video cards for work environment XP Pro and Windows 7 use.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:01 pm

I'm looking for multiple video card recommendations:

I'm buying for a work environment. Web browsing, office apps. No performance concerns but I'll want cards that will play nice with XP Pro now and Windows 7 later. I also expect all the cards to have dual vga, vga + DVI, or dual DVI.

I'm ok with Nvidia products in the 7xxx and 6xxx series but I don't know off the top of my head if drivers for Windows 7 will be an issue. I'm avoiding anything newer from nvidia due to card failures in the 8xxx and 9xxx series.

Card1: Looking for the cheapest card possible for PCI (not PCI express), and its frustrating doing price searches for PCI cards now as search engines and even retail web sites mislist PCIe cards as PCI.

Card2: Looking for the cheapest card possible for PCIe x16. If it has DVI that is a plus but cards that have DVI and don't include an analog adapter are a something I'd avoid as I have at least one card in house that has DVI that won't do analog on that port.

Card3: Looking for the cheapest card possible for PCIe x16 and dual DVI (not DVI plus VGA again search engines aren't much help on this one).

I'll be buying one or two at a time so if I get multiple valid recommendations for a card type I'll price compare as needed.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:15 pm

I really liked the ATI HD3470 card for our work PCs where we just needed dual-montors, no 3D. Dual-DVI, fanless and pretty low-powered. I only ever bought one of them and now they seem to have disappeared. I've recently come across a number of forums that were saying they were crashing and generally unstable. The one I bought is still working though. Newegg has pretty good search options for what you're talking about. You can search for PCI/PCIe (1x or 16x), number of DVI, etc... Do you care about being fanless? This is SPCR so I would assume yes.

1) Powercooler HD2400Pro - I would think and of the HD2xxx series cards should be good for updated drivers for Windows7. Most of the cheaper cards are ATI 7000/9250 or nVidia MX400/FX5200. I guess there's some 6200s there too.

2) Sapphire HD3450 - I'm on one of these right now. Anything in the HD34xx or HD43xx I would think would be good. Might have to peck through to find one that has the DVI/VGA adapter. The one I linked to does and is probably one of the cheapest cards you can get.

3) Power Cooler HD4650 - I was going to suggest an ATI X1050 that had dual-DVI at newegg. I never bought it but it was always on my list for work PCs. But it appears that is gone now. Most other dual-DVI cards are on the higher end such as the HD3650 or HD4650. This power cooler is the cheapest fanless one I've seen.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:52 am

BillyBuerger wrote:Do you care about being fanless? This is SPCR so I would assume yes.

No, fanless is preferred but not required. The work environment is cube city with tens of people within earshot for the average person so dead quiet isn't required just so long as it isn't leaf blower loud I'm ok with a fan design that will last (as in no cheapo 40mm fans that will die or get very loud just after the warranty runs out).

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:21 am

BillyBuerger wrote:1) Powercooler HD2400Pro - I would think and of the HD2xxx series cards should be good for updated drivers for Windows7. Most of the cheaper cards are ATI 7000/9250 or nVidia MX400/FX5200. I guess there's some 6200s there too.

2) Sapphire HD3450 - I'm on one of these right now. Anything in the HD34xx or HD43xx I would think would be good. Might have to peck through to find one that has the DVI/VGA adapter. The one I linked to does and is probably one of the cheapest cards you can get.

3) Power Cooler HD4650 - I was going to suggest an ATI X1050 that had dual-DVI at newegg. I never bought it but it was always on my list for work PCs. But it appears that is gone now. Most other dual-DVI cards are on the higher end such as the HD3650 or HD4650. This power cooler is the cheapest fanless one I've seen.

I had no idea the 3450 was that cheap. Doing a SPCR pricegrabber search and a Google products search I didn't see it.

Now if only there was a 3450 like that for the PCI and dual dvi config. $60 for PCI and $30 for PCIe makes the old systems without a PCIe slot not such a bargain. I'm such a cheapskate that even with other peoples money buying the cards I hesitate to pay twice as much for the PCI card.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:06 am

Using newegg prices for PCIe we have

4350 fanless $36
4650 with fan $50
4650 fanless $64
4670 with fan $65
4670 fanless $80
4770 with fan $110

I've recently bought a few of the MSI 4350 fanless for ~$35 each and while I haven't used them personally I'd have to say by benchmarks and specs they are leaps and bounds better than the other cards I've been ordering in the past for simple dual monitor paper pushers.

Does anyone have a modern recommendation for the PCI and AGP slots?

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:11 am

fwiw it was hard to find anything cheap for PCI or AGP today that wasn't an nvidia 6200 or older. I couldn't find the 7200GS PCI I got last time. I ended up settling on a HD2400PRO but it was $40.

LodeHacker · Post by **LodeHacker** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:25 pm

1. NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS ( http://www.sparkle.com.tw/News/8400GSPC ... CI_EN.html )
2. NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS ( http://www.sparkle.com.tw/News/SP-8400G ... x1_EN.html )
3. NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS ( http://www.amazon.com/XFX-PVT86SWML4-Ge ... B000ZH7K06 )

I love the 8400GS.

quest_for_silence · Post by **quest_for_silence** » Mon May 04, 2009 2:27 pm

LodeHacker wrote:I love the 8400GS.

But he has written:

dhanson865 wrote:I'm avoiding anything newer from nvidia due to card failures in the 8xxx and 9xxx series.

So...

...regards,
Luca

edh · Post by **edh** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:46 am

These suggested card failures must be very rare as I don't know anyone who's had one die prematurely.

lechuck · Post by **lechuck** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:07 am

Well, I can report a dead 8400GS after only 3 months of office use in our company. The replacement is still going after 10 months.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:27 am

PCI-e: For office desktops, I'd go for the lowest end ATI that has a decent warranty and noise profile. Some 4350 variant.

PCI: Ugly state of affairs. Given the age and price of the products, your wish to have Win7 support, the best solution may be to punt. Replace the mobo and video card with a mobo that has graphics.

AGP: On the ATI side, it looks like the 3650 is the newest gen. But, it's running $70....and will it support Win7? Might be another punt.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Tue May 12, 2009 5:06 am

CA_Steve wrote:PCI: Ugly state of affairs. Given the age and price of the products, your wish to have Win7 support, the best solution may be to punt. Replace the mobo and video card with a mobo that has graphics.

It's a nice thought but these are business PCs. I add a video card on the spot but swapping motherboards means someone in the office is without a PC during that process. If it came to that I'd just buy another complete PC and donate the old PC to a good cause.

I haven't heard any complaints about the 4350 fanless for $36 so that looks to be the standard to beat. I have a couple in use already and will keep buying them for some time it seems.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:33 am

4350? or 3450. sounds like a plan.

rei · Post by **rei** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:48 pm

Buy the 4830.

One generation ahead of any future driver update where they finally drop support for a series like they did recently for the X800-type cards.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Wed May 20, 2009 4:57 am

rei wrote:Buy the 4830.

One generation ahead of any future driver update where they finally drop support for a series like they did recently for the X800-type cards.

4830 isn't available fanless and isn't cheap enough to keep me from buying a fanless 4350, 4650, or 4670 instead.

As far as the drivers go any 4xxx card will be supported just as long as any other 4xxx card.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:24 am

It's getting pretty grim on the PCI/AGP fronts. No GeForce 7xxx cards in the channel anymore than the only 6xxx cards are 6200 models in the $50 range.

PCIe however keeps dropping in price. Very easy to find anything you want on newer PCs.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:19 am

OK, PCIe is a given. No issue with finding 4350 and newer cards under $40.

What I need now is a PCI card with a DVI connector and win 7 drivers and prefereably with an AMD GPU so I don't have to have AMD and NVidia drivers on the same PC (that is doable but messy).

The following products have been moved to the legacy software support structure (including Mobile and All-in-Wonder Variants):

ATI Radeon 9500 Series
ATI Radeon 9550 Series
ATI Radeon 9600 Series
ATI Radeon 9700 Series
ATI Radeon 9800 Series
ATI Radeon X300 Series
ATI Radeon X550 Series
ATI Radeon X600 Series
ATI Radeon X700 Series
ATI Radeon X800 Series
ATI Radeon X850 Series
ATI Radeon X1050 Series
ATI Radeon X1300 Series
ATI Radeon X1550 Series
ATI Radeon X1600 Series
ATI Radeon X1650 Series
ATI Radeon X1800 Series
ATI Radeon X1900 Series
ATI Radeon X1950 Series
ATI Radeon Xpress Series
ATI Radeon X1200 Series
ATI Radeon X1250 Series
ATI Radeon X2100 Series

Note: AMDâ€™s DirectX 9 ATI Radeon graphics accelerators are not officially supported under Windows 7. If the user chooses to, they can install the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista graphics driver under Windows 7. Please be aware that none of the new Windows 7 graphics driver (WDDM 1.1) features are supported (as the Windows Vista level graphics driver is limited to WDDM 1.0 level support).

Any customers using a combination of a ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 2000 Series, ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 3000 Series, or ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 4000 Series product with any of the legacy products listed above in a single PC system must use the ATI Catalyst 9.3 or earlier driver. All future ATI Catalystâ„¢ releases made available past the ATI Catalystâ„¢ 9.3 release will not include support for the legacy products listed above or any of the features associated with those legacy products.

This is not about speed. On any system where I need a PCI card it will be driving a 2nd, 3rd, or higher count monitor.

I need the cheapest PCI card with a DVI connector in the HD 2000 or higher model numbers. Newegg hasn't been much help on this search so I may be on a wild goose chase but I'm about to hit some other sites to see what I can find.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:13 pm

Hi, looks like a HD4350 PCI exists: (with 2 slot heatsink I think)
Club3d.nl
eBay.ca
EDIT - PowerColor website They also do a HD2400pro PCI.
Knowing that it exists gives you something to look for to buy, maybe!

Hope helps, Seb

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:58 pm

SebRad wrote:Hi, looks like a HD4350 PCI exists: (with 2 slot heatsink I think)
Club3d.nl
eBay.ca
EDIT - PowerColor website They also do a HD2400pro PCI.
Knowing that it exists gives you something to look for to buy, maybe!

Hope helps, Seb

Thanks for looking.

Unfortunately those are about twice to triple the cost of an equivalent PCI-e card. I guess I'll just have to wait for prices to drop. Sooner or later someone will have too many and want to unload a few.

It's annoying to see PCI-e x16 4350 for $20 after rebate when the PCI equivalent card is $80. Even before rebate the comparison is $40 vs $80.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:38 am

I can confirm now that 780G chipset motherboards will do dual monitor setups with one HDMI->DVI cable and one vga cable.

Presumably the 785G chipset and newer ATI chipsets will also play nice in this way.

I've also confirmed that a $20 4350 PCIe card will do two DVI monitors by way of one DVI cable and one HDMI->DVI cable.

That means a $5 cable now replaces the cost of a $50 more expensive PCI-e card for getting 2 DVI LCDs happening.

Now if only I could get rid of all the PCs in the office that don't have PCIe slots.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:48 pm

Dell Inspiron 546 has the 780G chipset and an HDMI to DVI cable works to get the second monitor going on the integrated graphics.

Dell Optiplex 580 has the 785G chipset and a Displayport to DVI cable works to get the second monitor going on the integrated graphics. Unfortunately the Displayport to DVI cable is more expensive than the HDMI to DVI cable (an extra $5 to $10). Luckily Display port to Display port cables are cheaper if you have a new enough LCD to take a displayport input.

In both cases you have to use one analog VGA connection but the image quality is better than the analog VGA on the old DX8 and below cards that often had super cheap components.

Something else to note is the Optiplex 580 has 2 PCIe x16 slots and the BIOS mentions using the integrated displayport with those slots in x8 mode or running those slots at x16 and disabling the onboard graphics. If that works as promised getting 3, 4, or 5 screens going with a cheap 5xxx add in card looks promising and it should be easy to get at least 3 of those to be digital.

HDMI and Displayport are both a wrinkle but in the end they are making it cheaper for me when I want a 4xxx or 5xxx ATI card with two digital outs.