Suggestions for a new video card

yuchungman · April 20th, 2008, 06:59 AM

since my video card cannot play Rainbow Six Vegas (and 2), I would really like to buy a new one
unfortunately my computer has a low-profile case, that means the height of the card must be no higher than 2.5 inches(i believe)
also, I may need to connect the computer to a HDTV, so a HDMI ouput is preferable.
any suggestions?

Viper007Bond · April 20th, 2008, 07:01 AM

What's the specs on the rest of your PC?

No sense in getting a 8800 GT (if it'll fit) if the rest of your PC is crap.

db2450 · April 20th, 2008, 07:37 AM

You want atleast a 8600GT, its only about $50 (I got mine from Buy.com) so its a waste to buy anything worse.

Crazyjeeper · April 20th, 2008, 07:43 AM

What are the rest of your system's specs?

MadCow809 · April 20th, 2008, 12:22 PM

Depending on what your pc spec is and how much you want to spend on a card.

If you are still running AGP, then the HD2600 Pro and HD2600 XT are your best bet.

Best sub $200 card is the 8800gt(512mb), no contest here. Or if you fancy ATi's HD decoding abillity, you can pick up a HD3870 for as little as $150. Its a tad slower than the 8800GT but $50 cheaper, and it overclocks nicely.

Best nVIDIA choice for around the $150 region should be between the 9600gt and the old 8800GTS(320bit). But you can pick up a 8600gt/gts for as little as $100, and that, IMO should be your lowest card you should spend your money on. Anything cheaper probably wont be able to run Rainbow Six Vegas smoothly.

Also, a dedicate HDMI port is not necessary, not many cards have a dedicated HDMI port. But since most cards support HDMI function, you can get a HDMI - DVI dongle (should come with most retail gfx cards) if you ever need to use the HDMI option.

Viper007Bond · April 20th, 2008, 12:27 PM

HDMI is just DVI + audio. My monitor only has HDMI and VGA, so I bought a DVI/HDMI cable for like $10 on Newegg. Works great.

I don't think any card would have true HDMI as that would require audio getting to the video card somehow.

yuchungman · April 20th, 2008, 01:05 PM

thx, my CPU is intel core 2duo E6320(1.8GHz),
2x 1G ram
P5B-VM SE motherboard
350W power supply
now I'm running on ATI X1050, it only has shader model 2.0

actually i'd like to spend less than 200$. can you guys give me some suggestions? and do i need to upgrade the power supply at the same time?

BlitzR · April 20th, 2008, 01:15 PM

hmmm
You have little option with the low profile case and if there are any and not too sure about running R6 Vegas. Consider a new case?
If not I think the 8600GT and 8500GT are available as low profile cards.

MadCow809 · April 20th, 2008, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

I don't think any card would have true HDMI as that would require audio getting to the video card somehow.

Think 9series nVIDIA card. 9600GT/9800GTX etc. And if you pay attention to hardware reviews, you will find that there are audio-in ports on new cards.

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/14-261-002-04.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

HDMI is just DVI + audio. My monitor only has HDMI and VGA, so I bought a DVI/HDMI cable for like $10 on Newegg. Works great.

Weird... those HDMI-DVI dongle should come with most retail gfx cards. Guess you bought your card from a stingy company then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yuchungman

thx, my CPU is intel core 2duo E6320(1.8GHz),
2x 1G ram
P5B-VM SE motherboard
350W power supply
now I'm running on ATI X1050, it only has shader model 2.0

actually i'd like to spend less than 200$. can you guys give me some suggestions? and do i need to upgrade the power supply at the same time?

yes, you probably will need to upgrade the psu, just to be on the safe side. gfx card is taxing on power, if not the most power hungry component in most PCs.

If its less than $200 and you still need to fork out moolah for the PSU, then 9600GT is probably your best bet. $150 on the card and another $50 bucks on a good 500w PSU.

Crazyjeeper · April 20th, 2008, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadCow809

If its less than $200 and you still need to fork out moolah for the PSU, then 9600GT is probably your best bet. $150 on the card and another $50 bucks on a good 500w PSU.

After a quick check on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133216

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817189005

That's 200 right there images/smilies/smile.gif

and that will run Rainbow 6 Vegas no problem.

Viper007Bond · April 21st, 2008, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadCow809

Weird... those HDMI-DVI dongle should come with most retail gfx cards. Guess you bought your card from a stingy company then.

No, XFX and it was a retail box. It came with a component adapter (via the S-Video port), but no HDMI adapter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadCow809

yes, you probably will need to upgrade the psu, just to be on the safe side. gfx card is taxing on power, if not the most power hungry component in most PCs.

Yeah, 350W won't cut it.

BlitzR · April 21st, 2008, 03:08 AM

Yeah the 9600GT would be nice, but you guys forget he only has a low profile case, meaning that he can only hold video cards of this size:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/RenegadeR/145image2.jpg

Crazyjeeper · April 21st, 2008, 03:49 AM

Oh, low profile case? With that I'd recommend these three, keeping it sub 200 overall.

XFX 8600GT XXX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=8600gt%2bxxx

Cooler Master Centurion 5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

Thermaltake 430w PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153023

Viper007Bond · April 21st, 2008, 06:55 AM

Does low profile mean it can only take up one slot? Or does it mean it can't be absurdly long like my 8800 GT is?

Crazyjeeper · April 21st, 2008, 07:07 AM

I think low profile is a case like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154061

Viper007Bond · April 21st, 2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyjeeper

I think low profile is a case like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154061

Looks to me like any normal video card would fit in that. It's just a normal case on it's side.

No video card I know of is wider than the slot. Instead, like mine, they're just all longer.

Crazyjeeper · April 21st, 2008, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Looks to me like any normal video card would fit in that. It's just a normal case on it's side.

No video card I know of is wider than the slot. Instead, like mine, they're just all longer.

Look at the dimensions.

The posted case has Dimensions 12.8" x 3.9" x 15.8" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154061

My Centurion 5 is Dimensions 18.9" x 8" x 17.2" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

My Centurion is twice as thick.

Viper007Bond · April 21st, 2008, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyjeeper

Look at the dimensions.

The posted case has Dimensions 12.8" x 3.9" x 15.8" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154061

My Centurion 5 is Dimensions 18.9" x 8" x 17.2" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

My Centurion is twice as thick.

Expansion slots are all the same, are they not?

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-154-061-07.jpg

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-119-068-05.jpg

My video card is not deeper/wider/whatever than an expansion slot: (tall in this picture)

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/14-150-252-05.jpg

It's just really long.

BlitzR · April 21st, 2008, 09:07 AM

A full size expansion slot is 4 inches wide, the low profile expansion slots are around 2 inches wide.

April 20th, 2008, 06:59 AM	#1
yuchungman Joined: Oct 15th, 2007 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Hong Kong Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	Suggestions for a new video card since my video card cannot play Rainbow Six Vegas (and 2), I would really like to buy a new one unfortunately my computer has a low-profile case, that means the height of the card must be no higher than 2.5 inches(i believe) also, I may need to connect the computer to a HDTV, so a HDMI ouput is preferable. any suggestions?

April 20th, 2008, 07:01 AM	#2
Viper007Bond Lazy Head Dude Joined: Sep 21st, 2003 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Portland, Oregon Age: 24 Posts: 20,988 Car: Dodge Viper (I wish!) Rep Power: 234	What's the specs on the rest of your PC? No sense in getting a 8800 GT (if it'll fit) if the rest of your PC is crap. __________________ Fight back against the evil Quiky by +1'ing this post! There is no replacement for displacement. - Wolfgang Bernhard, Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Group talking about the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ... I ask Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for SRT and a member of the original Team Viper development group since day one, if they'd ever thought of adding traction control. "It comes with two," he says, pointing at my feet. "Learn to use them." Got it. - Motor Trend on the 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe, November 2005

April 20th, 2008, 07:43 AM	#4
Crazyjeeper Joined: Nov 29th, 2006 Last Online: 01:32 AM Location: Texas Age: 19 Posts: 2,497 Car: 1985 Jeep CJ7, 1997 Ford F150 Rep Power: 50	What are the rest of your system's specs? __________________ Toy: 1985 Jeep CJ7 Lifted and Locked Daily Driver: 1997 Ford F150 4.6L with a massive 220hp MSI P6N Diamond 680i, E8400 @ 3.15ghz, CM Hyper 212 Cooler, XFX 8800GT 512mb Extreme, MSI 8400GS, Creative X-FI, 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, PC Power & Cooling 610w EPS12v, 1.6tb of HDD, CM Centurion 690.

April 20th, 2008, 12:22 PM	#5
MadCow809 Joined: Feb 23rd, 2006 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Durban, South Africa / Los Angeles, California Age: 23 Posts: 2,909 Car: 2007 E87 BMW 130i Rep Power: 28	Depending on what your pc spec is and how much you want to spend on a card. If you are still running AGP, then the HD2600 Pro and HD2600 XT are your best bet. Best sub $200 card is the 8800gt(512mb), no contest here. Or if you fancy ATi's HD decoding abillity, you can pick up a HD3870 for as little as $150. Its a tad slower than the 8800GT but $50 cheaper, and it overclocks nicely. Best nVIDIA choice for around the $150 region should be between the 9600gt and the old 8800GTS(320bit). But you can pick up a 8600gt/gts for as little as $100, and that, IMO should be your lowest card you should spend your money on. Anything cheaper probably wont be able to run Rainbow Six Vegas smoothly. Also, a dedicate HDMI port is not necessary, not many cards have a dedicated HDMI port. But since most cards support HDMI function, you can get a HDMI - DVI dongle (should come with most retail gfx cards) if you ever need to use the HDMI option. __________________ Supporting : A.Priaulx, Kimi Räikkönen, J.Button, R.Kubica, P.Solberg, M.Hirvonen, J.Plato & M.Jackson FinalGear's Car/Bike Register 08 Currently looking for a car.... 08 Honda Civic Coupe 06 BMW 130i 05 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS 05 Ford Bantam 1.3i 95 Mercedes Benz E320 Sportline Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 @ 3Ghz (333 X 9 @ 1.44v ~ 35°c with ZEROtherm BTF90/92mm Cooler) \| DFI INFINITY P965-S \| Corsair XMS DDR II 800 6 Gb \| GeCube ATi HD3850 512mb @ 800/1000Mhz \| Seagate 160Gb + 500Gb + 500Gb + 750Gb \| LITE-ON 20X DVDRW \| XION 600W PSU \| Logitech Z-2300 \| Logitech MX1000 \| Logitech G25 \| Dual 22" LCD Display @ 3360 x 1050 \| CoolerMaster Centurion 590 \| Vista 64 Ultimate \|

April 20th, 2008, 12:27 PM	#6
Viper007Bond Lazy Head Dude Joined: Sep 21st, 2003 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Portland, Oregon Age: 24 Posts: 20,988 Car: Dodge Viper (I wish!) Rep Power: 234	HDMI is just DVI + audio. My monitor only has HDMI and VGA, so I bought a DVI/HDMI cable for like $10 on Newegg. Works great. I don't think any card would have true HDMI as that would require audio getting to the video card somehow. __________________ Fight back against the evil Quiky by +1'ing this post! There is no replacement for displacement. - Wolfgang Bernhard, Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Group talking about the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ... I ask Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for SRT and a member of the original Team Viper development group since day one, if they'd ever thought of adding traction control. "It comes with two," he says, pointing at my feet. "Learn to use them." Got it. - Motor Trend on the 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe, November 2005

April 20th, 2008, 07:37 AM	#3
db2450 Joined: Jul 25th, 2007 Last Online: November 19th, 2008 Posts: 536 Rep Power: 8	You want atleast a 8600GT, its only about $50 (I got mine from Buy.com) so its a waste to buy anything worse.

April 20th, 2008, 01:05 PM	#7
yuchungman Joined: Oct 15th, 2007 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Hong Kong Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	thx, my CPU is intel core 2duo E6320(1.8GHz), 2x 1G ram P5B-VM SE motherboard 350W power supply now I'm running on ATI X1050, it only has shader model 2.0 actually i'd like to spend less than 200$. can you guys give me some suggestions? and do i need to upgrade the power supply at the same time? Last edited by yuchungman; April 20th, 2008 at 01:12 PM..

April 20th, 2008, 01:15 PM	#8
BlitzR Joined: May 1st, 2006 Last Online: 12:38 AM Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 1,515 Rep Power: 18	hmmm You have little option with the low profile case and if there are any and not too sure about running R6 Vegas. Consider a new case? If not I think the 8600GT and 8500GT are available as low profile cards. __________________ Last edited by BlitzR; April 20th, 2008 at 01:31 PM..

April 21st, 2008, 03:08 AM	#12
BlitzR Joined: May 1st, 2006 Last Online: 12:38 AM Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 1,515 Rep Power: 18	Yeah the 9600GT would be nice, but you guys forget he only has a low profile case, meaning that he can only hold video cards of this size: __________________

April 21st, 2008, 03:49 AM	#13
Crazyjeeper Joined: Nov 29th, 2006 Last Online: 01:32 AM Location: Texas Age: 19 Posts: 2,497 Car: 1985 Jeep CJ7, 1997 Ford F150 Rep Power: 50	Oh, low profile case? With that I'd recommend these three, keeping it sub 200 overall. XFX 8600GT XXX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=8600gt%2bxxx Cooler Master Centurion 5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068 Thermaltake 430w PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153023 __________________ Toy: 1985 Jeep CJ7 Lifted and Locked Daily Driver: 1997 Ford F150 4.6L with a massive 220hp MSI P6N Diamond 680i, E8400 @ 3.15ghz, CM Hyper 212 Cooler, XFX 8800GT 512mb Extreme, MSI 8400GS, Creative X-FI, 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, PC Power & Cooling 610w EPS12v, 1.6tb of HDD, CM Centurion 690.

April 21st, 2008, 06:55 AM	#14
Viper007Bond Lazy Head Dude Joined: Sep 21st, 2003 Last Online: Yesterday Location: Portland, Oregon Age: 24 Posts: 20,988 Car: Dodge Viper (I wish!) Rep Power: 234	Does low profile mean it can only take up one slot? Or does it mean it can't be absurdly long like my 8800 GT is? __________________ Fight back against the evil Quiky by +1'ing this post! There is no replacement for displacement. - Wolfgang Bernhard, Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Group talking about the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ... I ask Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for SRT and a member of the original Team Viper development group since day one, if they'd ever thought of adding traction control. "It comes with two," he says, pointing at my feet. "Learn to use them." Got it. - Motor Trend on the 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe, November 2005

April 21st, 2008, 07:07 AM	#15
Crazyjeeper Joined: Nov 29th, 2006 Last Online: 01:32 AM Location: Texas Age: 19 Posts: 2,497 Car: 1985 Jeep CJ7, 1997 Ford F150 Rep Power: 50	I think low profile is a case like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154061 __________________ Toy: 1985 Jeep CJ7 Lifted and Locked Daily Driver: 1997 Ford F150 4.6L with a massive 220hp MSI P6N Diamond 680i, E8400 @ 3.15ghz, CM Hyper 212 Cooler, XFX 8800GT 512mb Extreme, MSI 8400GS, Creative X-FI, 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, PC Power & Cooling 610w EPS12v, 1.6tb of HDD, CM Centurion 690.

April 21st, 2008, 09:07 AM	#19
BlitzR Joined: May 1st, 2006 Last Online: 12:38 AM Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 1,515 Rep Power: 18	A full size expansion slot is 4 inches wide, the low profile expansion slots are around 2 inches wide. __________________