HTPC Video Cards. Onboard Mem. Size vs DDR Type

[HedgeHocker]

Hi,

For an HTPC and no games and when chosing a card series you really want but it is offered in DDR5 and 512Mb or DDR3 and 1Gb RAM which would be the best performer for the application? It's tough for me because while I understand the benefits of DDR5 over DDR2-3 and having a more on-board GPU memory keeps the card from asking for memory from the CPU I'm ...I'm not sure I need more than 512Mb for just HD movies nor how much of an impact in speed if any DDR5 may have over DDR3 again just for movies.

I've been doin' my homework on this most of the day but the sun is going down on me

Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
8Gb Mushkin DDR2
Western Digital mechanical HDD's
Antec Earthwatts 350 ... something like that.
EVGA 730i mainboard - moving to my Asus P5e Deluxe as I upgrade my Game PC. Tired of messing with NVIDIA drivers and the 730i onboard IGP is not all that great anymore -if it ever was.

The video card I want to get is the new ATI Radeon HD 6450. It does what I need best for the least power draw. Just 512Mb DDR5 or 1Gb DDR3 to choose from though.


Okay, the house is totaly dark now except my monitor. Bbl to check for replies Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

[nforce4max]

GDDR5 is twice the performance of GDDR3 at any clock rate. Go for the GDDR5 version, the only time when the cards with the larger memory are worth while is when the memory is of the same type or better than the cards with the less amount of vram.

 

[HedgeHocker]

I'll run with that. Thanks buddy.

 

[hunter315]

Having more memory only matters when there is enough processing power to need the extra space, any lower end card wont have enough to make use of 512MB, you only need 1GB for high levels of anti aliasing at 1920x1080 and above, with a HTPC you wont be rendering things with AA so there is no reason for 1GB of ram, go with the DDR5 version for slightly better performance.

 

[jjb8675309]

yup ddr5 version

 

[HedgeHocker]

Well, I couldn't chose a Best Answer. Both of the first two make good points and the answer is nearly the same. I'll make a choice to close this soon. ....I'll have to add a heat sink to the Saphire to make it silent though. Shouldn't be too hard if all chips are covered. My Cyber Power battery backup is loud anyway.

 

[HedgeHocker]

Best answer selected by HedgeHocker.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey