im going to be using this computer for htpc purposes, but it will be in a regular medium tower atx case so size its not important. I do not know how much encoding process runs off the graphic card vs the cpu. Should I get a card that has 256mb of memory? Does it need to be high end? I was thinking about going with something like this 9600 saphire card from newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102295 supports opengl 2 and has 256mb memory if the gfx card does not matter in encoding, then what budget card should I reach out for? thx guys! ps specs 3700san diego, asrock dual, 1gb corsair cl2 dual channel, sataII 120wd, and a tuner card that i forget name of just need gfx card now
cant see anything wrong with that graphics card.. but you might consider getting the PCI express equivilent instead as it would be a lot better and probably not much more expensive and if im right your mobo supports both AGP and PCI-E so you might aswell go for the newer technology
PCI Express's speed doesn't justify it's price, unless you're a bleeding edge gamer, and need every extra fps you can get. If you have AGP as well, it will do fine for a PVR. The GeForce FX-5200 would be a good starting place, although even a Ti-4200 will work, the 5200 is DX9 compatible. The 256 meg version of the FX-5500 is less than $70, and works great in dualmode (or clone mode) for a PVR. The GPU has (almost) nothing to do with encoding speed. That's 90% CPU speed, and about 10% RAM. I tend to stay away from Radeon cards in PVR's, they're fussy to set up for multiple outputs, and their speed doesn't justify their cost.
It all depends on what you want to do with the HTPC and how much you're willing to spend. If video -into- the card isn't important, I'd suggest an Nvidia 6600GT or 6800 since it handles all current technologies (dx9, HDR lighting, etc.) and doesn't cost much. The higher the amount of memory you have, the better since the card won't have to dump graphics as often (dumping lowers performance.) If 3d processing (gaming, generally) isn't a concern of your's and you just want to view video: an ATI 9200 or Nvidia GeForce mx440 should surfice and are super inexpensive. That 9600XT for around us100 is closer (performance wise) to the 6600GT than any of the others I mentioned. It's a good lower-end card and will work very well for most things. (just don't expect 30fps when playing Quake 4). john
