Which graphic card for HTPC?

[Milleman]

Hi guys,

I'm planning to build a HTPC for my living room. Which graphic card is the best for video playback, when it comes to HD and Blueray movies? I'm not going to play games or any other stuff. Just high def movie playback at full resolution. And of course, the fan noise is also an important issue. The more passive cooling, the better.

So, which graphic card should I use?

 

[jaguarskx]

Click the following link for a comparision of several video cards (the review itself is for the HD 4550).

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd4550_6.html#sect0

I haven't read the article but based on the matrix, I would recommend the HD 4650. The HD 4670 uses about 47w of power, so I imagine the HD 4650 should be around 40w - 45w.

The clear winner in power consumption is the HD 4550 at 18.5w, it did not score as high as the HD 46xx / GeForce 9600 GT (61w) which both tied in first place.

I have a passively cooled 9600 GT made by ECS (??) in my HTPC. I probably would have bought the HD 4670 had AMD released it when I was fishing around for a video card.

 

[jaguarskx]

Also, there is no need to post the same question twice.

Since no one responded to your other thread you should be able to delete it. I think you need click Edit, then Delete.

 

[Milleman]

Great link! Thanx!!

 

[Milleman]

I wonder how the 4550 compares to the onboard GPU like AMD 780 chipsets. I did test a AMD 780 MB once, but I could sometimes see frame lagging during a movie playback at 1920x1080 resolution. Not so nice.