Suggestions for a new video card

yuchungman

yuchungman

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Joined
Oct 15, 2007
Messages
87
Location
Hong Kong
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?
 
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.
 
You want atleast a 8600GT, its only about $50 (I got mine from Buy.com) so its a waste to buy anything worse.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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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.
 
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Viper007Bond said:
I don't think any card would have true HDMI as that would require audio getting to the video card somehow.
Click to expand...

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.

14-261-002-04.jpg


Viper007Bond said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

yuchungman said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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MadCow809 said:
Weird... those HDMI-DVI dongle should come with most retail gfx cards. Guess you bought your card from a stingy company then.
Click to expand...

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

MadCow809 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Yeah, 350W won't cut it.
 
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:
145image2.jpg
 
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?
 
Viper007Bond said:
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.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

Look at the dimensions.

The posted case has Dimensions 12.8" x 3.9" x 15.8" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154061

My Centurion 5 is Dimensions 18.9" x 8" x 17.2" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068

My Centurion is twice as thick.
 
BlitzR said:
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:
145image2.jpg
Click to expand...

exactly. the thing is that i would like to keep the old case because i don't want my dad notice that i've upgraded the computer. So any card that can run a little bit better than the minimum spec of R6 would be fine for me
 
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