Is the gtx 660 in my htpc useless?

saratj1

Distinguished
Sep 25, 2010
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18,710
I don't game on my computer, and rarely play my ps4. I bought my htpc used at a great price and it was spec'd very close to my ideal mini itx htpc system. It came with a gtx 660 which when I purchased thought of the gaming card as a big bonus but after using it watching YouTube, plex and Netflix , I wonder if I would even notice if it were removed, and if I were to remove it should I replace it with another video card that would be more suitable to my needs or is the Intel has well i5 onboard all I'll likely need?
What do you think? Gtx 660 a waste or boosting performance behind the scenes here and there.

Also may upgrade to a 4K tv soon and would that change anything related to my possible gpu overkill, or does 4K require a little muscle to pump those pixels?

Not sure most gpu info is gaming related and not really helpful to me in choosing a card that would enhance my viewing experience and system performance.
 
Solution
You can use the integrated gpu, also for movies, just upload them on an external hdd or on a usb flash memory, no point in running them on a pc with an hdmi to the tv. Not to mention the hdmi won't run them that good.

SheerTheSheep

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Sep 10, 2015
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Well in my experience on 4k videos having a dedicated gpu has quite a bit of an effect on performance, in my htpc I used 5th gen i5 onboard and when loading 4k videos it lagged now and then, I then put in a gts450 i had lying around and lag dissapeared completely, but i dont think it will affect it at low res at all.