Video Card
- Thread starter SkyRider
- Start date
Upgrading video cards can be dicey.
Best to Google your particular PC make/model, its manual should be online.
Many PC companies will even suggest which video card to upgrade to to avoid compatibility problems. You don't want to select a particular highly rated card only to find out your PCs won't support it or will require a bigger power supply which will also have to be upgraded.
Best to Google your particular PC make/model, its manual should be online.
Many PC companies will even suggest which video card to upgrade to to avoid compatibility problems. You don't want to select a particular highly rated card only to find out your PCs won't support it or will require a bigger power supply which will also have to be upgraded.
Though, realistically, given the requirements, you could probably go latest generation - 1, Nvidia or AMD/ATI, in the $120 - 150 price range, and be OK. Though, as was mentioned, you should make sure you have the right power adapter for the card in question (adapters are available, and cheap). The PSU concern, while valid, IMHO is overwrought unless you're powering a lot of really beefy hardware that is running at capacity-- The PSU wattage wars were mostly just another vector for vendors to compete on. The odds of ACTUALLY being underpowered are relatively low.
If you are just watching blu ray movies even 3D.... the internal graphics card on an i3 CPU will do it.
Most people who build home theatre PCs go this route as most modern graphics cards also mean introducing one or two more fans (built into the g card) to your box and thus creating more background noise.
Now that I think about it some duo core cpus will do it too.
Take a look at this..... it's a parts guide with a range in prices
http://assassinhtpcblog.com/?page_id=160
Most people who build home theatre PCs go this route as most modern graphics cards also mean introducing one or two more fans (built into the g card) to your box and thus creating more background noise.
Now that I think about it some duo core cpus will do it too.
Take a look at this..... it's a parts guide with a range in prices
http://assassinhtpcblog.com/?page_id=160
You say you are using a P4 but will switch to a Pentium D 2.8 Ghz soon, which sounds like an older PC.
FWIW you may be better off just getting a new PC which will have no problems doing what you want.
FWIW you may be better off just getting a new PC which will have no problems doing what you want.
True, but I am getting the Pent D for free (a hand me down from a friend). He said the Dell Pent D is superior to the HP Pent 4 because it has a dual core and 64 bit.
If it has it has a dual core and 64 bit it may be worth putting a better video card in it.
I have a single core Dell P4, 2.8 Ghz w 32 bit architecture that runs fine but is showing its age. I wouldn't bother upgrading its v card.
I have a single core Dell P4, 2.8 Ghz w 32 bit architecture that runs fine but is showing its age. I wouldn't bother upgrading its v card.
Based on feedback from forums like anandtech the P4 is hardly likely to cut it with most any video card upgrade.
Any worthwhile video card may also lead to increased noise levels as it may have dedicated cooling.
If you still wish to experiment though an older AGP card like the 3850 may work if you have an AGP slot.
There are two cheap $22 PCIe options at vfxweb. An Asus and a Sapphire,. Both 512MB cards with passive cooling and DVI but no HDMI.
I've bought video cards from them in the past and they came in excellent condition, well packaged etc. Great service.
Any worthwhile video card may also lead to increased noise levels as it may have dedicated cooling.
If you still wish to experiment though an older AGP card like the 3850 may work if you have an AGP slot.
There are two cheap $22 PCIe options at vfxweb. An Asus and a Sapphire,. Both 512MB cards with passive cooling and DVI but no HDMI.
I've bought video cards from them in the past and they came in excellent condition, well packaged etc. Great service.
The bottleneck is your very outdated CPU and a bottleneck for HD video decoding. Any new entry level PC would probably be better with a built in on board graphics. I suggest you spend your money on a new entry level pc (faster HD buses, memory, CPU, decoding, video...).
Let me take a raincheck on your offer. I am getting the Pentium D for free from a friend so I'll give it a try first before spending any money.
Cool, I have created this list as a food for thought. I don't know which parts you will be reusing but I think this is a very good media PC. I can list smaller Case and Motherboard to make it a HTPC.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1j37S
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1j37S
Video processing, in this case transcoding MPEG4 and/or h264 which 720p/1080p use, is processor bound. You could have the latest $1000 Nvidia Titan video card and it won't make a difference because the contributing factor is your P4.
Upgrade your processor or just buy a new computer. The P4 originally came out in 2000. You're using a processing that's 13 years old. And the Pentium D came out in 2005. Smooth high def transcoding requires at least a Core generation (2006) processor and newer. If you can afford to see escorts then you can afford a new computer.
My P4 can play 1080p and 720p downloaded from the Internet but struggles a bit with 1080p and 720p(at 60fps) shot with my own camera.
The 1080p and 720p videos that you've downloaded, what codec do they use? If your P4 can play them then the videos are likely MPEG2 -- the same codec for DVDs which hasn't been used for years now. Your camera, if it's less than 3-4 years old, likely uses either AVCHD (if it's Sony) or MPEG4 h264 which is processor intensive, hence why your P4 can't transcode them smoothly.
The original point still stands. Hi def transcoding has nothing to do with your video card unless your video card has hardware decoding AND you're using a media player that takes advantage of that.
My camera's video format is MPEG4 H264.
Almost all the videos I download are from YouTube and they are also MPEG4 H264 which seems to play smoother on my P4 than the videos shot with my own camera.
The math on resolution gets pretty bad pretty fast. To dump the pixels on the screen you're talking about width X height X bits per pixel @ a given fps. Before they even get that data to the screen they have to decompress that given frame (that's what video codecs and container formats are all about). To a consumer that one bump up in resolution and frame rate doesn't seem like much-- But do the math on increasing the w X h X bpp @ fps, with a bigger frame to decode, and it gets ugly fast.
Also, not all video encoders are equal, and the settings of the video encoder matter a lot. There is some chance that your camera may not be doing an optimal encoding, or an optimal encoding for speed. Unless your camera has a newer firmware out, you're pretty much stuck with what you got.
That's why fast cores, on a fast low latency bus, with fast low latency RAM, means a lot here. If you have that, integrated video will do, but any current generation - 1 video card in the $120 - 150 range would serve you well for years to come.
As was said, spring for a new tower-- It doesn't have to be a huge spend. Consider getting one with an OK dedicated video card. Pretty much anything at the $500 price point will probably serve you for another decade. Buy a $50 USB Hard Drive enclosure (with no drive in it) for your old type of hard disk (IDE, not SATA probably). Pop your old drive into that. Scan it for viruses, and copy your files over. Format the old drive as a big dumb USB disk, or keep it in a safe place as a backup.
This video thing is more complicated than I thought. I think I'll just hook my camera to the HD TV via HDMI cable for the best result until I decide what to do about my computer.
Question: Can I burn a HD video on my computer harddrive to a DVD and play the DVD on my DVD player?
