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Hi,

Talked the wife into hooking up an old PC running Vista, (I know I know) to our 40" flat screen tv but the pc (HP Desktop)needs a video card.

Can anyone suggest a card that is cheap but reliable and displays well... Or is that to much to as for?

Thanks!

jamesh1954
(1st time poster)

No gaming to be played. Just viewing pleasure... Hulu, Netflix, YouTube...
Thanks for the reply's!

I'm going to have to big, but someone else came up with a similar situation recently.

Just video playback? No game support? Need to pass audio through HDMI?

EDIT: found it.

Similar situation, but there is good advice there.

Depends on what you are asking for.

There are some older passive cooled cards that work just fine if all you are trying to do is video playback.
I've used a fanless nVidia GT 210 ($40 CAD) (looks like the GT 610 is now at that price point)

If you want games... then look at what performance you want and weigh it.
All cards that do HDMI should do audio without issue.

Arvald wrote:

Depends on what you are asking for.

There are some older passive cooled cards that work just fine if all you are trying to do is video playback.
I've used a fanless nVidia GT 210 ($40 CAD) (looks like the GT 610 is now at that price point)

If you want games... then look at what performance you want and weigh it.
All cards that do HDMI should do audio without issue.

Thanks!

superjawes wrote:

I'm going to have to big, but someone else came up with a similar situation recently.

Just video playback? No game support? Need to pass audio through HDMI?

EDIT: found it.

Similar situation, but there is good advice there.

Thanks!

Watch for sales on low-end cards. Most of them are normal-priced much higher than their relative performance. A sale could save you 25-50%. Newegg's Open Box Section is always a good place to keep an eye on also. Remember, you can still send in mail-in-rebates for open box items (saving you more $). Promo codes don't apply to open box items though.

Do you need a dGPU because you need HDMI?

What video is your old PC using? Does it have DVI, VGA, and/or HDMI outs?

If the GPU is decent enough (not the minimum GMA900 for Vista), then using a DVI->HDMI converter may be enough to plug into the TV.

Check out this 7750 for $68 Open Box. You can use this $30 mail-in-rebate (ends 10/31) to bring your total down to $38. Pretty good deal IMO for a card that performs on-par with a $90 GTX 650.
It's definitely got more horsepower than you need to watch Hulu/Netflix, but I'd rather spend $38 on a 7750 than a similarly priced GT620 / AMD 6570. (The GT620 and AMD 6570 are great HTPC graphics cards, but like I said earlier, you have to get them at the right price)

HIS iCooler hd 7750 1 gb gddr5 " do not get the ddr3 model" is a fantastic quiet card that will let you do a bit of gaming if you want to...I know mine does. The best thing is it uses no PCI-e power connectors, it pulls it all from the 16x slot.

To top it off mine overclocked from 800 core to 1150 and 1125 mem to 1350 helping tremendously when gaming at 50-60 fps average with crysis 3 and BF3 etc on medium to hi with no AA. Plus it looks a heck of alot better then the xbox 360.

vargis14 wrote:

HIS iCooler hd 7750 1 gb gddr5 " do not get the ddr3 model"

Any 7750 (GDDR3 or GDDR5) is going to be much more powerful than the OP needs for watching videos. If gaming has now become a consideration (explicitly stated otherwise in the OP) then GDDR5 could come into play. But unless the no Pci-e power connector required is a must, the GDDR5 7750 is too close to the price of a 7770 offering superior performance. Of course Open Box items can help level the playing field.

IF we're talking about casual gaming now:
Open Box 7750 GDDR5 for $56 after MIR. No PCI-e power required. 50% cost increase over the GDDR3 model for...what?...15% max performance increase?
Open Box 7770 GDDR5 for $64 after MIR. Offers 20% more performance for 15% price increase over the 7750 GDDR5.

Open Box deals scare me unless I live close to the store I am buying it from, who knows how it was tested for stability/problems...it was probably slapped in a computer and loaded windows maybe a minute of gameplay if your lucky and put back in the box and I hate MIR's. For 89$ for the His iCooler hd 7750 1gb gddr5. Sure it close to the price of as 7770 but for power use and the performance you get for under 50 watts cannot be beat and the fan is super duper quiet even at 6000rpms you just start to hear it but it never would reach those speeds, the only reason it does is because when I game with it I overclock and set the fan to 100% for the session then reset it back to stock settings after I am done. Luckily it has a Arctic cooling fan on it..they are known to be pretty darn quiet. It is not a bad thing to pay a few extra $ for a quality piece of hardware.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161403

Now I know he said it was for viewing pleasure only but you never know He or the wifey just might want to play something down the road since he is now getting a dedicated video card. Something like Zombie Driver HD to let some steam off or left for dead 2....a awesome FPS that he could let some real steam off with any regular wireless USB mouse and keyboard. Boom Boom Hummm do I want 2 9mms or the magnum handgun, or maybe a baseball bat or tire iron to get really gruesome backup to your shotgun/rifle machine gun etc
EDIT: I like the twin 15 shot 9mm's over the 7 shot desert eagle or whatever it is any day:)

If the OP is still interested, the Powercolor $30 MIR has been extended through 11/20. Don't worry, you didn't miss the deals.

Are you SURE you need a video card?? I haven't seen too many HP computers that didn't have some form of video output that buying a new cable for, wouldn't solve your issue.

If you are unsure you can probably put up the model number in a post just to be sure there isn't already a port you could use. Otherwise, plenty of good suggestions already.

base minimum tv's still have vga ports and maaaybe a 3.5mm audio plug or a stereo rca plug near the vga input for audio.
it's component level quality but largely good enough for most videos, and is the cheapest method aside from buying a new video card.
unless the intel video doesn't support video acceleration then you need something like an a low end amd/nvidia card with hdmi output.

Sapphire hd5450 low profile gpu for $24.99 with $10mir to come out to $14.99 with free shipping before tax.
probably the best new cheap card you can purchase on newegg, with audio output over hdmi.
the card is rated around 6w idle and 19w max power consumption wise according to wikipedia's amd gpu list.