Hello guys, I was wondering if any of you could help me figure out a good GPU replacement. ATM I have Radeon 9250 running on a machine running XP Pro, AMD 64 Athelon Proc. with 1 gig of RAM. I was looking to get something thats good for gaming, has an HDMI out....but wont break the bank. Any advice on what I can get?
Radeon HD3450 should fit that bill perfectly. It's available in AGP, has use of HDMI (using a DVI->HDMI dongle) and costs $45 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121273
Thanks for the suggestion bro, but I was wondering what are the usual advantages between Radeon and say, NVidia? On all my other comps I have used NVidia only, the only reason why this one has Radeon is because I bought it as a present for my sister AS IS for 500 a few years back. Worked fine but she got another comp and I need one now. I was looking to get 2 gigs more to add to it cause its slower than molasses lol. As for the card though, it looks good for $45 but are there any that come with HDMI that come that cheap? This one would have problems running Halo 2 wouldn't it?
It does have HDMI. It comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter dongle, which is how the vast majority of graphics cards produce HDMI. It does not cause any problems. The HD3450 would be a bit weak for Halo 2 though. If you want to play that, I would suggest this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102792 Right now, Radeons tend to be better value for performance than Geforces (This wasn't the case until relatively recently)
OK, went over to the specs page and saw that the dongle comes with it, I was under the impression I would have to still purchase that separately. I check around and came across this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121293 But you said that most of the Radeons are better, performance wise, right? Will the gig of memory really make that much of a difference?
No difference whatsoever at that end. Even the HD4850 doesn't really make use of 1GB and that's a high end card. The HD4650 is a better buy than the 9400GT, it even beats the 9500, let alone the 9400. Also, that card was low profile, and may not have been compatible with your case anyway.
Thats another question I had, looking around all I read is low profile this and that, what exactly is that supposed to mean anyways? Lol when attributed to cars, I can understand but I cant get my mind to figure out what it would mean for a comp.
Low profile means smaller card width, so it can fit in slim PCs (i.e. low profile cases) Example of low profile card: Example of normal, or high profile card:
Oh ok, I understand now, didn't think manufactures took this into account when creating cards but no I don't believe I would be getting the low profile cards. Thanks for being so helpful and explaining everything to me brother, G_d bless.
One other thing, will it carry over sound with the dongle or no? No DVI connections out there carry audio right? Or have I missed something?
As far as I'm aware you can carry sound through DVI, but only make sense of it at the other end using HDMI, if you see what I mean.
Well thats the thing. ATM I am running my Audio out to a surround sound using Audio L/R cables from the computer which is a pain when its night time and don't want to wake the misses when my subwoofer goes off in an action scene. I would just like to use my TV's speakers so would like to send the HDMI signal from the comp to the TV, not use the surround sound unless I WANT to, you know?
Surely you already have that capability? If you hook up HDMI to the TV, you don't have to use the audio passthrough. Either turn it off in the TV's menu, or if that option's not there, just unplug the cables to the receiver.
Sorry, I meant with the card you recommended. At the moment I'm getting video using using a regular serial connection from my comp to my TV. I was wondering if with that card, using the dongle, will audio come along on the HDMI cable seeing as (as far as I know) DVI doesn't transfer audio.
You know what that Saphire one is no longer supported on Newegg, would you be able to recommend something similar to it?
I was able to get the 4670 from Amazon and it's worked wonders, got Halo running SMOOTHLY at max settings, along with Runes of Magic thank you for your help! Unfortunately though my PVR is busted so I want to give my vid card to my brother since he can't afford anything atm and get myself a card I can use to record satellite from using either a coaxial or component connection (preferably component) but still be able to game without any problems if I wanted to. Any suggestions on that one? Just want to build a PVR out of my computer, be able to record shows, timed recording or just hit record, time shifting if possible, while still being able to use my computer for other tasks. Is there such a card?
