Seeking under $100 (USD) Video Card Recommendations

[sum_guy]

Greetings everyone,

Ok, I have a decent dual core AMD cpu, 4 gig ram pc, graphics are ATI 1250 on the motherboard, I'd like to upgrade to an off motherboard graphics card, I have PCIe slot available, I'm not interested in gaming, I don't care about multiple cards in the tower. Just seeking a bargain with as much performance as possible for under $100 US bucks. I primarily use this particular comp for video capture, conversion, etc.

Looking forward to everyones opinion on the graphics cards.

Thanks.

[Backpain]

I always shop tigerdirect and get good deals.

[budz]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150402

I use that video card in my AMD system.
System Requirements Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 300 Watts

[redwudz]

I've been impressed with this card. Fan-less cooling and HDMI output and cool temps. The heatpipe carries away the heat to the topside of the card, where it should be. Most other fan-less cards keep the heat underneath the card with no way to outlet, which sort of defeates the fan-less idea: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127386 Generally I suggest ATI cards for AMD chipsets, but sometimes there are better designs out there like this Nvidia chipset card. The HDMI output is a bonus that you may be able to use in the future for HD video viewing.

[lordsmurf]

Neat card, redwudz.

[ranchhand]

Good find, Redwudz

[themaster1]

I've been impressed with this card. Fan-less cooling and HDMI output and cool temps. The heatpipe carries away the heat to the topside of the card, where it should be. Most other fan-less cards keep the heat underneath the card with no way to outlet, which sort of defeates the fan-less idea: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127386

What are the temps you get (when viewing HDTV or a simple dvd for example), i'd like to know ?

[redwudz]

The PC it's in is now is with a relative, but idle temps were in the low 40C range and I don't recall it even getting to 50C under load. (HD MKVs) But I did use a case with good ventilation. It ran cooler than some of my other video cards with fans. I won't say it's the fastest card out there, but I do like the heatsink design. I think that's one of the best setups I've seen for a fanless video card. Since the heatsink is on top, make sure you have the clearance for it.

[sum_guy]

I do like the fanless design, and I want the HDMI output as well, I've heard GeForce cards have good drivers and updates as well, this may be the card for me. I've been using ATI chipset cards for a long time so this would be my first nVideo card.

[jagabo]

Nvidia cards have a lot more support for GPU encoding and filtering.

[themaster1]

The PC it's in is now is with a relative, but idle temps were in the low 40C range and I don't recall it even getting to 50C under load. (HD MKVs) But I did use a case with good ventilation. It ran cooler than some of my other video cards with fans. I won't say it's the fastest card out there, but I do like the heatsink design. I think that's one of the best setups I've seen for a fanless video card. Since the heatsink is on top, make sure you have the clearance for it.

Interesting mine is a GT220 with fan: idle temp is about 44°C / sd tv 50°C / HDTV 60°C roughly during day time, at night it's lower indeed.I use the hardware acceleration of the card as i have a P4

The case is well ventilated too but all fans are undervolted for a noiseless use

[MJA]

Greetings everyone,

Ok, I have a decent dual core AMD cpu, 4 gig ram pc, graphics are ATI 1250 on the motherboard, I'd like to upgrade to an off motherboard graphics card, I have PCIe slot available, I'm not interested in gaming, I don't care about multiple cards in the tower. Just seeking a bargain with as much performance as possible for under $100 US bucks. I primarily use this particular comp for video capture, conversion, etc.

Looking forward to everyones opinion on the graphics cards.

Thanks.

Gigabyte Radeon HD4850 1GB DDR3 HDCP PCI-E Video Card (Overclocked) $84.99AR

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/209401

[johns0]

The Radeon HD4850 as linked above beats the crap out of all the other cards listed and can plays todays games as well if ever needed.

[jagabo]

The Radeon HD4850 as linked above beats the crap out of all the other cards listed and can plays todays games as well if ever needed.

And has a loud fan.

[sum_guy]

I really appreciate you all putting forth your comments on this, I was torn between nVidea and ATI, Fan or Fanless, DDR2 or DDR3, etc... I decided to go with a card based on the ATI 5570 chipset. Since my case isn't stuffed with fans and has the potential to need more cooling, I decided to go with a fan design but wanted a quiet fan. I also decided to make the leap to DDR3, and I stayed with ATI, I did want the HDMI output and got that as well. I bought it on Amazon and here is the link.

http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Radeon-128bit-Express-H557FS1G/dp/B003FMU2US/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U...4484235&sr=8-1

Thank you all for your input, kindest regards.

[budz]

expensive card there for someone who's not into gaming.

[sum_guy]

This card was $79.99, my personal limit was $100. I'm not sure what software is coming down the road but this one has Directx 11 support most others do not, DDR3 memory was a nice touch. It has very low power consumption so I don't have to upgrade the power supply. It has the HDMI out I wanted. Whether this card was a wise choice will remain to be seen.

[jagabo]

The power of the graphics card is almost immaterial in video editing -- unless you are using software that uses the GPU for processing (only a few programs have this right now, and only for a few filters). And as I mentioned before Nvidia has better support for GPU filtering than ATI (this may change as more applications support DX11's DirectCompute API). But $80 is close to the bottom for a card with dual DVI/HDMI output. You can probably find a lessor GPU based card with dual DVI/HDMI for about $60 but I wouldn't worry about it.

I happened to notice that the local Fry's has this 5570 based card on sale today for $60 (after $20 mail in rebate):
http://www.frys.com/product/6252530

[sum_guy]

I would've bought from Fry's, except for... I don't have time to deal with a rebate, I'm working mandatory unlimited overtime at work (which I can't believe in this economy), and I had an Amazon e-gift card. I'm happy to report that this relatively weakling dual core machine went from horrible graphics performance to now having strong graphics, now making the memory and cpu the weakest part of the link. The HIS ATI Radeon HD5570 drivers and catalyst installed perfectly the first time, the performance difference with just the Aero interface is impressive, everything graphic intensive snaps to attention now. The Vista machine index went from a paltry 2.8 to a paltry 4.7, now all this paltry performance gain may not seem like much to you guys/gals with monster quad cord machines, but for this machine, it's a huge jump. Also, the graphics card fan has not exceeded 15% speed yet, and the temp has not exceeded 42C once. All this on a weakling 250 watt power supply! The cpu is an AMD BE-2300 at 1900 mhz and is very low power usage as well. The HDMI output to my DLP is fantastic, the fan is extremely quiet and so far (crossed fingers, knocking on wood) all is going very well for this 2 year old pc.

In conclusion, very happy with this purchase, and I'm sure there are cheaper cards out there, but hard to beat the half height size, quiet fan, low power requirements, and big jump in performance.

Regards...

[lacywest]

Nvidia cards have a lot more support for GPU encoding and filtering.

One good thing I like to say about Nvidia cards ... the HDTV output ... I can connect the HDTV component cables to the card and to the HDTV "TV" and I've got picture as soon as I turn everything on ... but if I try this with an ATI card ... nope ... I need to have a VGA connection happening also before I can use it with an HDTV ... TV.

You can get some decent ... Nvidia 9500GT video cards from Ebay ... 35 bucks if nobody is bidding aggressively with you.