Recommended Video Card?

[bialio]

I've got a client that I want to upgrade the video card so that it can handle most / all the HD decoding - the client is currently using an old nVidia 8500GT, which was fine back in the day but it can't handle H264 duties.

Any suggestions on a good card to use with Win7? I don't have an ATI vs nVidia bias - either is fine with me. Just want something cheap that works well

btl.

[Mark SS]

I used an ATI HD5550 in my new server/client build. Debating whether to switch back to Nividia.

- EVR causes the ATI driver to crash with Sage
- Not playing nicely with my amp/tv, can only select YbCr output (not RGB)
- Struggling to calibrate the output, whites are too bright
- Profiles are very hit and miss. Doesn't seem to save the scaling settings so after a reboot you have to open Catalyst to get them applied (just open it, no action required).

[civerson4]

I use an ATI 5670 in my server. Essentially silent, bitstreams HD audio and plays blu rays perfectly. I am using the 10.5 drivers as the 10.8 seems have some bugs for HTPC use.

You can get a 1GB version for about $100 or a 512MB version for +- $80 on newegg.

Good luck

[SWKerr]

I just bought another ATI 4550 to replace a card with a loud fan. I considered the 5000 series but for $40 and passively cooled it does what I need it to do. I have 3 of them now and at 1080p on the 46"&50" screens they look great.

Win7-64 with EVR and Cyberlink codecs. HDMI hookups. Also: I don't do any PC gaming.

[Fuzzy]

Probably not ideal in your situation, but my new i3 based client plays back everything perfectly. Who needs video cards?

[mr_lore]

I just bought a fanless Gigabyte/Ati 5570 for its HDMI with bit streaming support and I can say that part is great, but the bugs mentioned above are insanely debilitating on 10.8 (the overscan settings wont save, occasional video driver crash, brightness/gamma is wierd, etc). I can't recommend it using the latest 10.8 drivers but on the same token since I used my extenders 99% of the time and I have not invested the energy into fixing it, then again when I had an nvidia card I didn't have too...

[valnar]

Another vote for the ATI 4350 or 4650. Great for HD use and low powered.

I think the 5000 series would be good too, but I've read about a few problems with them.

[Tiki]

I have a 4350, but I have been disappointed with it. I often wonder if DXVA is working at all. It has trouble playing back 1080i h.264 files encoded by an HD-PVR (though it plays 1080i MPEG2 files from my HDHomerun well), so I ended up locking my STB to 720p for the HD-PVR. Also, I frequently get the spinning circle for ~2-5 seconds when I seek (skip fwd) during playback of any content (even 480i SD MPEG2 recordings from my PVR-150).

[Rico66]

Yes, the 4350 is somewhat borderline. You can probably tweak it by making sure that it doesn't try VA deinterlacing, similar as it can be done with the 3200/4200 IGPs. A 4670 or 5570/5670 is better, and not that much more expensive.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Probably not ideal in your situation, but my new i3 based client plays back everything perfectly. Who needs video cards?

Hey Fuzzy - I had considered going that route - I'm always game to buying a new computer - bad habit of mine.

On your i3 system - what OS and then what video codecs are you using in Sage?

btl.

[Fuzzy]

I'm using Win7, with the Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder... ffdshow for the audio.

[bialio]

and has that combo worked for everything you've thrown at it?

[Fuzzy]

Yeah, so far.. though I don't think I have any VC-1 BluRays

[doncote0]

Power supply?
Cost limitations (always a factor for most of us)?
Noise?
Motherboard options?

If you have a power supply that will support anything, you can go for the gusto. Quad CrossfireX ATI videocards (a.k.a Quadfire)

Do you need it? Probably not. However if you are even remotely interesting in Quad CrossfireX then you might want to look no lower than the Radeon HD5830. Lowest price will put you around $200 for a good card (see the product reviews with more than 5 reviews).

If space in your system is at a premium (you need that PCI slot next to the PCI-X slot?), many Radeon HD options are available that only take up one slot. Many of those do not need dedicated power to the video card and get enough from the motherboard. (Careful though, I have heard of motherboards that disable PCI slots when the PCIX slot next to them is populated. Check your motherboard manual.)

Otherwise, all of these cards are good so far. You want Radeon, you want HD Radeon. How far do you want to go? I got a $75 Radeon HD5570 with $15 rebate for my sons PC. He does tons of gaming. It's overclocked a lot and easily with the included software--100% stable and quiet.

My system uses (2) Radeon HD 5750's. If I was going to do it again, I would probably go to (1) Radeon HD5850 or (1) Radeon HD 5670 and (1) Radeon HD5770 (HD 5670 and up use CrossfireX (hardware crossfire), but software Crossfire is available on Radeon HD graphics cards as far back as the HD4770).

So, in answer (RTFQ!), cheap and reliable I would go Radeon HD5670 (about $100)--it also maximizes your options for future upgrades at a reasonable price.

Someone also made a comment about gaming...ATI video cards easily support gaming. Go to passmark.com and check out the video card benchmarks for more information.