which graphics/video card?

spaceboy

Looking for a graphics card, nothing too expensive, but have some questions:

1. What's the difference between a graphics and a video card or are they basically the same?

2. I want something with decent performance but not too power hungry, and not too loud.

3. Preferably with an HDMI output.

Have found these two so far, what do you think of each of them and what will they be capable of?

MSI N210-MD512H Fanless NVIDIA N210 512MB GDDR2 HDMI
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/msi-n210-md512h


Sapphire Ultimate HD4670 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E HDMI Fanless
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vga-cards/sap-hd4670-ult


Are there any others I should consider?

jbreckmckye

Looking for a graphics card, nothing too expensive, but have some questions:

1. What's the difference between a graphics and a video card or are they basically the same?

Essentially, yes, they are the same.

2. I want something with decent performance but not too power hungry, and not too loud.

What constitutes 'decent'? What are you intending to do? Video editing? High-performance gaming? If playing games, what? There's a big difference between the demands of, say, the Orange Box and Crysis. How future proof do you want your card to be?

3. Preferably with an HDMI output.

This suggests that you're looking for something that can handle pretty detailed stuff. Can you tell us a little more?

As for the card in the link, it looks pretty decent for most purposes. That said, I haven't been able to find out an awful lot about it.

shevavironx

1. It is the same meaning just a different term used.
2/3 depends on your current hardware/motherboard and power supply

both are ok but not fantastic for anything or than basic gaming/general PC use.

Depending on 2/3 and mainly your budget would be the primary deciding factor in what you could get.

spaceboy

CPU is a Q6600 and motherboard is a Foxconn G33 type, will have 4GB of RAM or more when I'm finished with it...


HDMI is for the possibility of connecting it to an HDTV at some point.

shevavironx

how about your budget, what are you planning on spending and what is your PSU output?

What are you wanting to get out of the graphics card/planned use of it other than HD content which low spec cards can do admirably?

For example if you are planning on playing Crysis then you need to be thinking about a very hefty card with a big price tag, on the oher hand if its just average game playing/surfing/ occasional video encoding then a mid price card would suit you well.

Then its down to which camp you fall in to and this in my opinion is very much personal choice when it comes to Nvidia or ATI.

spaceboy

The PSU is a Dell one, not that powerful which is why I'd like a fairly low power consumption card. I will probably upgrade the PSU at some point. Budget is £50 or less.

What's the dif between Nvidia and ATI?

shevavironx

With that budget in mind both suggestions seem fine but dont expect anything ground breaking from them.

They both look like nice cards, on the face of it the nvidia card looks faster on paper but the ATI looks nice and better on HD content.

As I said more personal choice but at present ATI seem to be the better cards to buy but I prefer Nvidia as I always seem to have issues with graphics glitches on ATI systems. I currentyl have 3 desktops with Nvidia cards and 1 laptop and 1 desktop and 1 laptop with ATI so can say I have experience of both manufactures.

It is up to you but both look good.

james123

Hi,


I use a ATI HD4650 1gb

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD4650-DDR2-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B001ULU1MU/ref=dp_cp_ob_ce_title_0


Which is £50. I play COD4 and alike and it handles them well enough with medium to high detail. From memory it just connects via the pcie slot and doesnt need to connect straight to the PSU, so its not a particularly power hungry card.


I think that Nvidia and ATI are much amuch nowadays, a few years back Nvidia were streets ahead, however the new cards from ATI have really caught up.



Jim

Oneday77

Spaceboy are you custmising the new PC of yours already. Does it not have a 9800GT in it already?
TBH the cards your looking at won't give you any real performance gains over what you have. Except the addition of a HDMI slot.
If you want perfomance then a 4750 or 4850 ATI is where your headed, they are being superceeded by the 5000series cards, but are above the £50 budget.
If you have to go with the 2 you selected take the 4670

spaceboy

I got the PC second hand on ebay and the graphics card originally fitted was a 256MB DDR2 ATI RADEON HD 3650 (looked up the service code on the Dell website) and it was removed before it was sold, along with one of the 2GB of RAM.

Basically what I got for £107 delivered is a Dell Vostro 410 with a Q6600 cpu, Foxconn motherboard, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, Dell power supply and DVD-RW drive.

So I need more RAM and a graphics card. And I have a 500GB HDD that's faulty that I need to return to Maxtor under warranty...

turbobob

If you are wanting it for HD I know the ATI cards can output sound through the HDMI port. I am not sure if Nvidia's cards do that.

The ATI 4670 is about the best card you'll get for £50 IMO and is a far higher spec than the GT210. It does not need a PCIE connector from the power supply. For a tiny bit more (I've found them from about £57 here) the Nvidia 9600GT is a bit faster for gaming than the ATI 4670. However it does need a connection to the power supply.

As a similarly priced, more powerful alternative to the GT210, this Radeon 4650 for £32 is a bargain IMO.