Advoice: media center graphics card

[stackz07]

motherboard: k8n neo4 platinum sli
processor: athlon 64 (1.8ghz i think?)
powersupply: antec 380w
budget: 50-150

looking for a good graphics card for a media center pc. it will need to be hooked up via HDMI and support 1080p blu ray/dvd back up playback easily without overheating.. no games.

would also like a small form factor one in case i ever ditch the full tower.

any recommendations?

 

[rolli59]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125346

 

[megamanx00]

You should go with a Radeon 5570 or 5550 like this


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102875

 

[rolli59]

You should go with a Radeon 5570 or 5550 like this


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102875

Just be aware that there might be the no video issue with a PCIE version 2.1 card in that old socket 939motherboard.

 

[megamanx00]

I have a low profile 4650 hooked up to my Plasma and it does a decent job. It can even handle some low level 720p gaming like Devil May Cry 4 or Ghostbusters and that's with it's slower DDR2 memory. Anyway, a Radeon 5570 will be more than enough to accelerate some HD playback, flash for Hulu, or Silverlight for netflix.

 

[megamanx00]

^@rolli - Yeah that's true. I forgot that alot of old nForce 4 based boards have issues with newer PCI-E 2.0/2.1 cards.


Anyway stakz, you may want to research the board to see if anyone has had any issues with newer GPUs on that board and if there are any BIOS updates to address the issue.

 

[rolli59]

Usually the problem is with the version 2.1 cards not the 2.0 (as we found out after the release of the HD5xxx series)