My plasma tv has hdmi i wanted to know what would be the best graphics card to buy for it to function properly as a monitor do i need a high end card because of the size of the tv or will any hdmi graphics card work fine
Resolution is the main area to look at, even at 50" the TV will be below bigger PC monitors. Your looking for 1920x1080. The new ATI HD4850 would do the job very well, and at about £120 the price is good. I'm running one in a spare machine, a very good card with stock performance on 3DMark06 at just below my 8800GTX.
Since ddp chose not to close this thread I'll take it one step further. Since TV play back is a two dimensional proposition just about any moderately powered graphics card will do the job. Two diminsional playback is rather undemanding. The only thing need is the ability as was already stated to hit 1920 by 1080 resolution and a dvi out put. If your set doesn't have a dvi input then you will have to invest in a dvi to HDMI cable or get a card that includes one. Although the HD 4850 is a great card, unless you are going to run 3D games through it, it is a bit overkill. You can save some money by dropping to an HD 3850 which is HDCP ready and will give you all the TV graphics power that you need. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=HD+3850&x=0&y=0
I agree, it seems perfectly appropriate to me. Chloe32 One small point, there is no difference in the quality of DVI and HDMI inputs, HDMI also carries some audio which DVI does not, but on an HTPC that is a moot points since you also have audio outs on your HTPC.
I don't see the 4850 overkill especially when comparing to the 3850, far from it, it’s actually the most sensible choice, if you look at the differences, and they are not all about game playback. I presume that anyone wanting to use it for TV of that size will either now or soon want to use full HD 'Blue ray' playback, even on a smaller TV, HD playback is where we are heading. The card will perform far better in that area and will do it more efficiently, saving energy 'which should be a consideration’ when making new purchases these days, and to top it off it will also run cooler. It supports UVD 2 which will support picture in picture, and provides better up-scaling from DVD. Support for HDMI V1.3 also means that the better audio codec’s will be supported such as TrueHD and DTS-HD formats. If you are using it for media playback to the TV, then keep cable to a minimum is something you should look at, so far better to have single cable from the card to the processor, and then on to the TV. The price difference is not huge either 'about £30' but that is the only reason I can see to buy the older 3850 over the newer card, but if running a 50" plasma, we are not talking cheap TV. Anyway Chloe32, you have my thoughts and reasoning behind it, have fun with the system.
Except for the HDMI audio feed there is no added benefit to going with the HD 4850 over the HD 3850 because the surround tracks will still have to be decoded on the PC. If Chloe uses an HD DVD player or Blu-Ray standalone players neither will be playing through the PC. If Chloe is going to use computer based players then she will need a copy of PowerDVD or WinDVD with Blu-Ray support to play HD video and decode surround tracks. The more expensive version of both will decode surround tracks which can be piped directly from her boards audio outputs. The HD 3850 will play any movie at any resolution the TV can handle just as well as the HD 4850. Now if Chloe32 was going to pipe some 3D computer games through it then I would say go with the HD 4850, it's a great card. But if the HD 3850 can play any movie or video that the HD 4850 can with equal quality,then why not save the $70 to $80? It will pay for a copy of PowerDVD or WinDVD.
Read what I wrote again, there is more than the audio. Looks like you see what you want to see, not what was written.
I didn't miss anything, I just responded to the parts of your post that are relevant. I responded to this. There will be absolutely no visual difference between the two cards regardless of the media source. The HD 4850 probably uses more power than the HD 3850. The 4850 runs hot and the 3850 does not. One will need an extra cable with the HD 3850 HDMI w/ 8 channel LPCM but no bitstreaming. To me this sounds like a decoding alternative is going to be needed to fully benefit from surround sound. The fact that it has HDMI support doesn't equal full audio support. The HD 4850 HDMI will however be wonderful for streaming gaming audio. Don't get me wrong, I think that the HD 4850 is a great card but in the absence of gaming it is more than is needed, in fact the HD 3850 is more than is needed. All that the card requires are DVI outputs for video since the PC will have audio outs which can be decoded using PowerDVD. A common error that people make is that one needs a powerful card for an HTPC which is not the case. Most $35 to $50 cards are more than adequate to playback HD DVD or Blu-Ray content because as I stated before that movie graphics are two dimensional which uses very little GPU resources. The link below leads to an oft recommended HTPC card, and it can be purchased for around $40. In my most recent HTPC build I purchased a little more power than I needed by picking up an HD 3870. I could have gotten away with much less, and would have never noticed any difference. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=HD+3450&x=12&y=32 http://www.i4u.com/full-review-368.html Please note that lines like the one are inflammatory and uncalled for and does nothing to further you point of view. You don't know what I have read or didn't read. The reason that I responded to HDMI Audio is because it is the only real benefit of the HD 4850 over the HD 3850, and a modest benefit at that. I prefer dedicated audio solutions.
A couple of addtional points regarding the $35 HD 3450 card. It was designed for HTPC purposes and has a few features that make it a good card for the purpose. 1. It uses passive cooling which makes it less noisy than either the HD 3850 or the HD 4850. I looked at purchasing but I'm power hungry. The rest you can read from Asus' website. http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=8&l3=634&l4=0&model=2253&modelmenu=1
Points taken. Its a choice that the end user will have to make. Hope you get the right card for your system Chloe32
lol I taught my thread was deleted i was looking for it I went for the 9600gt with HDMI the reason i want to use hdmi is that my plasma tv supports it and i don't want to spend extra money on a monitor Also DDP I am actually buillding a new pc this is the last component i needed to buy although i didn't state that in my first message Hopefully it will all be delivered in a few days and ill be able to put it together I dont live in america so i can't take advantage of the great deals on neweggs website the only two sites i've found in ireland is www.komplett.ie www.elara.ie Anyone who has a few others could post them for future purchases Although i got the Q6600 for €170 its the best price i could find
The 9600 will do just fine and in my view a decent choice. Right now prices in North America aren't all that great because of our falling dollar A small point directed to others who might read this thread. DVI and HDMI inputs have the same quality of video. If your card comes with DVI outputs then the card manufacturer will generally include a small adapter for DVI to HDMI. Also many card manufacturer will advertise HDMI but if you look at the specifications you will most likely see a DVI to HDMI adapter which really makes no big difference.
