[jjakubowsky]

I am planning on using it upgrade my PC to an HTPC running Windows Vista and displaying OTA HD files. I rarely run games on it (yet). So DirectX10 is not a requirement just a nice to have. I really want a fanless video card.


My computer is a custom-build PC with ASUS P4-P800 motherboard and an Intel P4 - 2.4 GHz CPU.


Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

-Jeff Jak

 

[ZenerDiode]

If you wait a little while (maybe a month or two), ATi is set to release their lower end RXXX in AGP form. These should meet your needs.

 

[VelociRacer]

 Gigabyte GeForce fanless cards are awesome. I have the 7600GS AGP and I am finally happy after trying Radeon 9500pro then Geforce 6600.

 

[RichBenn]



Quote:
Originally Posted by VelociRacer /forum/post/0

Gigabyte GeForce fanless cards are awesome. I have the 7600GS AGP and I am finally happy after trying Radeon 9500pro then Geforce 6600.

But as he has a low performance processor (P4-2.4GHz), he should wait for the new video cards with hardware codecs to arrive in AGP, either nVidia 8500 or ATI 2400. ( I think those are the model numbers, and I'm not sure whether nVidia will do 8500 in AGP or not) The 7600GS does some in hardware, better than most, but will be limited in decoding tough stuff like blu-ray/HD-DVD without a good CPU.

 

[VelociRacer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by RichBenn /forum/post/0


But as he has a low performance processor (P4-2.4GHz), he should wait for the new video cards with hardware codecs to arrive in AGP, either nVidia 8500 or ATI 2400. ( I think those are the model numbers, and I'm not sure whether nVidia will do 8500 in AGP or not) The 7600GS does some in hardware, better than most, but will be limited in decoding tough stuff like blu-ray/HD-DVD without a good CPU.

But he said OTA HD, not blue-ray or HDDVD. Also, my Pentium D 3.33GHz never goes above 50%, mostly 30% using PowerDVD6 or PureVideoHD decoders with Hardware Accel ON. I don't think P4 2.4 is going to be an issue. If it is, he'd still have nother $80 to spare for a new P4 3.0-3.4Ghz which should be plenty for an AGP system.


Also, according to this table http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html the 7600+ series can do all necessary hardware accel with the correct decoder and driver. Not sure why waiting for more expensive options would be a good thing. I think the 7600 GPU is capable of crunching anything I can throw at it.

 

[jjakubowsky]

Thank you. You all helped me a lot. I have no intention of going to HD-DVD or Blue-Ray. It sounds like the best I can do now is the 7600. Maybe wait a little bit for 8500. I think I will wait to see what the price of 8500. I have an ATI in my machine and hate it. So I would like to try Nvidia. Thanks for all the advice so far.

 

[jjakubowsky]

After futher reseach: This thread says that Nvidia will not be supporting AGP in 8xxx series. Also that ATI/AMD will be supporting AGP with HD2000 series (probably looking at HD2400) coming June.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...P#post10601413


So I guess that means get 7600GS now or wait until June until HD2000 series comes out. I said above that I didn't want to go with ATI again. But if I can get more bang for the buck, I will. So I am going to wait to see what shows up in June with HD2400. Hopefully fanless AGP.