Graphic Card for HTPC

[darshanjoshi]

Hello Friends,

Already have a 46" Samsung LED (Non 3D) and a decent 5.1 Setup and now looking for a decent Graphic Card for my PC.

I am looking for dedicated Basic HTPC Setup. Already have two Laptops and a Tab for other purpose like browsing and downloading.

Requirement :
1. HD Video and Audio (No Compromise)
2. 3D Support (Will purchase 3D Ready PJ like Acer H4360 / Optoma HD down the line)
3. Occasional Gaming like FIFA, Cricket & Likes of NFS / MotoGP.
4. Youtube & Skype.

Existing CPU Details :
Intel DG41RQ, Looks like it has a fan as well.
Core 2 Duo
Win 7 (Ultimate I think)
32 Bit Operating System
HP DVD Writer
1GB RAM (Will upgrade to 3GB in future)
80GB HDD (No Music & Movies will be stored here)
2 X 1TB External HDD
1 X 500GB External HDD
2 X 80GB External HDD

Have tried a friends NVIDIA GT 430 with above and PQ & SQ were very good with XBMX V11. However did not tweaked much.

I have shortlisted a ASUS NVIDIA GT 610 (2GB) for my Use.

Can someone please suggest whether 610 is a good Graphic Card.
How is it compared to 430?

Main difference I see is 430 is 1GB,128Bit and 610 is 2GB, 64Bit.
Someone told me that since my OS is 32Bit, it can support Grpahic Card with max of 64Bit. Whats the differnce between 64Bit and 128Bit and how will it affect the PQ?

Secondly, HTPC should support a HD Ready PJ like the ones I mentioned above. I know 3D Ready Projectors are not the way to go but Full 3D Projectors are currently too expensive and out of Budget.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[spirovious]

Hi Darshan,610 is basic card of series 6.It can be little slower than 430 due to 64bit memory interface.Clock spead is upto 900mhz. Cores are 48 only.
GeForce GT 430 | Specifications | GeForce
GeForce 610M | Specifications | GeForce

If you see 630,it can be compared to 430 in terms of processing.Its is faster than 610-
GeForce GT 630 | Specifications | GeForce

HD6570 is another good option.
AMD Radeon HD 6570 Graphics

 

[haisaikat]

If Gaming is required in highest resolution and you intend to continue the same later on PJ as well then I think you will need a higher one like ATI HD 7970

 

[sam9s]

GT440 is what I (or most on HiFi, for that matter) recommends ........ GT610 the least of all.
for me .

GT440>GT430>GT610

That is ofcourse no high end gaming is involved ...

 

[darshanjoshi]

Hi Darshan,610 is basic card of series 6.It can be little slower than 430 due to 64bit memory interface.Clock spead is upto 900mhz. Cores are 48 only.
GeForce GT 430 | Specifications | GeForce
GeForce 610M | Specifications | GeForce

If you see 630,it can be compared to 430 in terms of processing.Its is faster than 610-
GeForce GT 630 | Specifications | GeForce

HD6570 is another good option.
AMD Radeon HD 6570 Graphics

Can you please explain why 128 Bit reqd. and for what purpose?

How much is the cost difference between 610 vs 630 vs 7570.

 

[spirovious]

Can you please explain why 128 Bit reqd. and for what purpose?

How much is the cost difference between 610 vs 630 vs 7570.

128bit is the speed with which GPU interact with Graphic memory & is faster than that of with CPU to system memory.So many prefer Graphic card over CPU for fast & better processing.

 

[darshanjoshi]

GT440 is what I (or most on HiFi, for that matter) recommends ........ GT610 the least of all.
for me .

GT440>GT430>GT610

That is of course no high end gaming is involved ...

I hope GT440 will support my PC configuration. Based on the suggestions, I am assuming GT530 and GT540 will be also better than GT610.

Secondly, Is GT540 > GT440 > GT630 / GT530 ?

 

[reignofchaos]

There's no desktop GT540. It only exists in laptops and is the same exact chip. If you want a GPU, the bare minimum to buy is either an AMD 6570 or an NVIDIA GT 440. Both cost around 4k. The former has more shader power than the latter.

 

[darshanjoshi]

There's no desktop GT540. It only exists in laptops and is the same exact chip. If you want a GPU, the bare minimum to buy is either an AMD 6570 or an NVIDIA GT 440. Both cost around 4k. The former has more shader power than the latter.

Sorry for a noob ques. What is shader power ? Is it higher the better ?

 

[spirovious]

Sorry for a noob ques. What is shader power ? Is it higher the better ?

Its kind of video processing standard.
Shader - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[reignofchaos]

Sorry for a noob ques. What is shader power ? Is it higher the better ?

Sorry if it was not clear - it basically means the number of unified shaders the graphics chip possesses. More is always better. You can get a cheap card like a GT520 or GT610 with 48 shaders and a top of the line GTX 680 with 1536 shader processors. On the AMD side, it ranges from 80 shader processors in the AMD E-350 APU to 2048 shader processors in the Radeon 7970.

Each shader is a tiny computing device which can be programmed using a graphics api such as Direct3D or OpenGL or a general purpose API such as CUDA or OpenCL. Basically graphics cards are massively parallel machines and more the number of these parallel processors, the better.

 

[sam9s]

I hope GT440 will support my PC configuration. Based on the suggestions, I am assuming GT530 and GT540 will be also better than GT610.

Secondly, Is GT540 > GT440 > GT630 / GT530 ?

yes your config will support GT440, also there is no GT540 for desktop as also mentioned by reignofchaos, plus it aint better than GT440.

Sorry for a noob ques. What is shader power ? Is it higher the better ?

Its good to ask questions, but rest assured that just for HTPC and playing videos, nothing exceptional is required, all these shaders, vram blah blah becomes more relevant when you are in to high end gaming. For general purpose, any mid level GPU would do be it 440, 430 or 610. amoung these three 440 is the best and hence suggested .....

 

[darshanjoshi]

So i have now decided on Asus GT 440 1GB. I am hoping 1GB is enough for HTPC and occasional gaming.

 

[sam9s]

^^ Yes it is .....

 

[darshanjoshi]

Have already bought GT440. Will install it in a day or two and post my observations.

Thanks to all the FM's for their valuable suggestions.

 

[grunthos]

Bumping up an old thread

I am using old hardware for my HTPC - about 6 years old - and I am getting a feeling that 1080p rips are taxing the system too much (some 1080p content is not playing smoothly). The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA EG41M-S2H (LGA775 socket) and I have been using the onboard graphics for playback so far

I want to purchase a low end graphics card to take over the video playback responsibilities. I have never used this system to play games - and dont intend to in the future. Hence HD playback is the only objective. 3D is not a requirement anytime soon

The constraint is the low profile HTPC case - a Silverstone ML03

Not only the card, but the bracket have to be low profile. There are quite a few GT 630s with low profiles, but none of them contain a low profile bracket.

I have identified the Asus GT610-SL-2GD3 on flipkart as the best contender - as newegg and other websites claim it ships with a low profile bracket. I have queried flipkart about this - not sure if they will even understand the question. What do you guys think ?

Can you suggest any other low profile card which suits my requirements better ? Or if I am looking at this wrong ?

 

[Rockfella]

Bumping up an old thread

I am using old hardware for my HTPC - about 6 years old - and I am getting a feeling that 1080p rips are taxing the system too much (some 1080p content is not playing smoothly). The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA EG41M-S2H (LGA775 socket) and I have been using the onboard graphics for playback so far

I want to purchase a low end graphics card to take over the video playback responsibilities. I have never used this system to play games - and dont intend to in the future. Hence HD playback is the only objective. 3D is not a requirement anytime soon

The constraint is the low profile HTPC case - a Silverstone ML03

Not only the card, but the bracket have to be low profile. There are quite a few GT 630s with low profiles, but none of them contain a low profile bracket.

I have identified the Asus GT610-SL-2GD3 on flipkart as the best contender - as newegg and other websites claim it ships with a low profile bracket. I have queried flipkart about this - not sure if they will even understand the question. What do you guys think ?

Can you suggest any other low profile card which suits my requirements better ? Or if I am looking at this wrong ?

I have spoken with the tech team in FK. That team will understand your question. Since you don't need 3D you can also look into ATI 5450 for cheap. It will play HD videos easily and offload your cpu.