Fastest single-slot, 5xx generation Nvidia card (no extra power connectors)?

[mkanet]

I hope it's okay to ask a question like this here. I have a feeling there may be some people here who would know exactly the answer to my question.

I am looking to upgrade my Nvidia 8500GT display adapter in my primary HTPC. Im trying to find the latest generation Nvidia card (best OEM) that will work on a PC with a 375watt power supply. Is the Nvidia GT 545 DDR3 the fastest card out that doesnt require extra power connectors? They seem a little bit slow when compared to something like an old 9800GT (energy efficient version) from a few generations back.

Anyway, thanks for any help you can offer.

[Fuzzy]

Any latest generation card is going to be more than enough for an HTPC, in fact, I feel there's no reason to use anything but modern integrated graphics in an HTPC at this point.

[SteveD]

I use Nvidia 9400GT, 9500GT and all my Hd content and blue ray movies playback fine in windows 7 clients. None of my clients are extremely powerful either. See signature. You can find 9500 Gt "http://www.geeks.com/search.asp?query=9500+gt&FIELD=ALL&Submit=Go" " http://www.geeks.com/search.asp?query=9400+gt&FIELD=ALL&Submit=Go" cheap.

Just saying, Since I don't know what your needs are.

[panteragstk]

The 430 nvidia card is one of the best for htpc usage. That or the 6570 from amd.

Built in intel HD graphics work really well too.

[mkanet]

Which is better for HTPC video picture quality without stuttering: Bluray, Netflix HD silverlight streaming, and occasional gaming? I've been using the 9800GT ECO for almost 2 years. I would prefer my display adapter handle as much of VC1/H.264 hardware decoding as possible. There is a OEM version of the 440 which has 112 stream processors, but I can't find where to buy them.


Product Name: ZOTAC GeForce® 9800GT Eco <--I currently own this card
Core Clock speed: 550 MHz
Stream processors 112
Shader clock 1375 MHz
Memory Clock speed: 1800 MHz
Memory 1GB GDDR3
Memory interface: 256-bit
Memory Transfer Rate: 53 GB/s
GPU: G92
VP2 (Purevideo HD Second Generation)

Product Name: ZOTAC GeForce GT 440
Core Clock speed: 810 MHz
96 Stream Processors
Memory Clock speed: 1600 MHz
Memory 1GB GDDR5
Memory interface: 128-bit
Memory Transfer Rate: 51.2 GB/s
GPU: GF108
VP4 (Purevideo HD Forth Generation)

[gplasky]

You giving up a little in shaders and clock speed with the 440 but you have DDR5. I think the bottom line for HTPC, Blue Ray, silverlight, flash, etc you're going to get more and better hardware acceleration with the 4th gen PureVideo than with 2nd gen. The only questionable format for hardware decoding is VC-1 on just about any video card.

Gerry

[mkanet]

Thanks Gerry. What do pixel shaders do anyway? I have no idea what they are used for.

I remember just a few years ago, pixel shaders were used to help with deinterlacing and other decoding tasks. However, I saw a blurb on the Internet that said that pixel shaders aren't use for any video decoding at all. Is this true? Is it possible I might get better VC1 performance with a higher pixel shader count?

I kind of have my eyes set on the DDR5 GT 440. However, it has a pixel shader count that's lower than my 2 year old video card.

[panteragstk]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4380/d...-gpus-shootout

More than you ever wanted to know about htpc video cards.