Good card for HTPC?

[coolVariable]

I am thinking about upgrading the video card in my HTPC.
It currently has an ATI Radeon X300 that came with the PC.

I noticed that the video sometimes (=maybe 2 - 4 times when watching TV for a whole evening) lags or stutters.
Since the CPU is a P4 2.6GHz and it has plenty of RAM (even for Vista Ult), I am thinking that the bottleneck is the video card.

The main purpose of the HTPC is to watch TV and videos although it sometimes gets used as a gaming PC (mainly Lego Star Wars I + II ... maybe some other games that can be played with game controlers via a TV).


Does it make sense to throw in a new card?
Wasn't planning to spend a lot.

what caught my eye was this GeForce 7200GS but I am not sure if it is worth the money and the hassle.

(PS: the machine runs pretty hot with 3 HDDs, despite some extra fans ... so I want to be conservative with the video card heat and power consumption wise.)

 

[swtethan]

Either the nvidia 8400 or the ATI HD2400, both have hardware video acceleration so it will help with the video load on the cpu. both are like $50 or so

 

[themisfit610]

whoa now - don't just assume that!

The hardware acceleration you speak of only applies to certain types of video, and will not auto-magically make all his videos play perfectly.

coolVariable - what kind of video are you having trouble playing?

The video card itself is not often the bottleneck when it comes to playing videos - it's more often than not improper configuration, or a weak CPU.

More info!

~MiSfit

 

[coolVariable]

The stuttering is during live or recorded TV (currently SD quality although I am seriously thinking about getting the HD homerun).
XVID / DIVX are fine.

It probably is not worth the money currently, is it?



CPU is a P4 2.6GHz which should be plenty fast for watching/recording TV.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: swtethan
Either the nvidia 8400 or the ATI HD2400, both have hardware video acceleration so it will help with the video load on the cpu. both are like $50 or so

Are these good for videos only?
I don't want to end up with a card that is worse at games than my current card.

I do play some games on the machine (it acts kind of as a game console replacement).


Edit: mmmhhh. Newegg has a Geforce 8400GS for $50: Link

I assume that is better than the Geforce 7200GS?

 

[Denithor]

Actually, for just a bit more ($60 after $20MIR) you can get this factory overclocked GeForce 8500GT which is probably 50% more powerful than the 8400gs.

There really isn't a good AMD card in this price range (the lowest I would recommend is the HD2400XT that sells for $75-80).

 

[themisfit610]

The stuttering is during live or recorded TV

Okay that helps. We need to establish exactly what it is about your "live or recorded TV" that makes your machine stutter.

How do you watch live TV? What tuner card do you have? What software do you use? Is this different from the software you use to watch Xvid / DivX videos?

How do you record TV? What format is the video stored in? What codec settings do you chose? These are all variables.

~MiSfit

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Actually, for just a bit more ($60 after $20MIR) you can get this factory overclocked GeForce 8500GT which is probably 50% more powerful than the 8400gs.

There really isn't a good AMD card in this price range (the lowest I would recommend is the HD2400XT that sells for $75-80).

That looks like a great card.
But it sounds like it runs very hot ...
Does it require a lot of power? I only have a stock Dell Dimension 4700 power in this PC and I would assume it to be already being used quite a bit by 3 HDDs, 1 DVD-Writer and 4 extra fans.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: themisfit610

The stuttering is during live or recorded TV

Okay that helps. We need to establish exactly what it is about your "live or recorded TV" that makes your machine stutter.

How do you watch live TV? What tuner card do you have? What software do you use? Is this different from the software you use to watch Xvid / DivX videos?

How do you record TV? What format is the video stored in? What codec settings do you chose? These are all variables.

~MiSfit

Watch live TV using Vista Media Center with its built in codec with best quality setting.
Otherwise have some codec pack installed for xvid/divx (forgot which but can check tonight).

TV-Tuner: Avermedia UltraTV

Recorded TV is stored as DVR-MS ... so same codec as live TV.

Stuttering is more often when it is wide shots with lots of movement. I do not think it is due to the TV tuner and the CPU/RAM should be enough for Vista. IMO that only leaves the video card which is a little on the slow and old side ... ATI Radeon x300.

 

[Denithor]

With four fans in your case I doubt heat will be an issue at all.

One thing, is the Dell a normal sized box or is it one of those skinny ones? Just making sure the video card will fit in there...some of the x300 cards were half-height so they could be used in the sff cases.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Denithor
With four fans in your case I doubt heat will be an issue at all.

One thing, is the Dell a normal sized box or is it one of those skinny ones? Just making sure the video card will fit in there...some of the x300 cards were half-height so they could be used in the sff cases.

It's the regular sized Dell case so I should be fine with a regular sized video card.
Just concerned about the heat since those 3 HDDs can fry an egg without the additional fans.
With the fans they are about 105F - 115F. Without they easily go up to 140+ F.
Since that machine also acts as a backup I don't want the HDDs fail.

Do you think the power draw of that card might be too much? that GeForce 8500GT is very tempting.