do editing etc..but a graphics card is easy to sell and buy and cheap.

It would help if the OP would provide more information on his system spec wise

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 11:00 am
by capoeira
Mr Spocko wrote: It would help if the OP would provide more information on his system spec wise

MSI PM8M3-V H mainboard with Pentium D 925. I'm using the onboard video-card. 1,5GB DDR1 ram.

So, I gota buy a new mainboard anyways, lol

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 1:06 pm
by ces
Abula wrote:If you are going to wait till the end of the year, i would probably wait for Ivy Bridge, coming in march/april 2012, the replacing platform for Sandy bridge.
Not a bad idea if he can wait. The graphics processor will be even stronger than the current one.

Someone mentioned memory usage. Probably now is the time to move to a 64 bit system with 8GB of memory. You can allocate 1 G to the graphics processor and still have some left over. I find that with the memory leakage of all the browsers that this extra memory comes in handy.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:51 pm
by CA_Steve
I wouldn't touch Ivy Bridge with a 10' pole until 3-6months after release. I'm not Intel/mobo mfgr's beta tester for hardware and firmware (see SandyBridge release and really, every single chipset release, ever). Assume Intel pops it out in Feb 2012, the bugs and bios revisions should settle down by ~July. :D

I'd go with SandyBridge until then.

If you just want to pop in a graphics card, you can get a fanless HD5450 for ~$35 in the US, the HD6450 for $50, and the HD6570 for $75. Primary differences for HD are how well they decode the various formats. Pay more, get more/better decode quality. Surf for HQV testing at Anandtech andd Tom's Hardware. Sorta depends on what matters to you.

Doesn't 1.5GB of RAM impede your performance more than anything else? Is your HDD in a perpetual state of disk swap with your RAM?

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:35 pm
by capoeira
CA_Steve wrote:
Doesn't 1.5GB of RAM impede your performance more than anything else? Is your HDD in a perpetual state of disk swap with your RAM?
no, I never get to swap. I use Linux with a lightweight Window-manager (E17)

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:43 pm
by CA_Steve
cool.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:05 pm
by ces
CA_Steve wrote:I wouldn't touch Ivy Bridge with a 10' pole until 3-6months after release.
I am somewhat wary of new releases myself. I do expect Ivy Bridge to be a safer bet than otherwise. Current Gigabyte boards are supposed to be able to run Ivy Bridge.
CA_Steve wrote: If you just want to pop in a graphics card, you can get a fanless HD5450 for ~$35 in the US,
I think that is a safe bet
CA_Steve wrote: Doesn't 1.5GB of RAM impede your performance more than anything else? Is your HDD in a perpetual state of disk swap with your RAM?
From time to time I run into disk swap... from browser memory leakage. I don't find extra ram noticeably slowing down anything... though I have not done any careful apples to apples testing.

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:21 pm
by capoeira
ces wrote:
CA_Steve wrote:From time to time I run into disk swap... from browser memory leakage. .
On my system firefox only blows up if I leave it open a whole day with various tabs open. Just closing and reopening ff resolves this. I realy never run into swap, but my system boots with around 120MB of memory usage only, so I have "a lot" of headroom

Re: What's the most budget video card w. plays high-def. vid

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:52 am
by capoeira
I forgot to answer. I had bought a cheap second hand GF 6200 and it plays 1080p flawlessly (at least here in Linux).

But as life goes, suddenly i have the opportunity to buy a new board, but that's a new topic: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=63032