Graphics Card for Dual screens (Non-Gamer)

[doctor15]

I have an MSI 890GXM motherboard with HD4290 integrated graphics. I am fine with the current graphics performance to my single 23" 1080p monitor via DVI. I just bought a 32" 720p TV and would like to use it to watch HD video (H264, Netflix, Hulu, Live TV etc) over HDMI using Extended Destkop, so that I can continue doing work/web browsing on my primary monitor. I understand the integrated graphics cannot support 2 digital displays at the same time, so I need to add on a graphics card.

This is used as media server which I do not game on, but do record 1080p video via Hauppauge 1850 and often convert various HD/SD media sources.

I have several questions about choosing a graphics card:
- For my uses, am I going to see much advantage in one chipset over another? I understand some may have featurs to assist with playing video but don't know what these technologies are.
- Will I be better off going for a Radeon and trying out CrossFireX?
- Should I drive both screens of the new dedicated GPU or leave one connected to the integrated GPU (one GPU per screen).

I'm primarily looking at budget cards ($30-$50 range) unless there is a very compelling reason to get something higher end.

A few I have stumbled across so far include:
evga GeForce 8400
Sapphire Readeon HD 5450
Asus Radeon HD 6450
evga GeForce GT610

I'm sure there are plenty of others, but I have no idea what features (if any) will matter for my situation.

 

[kirilmatthew]

I think you should get the radeon 5450/6450, whatever one is cheapest. These cards all support eyefinity(multi monitor) up to 3. You can connect all monitors to the one GPU(they generally have HDMI, VGA and DVI, so you may need an adapter to run 2 monitors on one type of input). Crossfire is useless for you. There is no need for CF except in gaming really or GPUGPU work. For your purpose one GPU would be fine. When you have a new GPU, you cannot use integrated graphics anymore. Hope this helps.