Advice on best GPU for video encoding

Hello. I'm trying to figure out which video card to buy. I don't really play the games, so I'm looking for one that is best geared for encoding video. Budget <$200 preferably. (PCI interface)Thanks for your help.

Well the relative strengths for encoding depending on the tool you use. Alot of people confuse what the cards can and can't do. The most important thing is the app you're using and the type of encoding you're doing.

Some programs prefer certain levels of VPU power, others prefer very large memory for VPU-assisted NLE setups.

However the biggest part of the equation still sits at the CPU more than anywhere else, then RAM, then HDD IMO. But if you're at a high enough level on those then some solutions can get their biggest boost from a new graphics card. Just be sure you app is one of the ones that actually needs it. If not, ten a cheap HD2400 or GF8500 will do just fine.

Also the question becomes what kind of playback support do you need, that's where the VC-1 and H.264 decoding etc comes into play, as well as things like HDCP and TMDSs or RAMDACs (digital or analgoue).

I'd say that stuff like GPU-accelerated deinterlacing and motion compensation is probably the best use you'd get from those - handling the actual decoding is, for most formats, too trivial to do on GPU (except if you actually do Full HD/progressive, in which case decoding and postprocessing is best done on the GPU).
Let the encoding be done on the CPU(s) though: more formats available.