comparative video card

[Blazer]

the constant changing in technology has left me behind, anyways what would be the comparative card to the ati 4670 in an nvidia card, it would be used in a media pc for blu ray viewing, pcie based.

Gigabyte video card model # GV-R467D3-512I

in specs it refers to '320 Stream Processing Units' is that software or hardware, card plays well just has a loud fan, and i dont know my way around ati's ccc worth a flip, always used nvidia.

i do need hdmi output!

 

[Schmide]

The competitor to the 4670 would be the 9500gt/9600gso/9600gt.

The advantage of a ATI 4000 series card is it has HDMI sound built in, while you have to run a cable to the nvidia cards.

Do you already have the 4670? I'm sure you can quiet it.

 

[Blazer]

ati 4670 card is in media pc and working well, it just has a noisy/loud fan, the sound is sent to the reciever through the onboard optical that apparantly wont work without a HD video card installed, i tried the ccc fan controller but it didnt seem to make any diff in speed or noise, its in warranty so i hate to install a diff heatsink but i may have to, is there any add-on applications that could be used to regulate the fan speed per the card temp ?

oh any ideal about the 'stream processing units' ?, on another thread about the newer ati cards they talk about ati disabling those processes.

 

[Schmide]

Others can chime in here.

I used in the past.

RivaTuner to control fans. You can set variable levels based on the temperature and have them run at start-up.

What I was saying about the audio. The 4000 series sends 7.1 audio over the HDMI.

http://www.amd.com/us/products...00-specifications.aspx

 

[Fox5]

Some manufacturers don't include variable fans on their cards.

But you can get passively cooled 4670s. Or you could get one of the HIS ICEQ 4850 cards, they're very quiet, though they might be too long for an HTPC case. (sapphire makes a shorter variant of the 4850, but with a loud fan, and gigabyte makes a shorter variant of the gts 250, but also with a loud fan)

Oh, and nvidia HDMI cards need a pass-through cable from spdif to do sound over HDMI. Not ever motherboard will have a port to do so, and it may be difficult to find one. I had an nvidia motherboard, and there was nothing in the manual mentioning it. I just had to look around on the motherboard until I found something that looked right and plugged into it.

 

[dguy6789]

Here is a completely fanless 4670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102816

 

[Blazer]

that's a nice heatsink, maybe ill call and see if they will sell me one, never seen that one when at the egg choosing my card, i hate to return it because of the fan, never used that brand, are they good cards.

 

[Blazer]

let me ask for opinion's here ! hardware below.

NMEDIAPC HTPC 6000B Aluminum ATX Case
Enermax 365P-VE PSU
P4 540J/3.2E HT 800mhz/775 / AC Freezer 7 Pro
Intel D945Pvs Media Series 775
WD 160/8mb Sata 7200
2gb DDR2 800 {PC2 6400} DC Kit
Gigabyte Radeon HD 4670 512/128 bit
Lite-On 4X BD Reader Sata w/PDVD 8 oem
Ms MC IR & Remote
Panny 50" Plasma G15 HDTV

adventure and action packed movies, wife wont watch horror based films.

2 week old system setup mostly for playing blu-ray movies, is the card future proof enough {2 years} before ill have to upgrade the card or other components, if i am gonna have to upgrade the card sooner than latter i may as well do it now

opinions please

 

[dguy6789]

Sapphire is arguably the highest quality ATI card manufacturer. Those PC specs look just fine for a media viewing PC for a long time.