new graphics card

P

pacoman

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hi ive just bought a hd tv and want to connect my pc to it to view hd stuff.Im new to this and would like to know if i would need a new graphics card to do this.
thanks for the help
 
What graphics card do you have now? What connections are on it? What connections are available on your hdtv?
 
ive got an old 64mb mx 440 graphics card been meaning to upgrade anyway and i think the tv has dvi ,hdmi and component.Its a samsung sp50hdx dlp.
 
You can try your graphics card - you should get a picture, go for DVI to DVI if you can, or DVI to HDMI.

With a 50" display you may want to try some post processing, nvidia purevideo is good which requires a compatible graphics card and the nvidia purevideo codec:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

Or - if your CPU is powerful enough do a search on 'ffdshow'.
 
can you recommend a graphics card that would be ok for about £40 to £60.I dont want to spend to much.thanks
 
I would go for something in the nvidia 6600 range - do you have AGP or PCI-e slot on your motherboard?
 
You can still buy AGP cards - try the usual places like Scan, ebuyer, overclockers - and check the purevideo list for supported features.

Or, you could go for a secondhand one - the classifieds on these forums or ebay.
 
pacoman said:
ive only got a agp slot. i think its only 4x



What spec is your PC - ie how fast is the processor, how much memory etc etc.

HD video playback (depending on the type of file) can require substantial computer power - if you have an older PC with a relatively slow CPU, then you may struggle no matter what graphics card you use.
 
pacoman said:
ive only got a agp slot. i think its only 4x
What does 4x mean?

I have an old AGP card in my old PC and was thinking about upgrading it but didn't know if 4x or 8x would OK in the slot (when my motherboard was new AGP was pretty new so I guess it is 1x!)
 
Hello,

I hope it's OK to jump into this thread. I'm currently choosing a new PC ( http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3380158 ). Should I be avoiding PCs with AGP slots and going for PCI-e instead? It sounds a bit like AGP is going a bit out-of-date and I'll possibly want to add a Graphics Card at some point.

Thanks,
Matt :).
 
MJC said:
Hello,

I hope it's OK to jump into this thread. I'm currently choosing a new PC ( http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3380158 ). Should I be avoiding PCs with AGP slots and going for PCI-e instead? It sounds a bit like AGP is going a bit out-of-date and I'll possibly want to add a Graphics Card at some point.

Thanks,
Matt :).


Although there is little real advantage in PCIe at the moment, at least in performance terms, AGP is on it's way out. The choice of GFX cards is already limited, and it really shouldn't cost you any more to get a PCIe based system.

At the moment PCIe gfx cards seem to be slightly cheaper than their AGP counterparts - I suspect that might be because, a) AIUI, most of the current GPUs were designed for PCIe, and an AGP bridge has to be used on the card to operate the chip on the AGP bus, and b), AGP cards are not in as great a demand.
 
my specs for my pc are 2.8ghz processer
512mb and 256mb for ram
40gb hard drive but i have a 160gb external hard drive aswell.
Im not sure what else it has like sound card etc.
so do you think if i got a better graphics card it would display hd movies ok?
 
pacoman said:
my specs for my pc are 2.8ghz processer
512mb and 256mb for ram
40gb hard drive but i have a 160gb external hard drive aswell.
Im not sure what else it has like sound card etc.
so do you think if i got a better graphics card it would display hd movies ok?
I am not sure that speed of processor will be adequate for full HD (1080 lines) material. With the right graphics card and software you can get the GPU to do some of the work - which will take the strain of the CPU, but even then you may not have enough oomph.

Microsoft Silverlight

Each type of HD material has slightly different requirements - Microsoft are quoting a 3ghz CPU requirement for their 1080 clips, so at best your set-up would be borderline for 1080 in my opinion.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hi lisa so my computer should display 720 lines hd ok because i think thats my tvs native resolution.
 
Your tv will probably display everything ok, 720, 1080 whatever... the problem is that your PC may not be able to smoothly playback high defintion video because it is very resource heavy and your CPU may not be powerful enough.
 
i think i will get a 6600 card and try it out anyway.as i said i dont know much about this stuff so your help has been appreciated.thanks
 
before u buy a new card. check out the for sale section...

plenty of cards come up in there ati and nvidia cards.

worth taking a look... as u could save urself a fair bit..
 
The 7600gs agp just about fits into your budget at around 70 pounds and is a very good card for the money, especially if you want to play games with it. A 6600gt would be just as good if your not interested in games, though I think they might be the same price.

One more thing, best to buy a graphics card new as they are probably the most unreliable pc component you can buy By that I mean they have a limited lifespan and are the most frequently failing component I can think of (except maybe RAM). Buying new means you get a card with a longer lifespan and more importantly, a warranty (often lifetime or 10 years with some manufacturers).

Hope it helps.
 
TeeDoubleUDee said:
What does 4x mean?

I have an old AGP card in my old PC and was thinking about upgrading it but didn't know if 4x or 8x would OK in the slot (when my motherboard was new AGP was pretty new so I guess it is 1x!)
So what does 4x mean?
 
TeeDoubleUDee - if your PC is very old, it probably would not be worth a graphics card upgrade, as the CPU / Ram would hold it back - what PC do you have?
 

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