Advice on graphic cards please ?

[JB]

Hello all.

Over the Christmas period I am going to upgrade my main PC. It is a bit of a workhorse but isn't used for games or anything too graphic intensive. I do a little photo editing, watch and record digital TV from a Haupauge DVB-T card and do quite a lot of compressing of MPG TV program streams into XVID AVI's to store away for later viewing. The later tends to be CPU intensive with no graphic power needed.

I have almost settled on an Intel E8400 processor and a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 motherboard. I'll run Windows XP as I have the licence and all my programs work well under that.

I'm just trying to decide on what graphics card (PCI-E x16) to fit and with what graphic memory. I'm using the Samsung SM223BW wide screen monitor via DVI-D connection at 1680x1050.

Anyone care to suggest a video card to consider? I guess I am looking at 512MB because of the screen resolution but with no game playing I don't need something with a big fan churning away and a GPU drawing lots of amps from the PSU. Also would like to keep the cost in this area down.

Would be interested in any ideas?

Thanks,

JB.

[Rik]

I don't think you'd need to go bigger than 256MB for that kind of usage, JB. Personally I prefer ATI cards, but I'm generally in a minority on that. How much RAM do you have on the mobo?

[JB]

Thanks Rik. Planning on putting 2 x 2GB DDR2 sticks on the mobo. They were on offer from Play a short time ago. I know I can only access 3GB via the 32bit version of XP I have.

[Rik]

In that case, definitely stick to 256MB cards as a 512 will further erode the amount of usable RAM.

Something like this would have enough oomph.

[kinmel]

I have just bought an  ATI HD4850, that card is the current winner on a Bang per buck basis.

[Rik]

Linky?

[kinmel]

Linky?

got mine off ebay and paid £107 + P&P

[Glenn]

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=GCA-XR485H512&af=50 £108 + VAT

[Rik]

Thanks, guys. 

[vitriol]

I really liked all my ATi cards over the years. I've had

Radeon 8500
Radeon 9600pro
Radeon 9800pro
Radeon X800XL

Then I bought an Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX, the new line up from ATi though looks great from a price/performance perspective.  I have no need to buy a new one just yet though as the 8800GTX is a monster and plays anything that I throw at it, but I'm happy to see ATi cranking out some competitiv cards now.

[JB]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the replies.

To keep the cost down, does anyone have a comment on this card:-

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151453

No HDMI, but that isn't important to me just now.

[Rik]

It looks fine, JB, provided your power supply is big enough.

[JB]

Thanks Rik. It requires a 300w PSU. I'm not home right now but from memory mine is rated at 600w and I remember buying a well recommended brand at the time.

[Rik]

Then the only concern is the extra memory you will 'lose' to the graphics card.

[Steve]

I'll think you'll find that's one of the low power (wattage) designs and is also suitable for a media PC with its passive cooling

[JB]

Thanks Steve, appreciated.

[kinmel]

Here is a review on the HD4550 and the rest of the HD4000 series too

[vitriol]

Then the only concern is the extra memory you will 'lose' to the graphics card.

Sorry Rik, this comment confuses me.  The card has onboard 512mb ram, it won't use any of the system ram.  Therefore no loss.

[Rik]

The mobo has 4GB, Vit, so a 512MB card will take a bit more address space and reduce the RAM available to Windows.

[vitriol]

So effectively your saying that Windows will only "see" 3.5gb ram?

[Rik]

Less than that, probably 3GB or a little under, as all the system addresses have to be fitted into the 3-4GB space.

[Steve]

If trouble sleeping try Googling PAE Physical Address Extension

[Rik]

Sadist.

[vitriol]

I was always under the impression that the Video RAM ran independently of system RAM and had no impact on it. Hmmm interesting stuff.

[Rik]

It does, if you have 2GB or less of system RAM, Vit, or a 64-bit OS, of course.