graphics card

[sunhill]

hi guys

am looking for a cheap pci-e card .. something that i can use to watch hd movies on my telly ..
a card with dvi/hdmi out.

came across this. .. can anyone suggest if this is any good please

Kikatek.com | (R4350-D512H) MSI R4350-D512H Graphics Card Radeon HD 4350 512MB PCi-E DVI VGA

similar cards with the same gpu are around the mark of 25quids.

just wondered if i was getting the right product

or if someone can suggest what i should get.

thanks

 

[oneman]

You would be better off with something that has HDMI other wise you will need to run two cables.

 

[sunhill]

thanks for the reply

just a bit confused, why will i need to run two wires ?

thanks

there is another version available with hdmi alongside - cost approx 29
and this one without hdmi out is just under a tenner.

so why is there so much of the difference. lost there

 

[oneman]

thanks for the reply

just a bit confused, why will i need to run two wires ?

thanks

there is another version available with hdmi alongside - cost approx 29
and this one without hdmi out is just under a tenner.

so why is there so much of the difference. lost there

DVI does not carry audio signal, and sometimes does not support HDCP. So you will need an audio cable along with the video cable.

Also this should not effect you but you won't get anything more then standard stereo where as HDMI can carry 5.1 or DTS audio.

 

[sunhill]

thanks

i did realise it after i replied to your message.

i have a spdif out going into my home cinema, so 5.1/dts is not a problem
just wanted a high resolution on my telly as i currently have hooked it up using a vga cable, and the telly does not support more than 1024 x768 on vga input

anyways. only now i found out that card is actually discontinued thats why its so cheap.

so i guess i am looking to spend around 25/30 quids for a decent card ?

 

[little_pob]

That card will do what you want - the MSI website lists it as supporting HDCP. And the quick users guide states that it supports audio-over-DVI.

For the audio-over-DVI, you'll need a DVI to HDMI adapter or cable (an adapter might be supplied). The catalyst drivers should detect the adapter and pump sound to the TV. If not, it's usually a case of going into control panel and tweaking the active sound device.

I'd check the native resolution of your TV though. 1024x768 is a common resolution for 720p plasma panels...

 

[sunhill]

Thanks for the info,
but unfortunately for me, as i said before,
that product is discontinued .. so the idea of getting a cheap radeon card of mine is not going to happen.

Can anyone suggest anything that can be got under 20quids. and playback the blueray/hd movies smoothly over hdmi

I do currently have dvi out on my motherboard from the onboard i945gm graphics processor but its hard to boot the pc over hdmi, as the resolution is very very poor and i cant get the screen to fit properly on the TV display.
thts why i am going for an upgrade.

thanks

 

[little_pob]

When you said discontinued, I hadn't reallised it was out of stock too...

The only GFx card I can find for under £20 is this one: PNY Verto GeForce 8400GS / 256MB / PCI Express x16 / Low Profile Graphics Card - Computing at Play.com (UK) - having had an 8400GS myself I can tell you that it's fine for .mkv files in XP. However, even with PureVideo HD installed, it struggled with blu-ray playback in XP and .mkv playback in Vista at 1080p (I didn't try 720p/1080i) and I upgraded to the 9400GT.

There is no mention of HDMI support on the PNY website - by which I mean there is probably no audio-over-DVI option, rather than not being able to use a DVI-to-HDMI lead.

If you've found an HD 4350 for £25 I would recommend getting that over the 8400GS.

 

[sunhill]

thanks for the input guys

have probably made up my mind on getting the 4550 instead
only confusion
which one to get ..

Gigabyte Radeon 4550 512MB DDR3 HDMI/DVI/VGA Video Card on eBay (end time 09-Oct-10 12:23:31 BST)

or

HD-455X-YNH2 XFX ATI Radeon HD4550 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express - Retail 625MHz Core, 512MB 800MHz DDR2 Memory, 80 Stream Processors, PCI-E 2.0, CrossfireX Ready, Avivo HD, 1 Year Warranty with Novatech. : novatech.co.uk

not sure which one is better

the difference between the two is - dd2/ddr3 ram/ output connectors and the xfx does not support crossfire.

also found this

Compare Graphic Card - Shop AMD


update: just done a search and this gives a better comparision

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007317&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48|14-125-337^14-125-337-TS,14-150-484^14-150-484-TS

seems the gigabyte only had 128mb ram installed and more can be added.. so xfx looks the choice to me there.

so any pointers for me please
thanks

 

[little_pob]

The HDMI version of the XFX is just over £1 cheaper here: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/222068

... seems the gigabyte only had 128mb ram installed and more can be added...

There is no way of upgrading the RAM on a graphics card. The "Supporting up to 512MB(128MB onboard)" entry on the newegg.com comparison table actually means the Gigabyte card comes with 128MB of GDDR3 but can utilise the system memory to gain the extra 384MB. The RAM that is set-aside would not be avilaible to the rest of the system whilst this feature was enabled.

 

[sunhill]

the reason i fancied the one from novatech was because i have a local shop and pick it up
also i already have a dvi to hdmi convertor. so it would be just convenient for me to go for the easier option

also the one from novatech has got a fan which means its noiser/ where as the one on ebuyer doesnt, just the heatsink.. so that makes it quiet.

well i can always try the noisy one first and see if they take it back if i dont like it

thanks for your help.