Any Suggestions on a Card for HP Pavillion p6-2100?

[JamesAtMdinight]

Hello. Here are the details.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week

BUDGET RANGE: USD $100-200 After Rebate

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Watching video only, really. DVDs and streaming video.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: AMD Radeon HD 6410D 300W

CPU Model: HP Pavilion p6-2100 Desktop

RAM: 4 GB DDR3

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Amazon, Buy.com, Newegg, but anywhere's fine.

PARTS PREFERENCES: None

OVERCLOCKING: I don't know
CROSSFIRE: I don't know

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: My current video quality on my new computer is unacceptable. It plays either somewhat pixelated images or moving objects are blurry or jagged. I want a good looking image quality. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Sapphire HD6670 - $65
Corsair Builder Series, CX430 V2 - $45

To be perfectly honest, your current system should not be exhibiting the issues you are reporting. I would look at possibly resolving whatever issues you may be experiencing before putting more money into this system. Assuming this is your system, the first thing I'd recommend is making sure no other extraneous (and unused) programs are running in the background. Free up as much system memory as possible. Also make sure you are using the latest drivers from either HP or AMD (check HP first and if those don't work, then go to AMD).

-Wolf sends

 

[JamesAtMdinight]

Thanks for the reply, Wolf. The computer you linked to is indeed my CPU model. I updated my drivers for both HP and AMD and it still looks the same.

I kind of have to always keep Vuze running while using my computer, so that will always have to be on in the background.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Vuze is one thing (though I have no idea what that is), but for strictly testing purposes, I think it would be ok to test your system without that (or any other programs) running. The idea here is to determine where the deficiency with your system is.

Upon further review, I see that Vuze is a bittorrent utility. This suggests to me that memory is the primary culprit (unless your video stream blocking is from networked or internet based sources); in which case network traffic could be the culprit.

Finally, if the pixellation always comes from downloaded source material, we cannot eliminate the issue being the source material itself.

-Wolf sends

 

[JamesAtMdinight]

Thank you again, Wolf. I'm testing the video quality more and it's possible that updating my drivers may have improved some, but not all, of my videos. Some videos still looks like jagged crap, but others, usualy hi-def videos, look just as good as I want them to. The problem isn't the torrents I'm downloading, since I tried these videos on my previous computer and they didn't look this bad.

My video watching doesn't come from that many streaming sources and never from a network, so if the problem is memory, what should I do? Buy more RAM?

 

[mohit9206]

i think you should contact HP and get it fixed

 

[k1114]

How about changing quality settings in catalyst control center? Or even enabling some post processing. It may even be the player you are using. Being an apu, I doubt a new gpu will be any different. Was the previous computer using the same monitor?

 

[JamesAtMdinight]

I appreciated the feedback. Per k1114's suggestion, I tried adjusting the quality settings in the control center. It didn't fix it. It shouldn't be the player, since it's WMP Version 12, which is either the newest version or close to it. The monitor I'm currently using is the same one I used on my previous computer.

I'm thinking the problem as it is isn't all that bad. Since using Wolf's suggestion of updating my drivers, my HD videos look as good as they should, which is the most important thing. My SD videos are a little worse than before, but they didn't look that great on my previous computer. Now, they just look like a different kind of bad. Before, they were fuzzy. Now they're somewhat jagged and pixelated. If it gets intolerable, I'll contact HP about it, but for now, I think I can live with it. Thank you again to everyone who responded.

 

[JamesAtMdinight]

Best answer selected by JamesAtMdinight.