I am going to be upgrading to a 21 inch HD monitor, and I need a video card with HDMI output. I currently have a GTS 8800 320MB card. I only have that because I got it for free 3 or 4 years ago. I don't play any 3D games. I am looking to watch movies and tv in standard and high def. I also do some photoshop work, but I don't have CS4 so I don't think the card will make a difference. I don't know what to look for. I am kinda partial to nVidia (don't know why). Just looking for an inexpensive card to do the above mentioned things. Any help would be great. *Side note* What would be a fair price to ask for my GTS 8800 card?
For HDMI unfortunately ATI makes the better cards. If you don't play video games the radeon HD4350 (cost 40.00) is the card to get, it outputs to the full 1920x1080 and 7.1 surround sound. It's a silent card (large heatsink no fan). I have 2 of them in my computers and have never had any problems with them, they have all 3 outputs built-in vga/dvi/hdmi. Even though it's a lowend card it has no problem playing my need for speed games. This is a very low wattage card, no PSU upgrade is required. Radeon also makes higher end cards, the ones that start with HD are High Definition capable but not all of them have the HDMI output built-in, I also have the radeon HD4670 but that one doesn't have a HDMI port (requires an adapter).
That sounds like a good deal, and the reviews from others seem good. Another option I am thinking is getting an new motherboard with HDMI on board. I was thinking about this Asus board from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131382 None of the reviews seem to address how well it plays 1080p video. Any thoughts on the on-board GeForce 8300 and 1080P?
1920x1080 is 1080p, your current card is more than capable of that playback resolution. you might try a DVI to HDMI connector, of course it wont pass audio HDMI.
My computer also sits about 10 feet from my 47 inch TV so HDMI would be more desirable as its one cable.
