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If i never game, is there any point in spending more than $200.00 for Video Card?

P

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Here's what i've bought so far

CPU: Amd 64 3800+ 130 nm
Ram: Corsair Low Latency 1 gb (2 x 512)
HD: 3 80 gb SATA Seagates HD's
MB: MSI Platinum Neo4 SLI
would 1 PCI E Video Card around $200.00 be sufficient?

i don't do anything highly video intensive. well, mb Divx encoding.
 
No. You would pretty much do fine with an ATI 9600 XT for around that price, I think. However, I wonder why you go with the SLI board if you never will actually USE SLI. The Ultra MSI board goes for about 50 dollars cheaper.
 
If you're not gaming there's not much reason to spend over $100 on a video card, let alone $200. Unless you need All-In-Wonder type features.

Video encoding is CPU intensive, not video card.
 
buying a 3800+ with a GF4 mx400 just doesn't look right. i would get something similar to a radeon 9600 pro to balance the system a little.
 
Originally posted by: Aisengard
No. You would pretty much do fine with an ATI 9600 XT for around that price, I think. However, I wonder why you go with the SLI board if you never will actually USE SLI. The Ultra MSI board goes for about 50 dollars cheaper.
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good point. i could go with the non sli, mb just the ultra.

 
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
Originally posted by: Aisengard
No. You would pretty much do fine with an ATI 9600 XT for around that price, I think. However, I wonder why you go with the SLI board if you never will actually USE SLI. The Ultra MSI board goes for about 50 dollars cheaper.
Click to expand...

good point. i could go with the non sli, mb just the ultra.
Click to expand...

i think you should of known for a lifer.😕 have you taken a look at the dfi ultra?
 
i just remembered, since you are going with a nforce 4 which will not have an agp slot, a 9600 or something similar will not work. i would probably go with a 6200 for a non gaming pcie card.
 
Originally posted by: itr
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
Originally posted by: Aisengard
No. You would pretty much do fine with an ATI 9600 XT for around that price, I think. However, I wonder why you go with the SLI board if you never will actually USE SLI. The Ultra MSI board goes for about 50 dollars cheaper.
Click to expand...

good point. i could go with the non sli, mb just the ultra.
Click to expand...

i think you should of known for a lifer.😕 have you taken a look at the dfi ultra?
Click to expand...

actually, being a lifer has NOTHING to do with it.

the only reason i had considered the SLI board is because it does give me options just in case i do decide to do some gaming.

but in retrospect, there is no chance i'll be doing any gaming. of course my 8 yr old might start doing some gaming in a couple of years and i'll probably give this system to him, but who knows what will be available in 2 years.
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
-> $147 DFI Ultra <-

Why are you buying 3 HDDs? Encoders don't need scratch discs 😕

Even if you don't game, I'd get at least an X600.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320819
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i already bought them. originally i was going to go with raid 5, but then i realized that very few mb's are gonna have raid 5 on board. so i'll either have to buy a raid 5 sata card or just go raid 0 and make sure to keep everything backed up. 😉
 
I wouldn't get an SLI board. I would also buy the cheapest PCIe video card you can find. They will all perform the SAME in 2D. I would spend the saved money on a Raptor. You will see a much bigger improvement from that. 🙂

Something to keep in mind though: I don't know what your expectations for longevity are, but Longhorn will require a relatively fast 3D card from what I hear.
 
HBA = Host bus adapter. aka RAID Controller.

at $240 for the 160gb of store, your still better of than a raptor. LOL
 
The X300 (non-SE) cards are not that bad, either, if you are looking for a cheap PCIe graphics cards. The DivX software player has some hardware acceleration built in that works if you have a 9500/9600 and up series card. The output quality on the X300 is also quite nice, especially if you are going to use it to drive a large flat panel through the DVI ports.

The X300 is basically a PCIe 9600NP, while the X600 is a 9600 Pro. I think the X300SE is based off of the 9200 cards, so I'd avoid that one.
 
Originally posted by: Amaroque
I wouldn't get an SLI board. I would also buy the cheapest PCIe video card you can find. They will all perform the SAME in 2D. I would spend the saved money on a Raptor. You will see a much bigger improvement from that. 🙂

Something to keep in mind though: I don't know what your expectations for longevity are, but Longhorn will require a relatively fast 3D card from what I hear.
Click to expand...

so then i should get a fast video card.

would an x600 AIW PCI e card be fast enough?
 
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
would an x600 AIW PCI e card be fast enough?
Click to expand...

I think an x600 AIW would be an excellent choice for your current usage. It's only ~$200 online. It will also give you some headroom for future usage.
 
Originally posted by: Amaroque
I wouldn't get an SLI board. I would also buy the cheapest PCIe video card you can find. They will all perform the SAME in 2D. I would spend the saved money on a Raptor. You will see a much bigger improvement from that. 🙂

Something to keep in mind though: I don't know what your expectations for longevity are, but Longhorn will require a relatively fast 3D card from what I hear.
Click to expand...


I think Longhorn just needs something with Direct X 9 hardware acceleration so the neat new Avalon graphics rendering system and GUI will be able to run all the effects straight from the hardware and not have to fall back on CPU intensive software rendering like a DX 7 ot 8 level card would. The differing amounts of memory bandwidth, faster core speed and higher number of rendering pipelines that seperate a X850 from a X300 probably won't matter all that much when you are accelerating the user interface effects, assuming you aren't running at an insane display resolution.

The only big non gaming benefits of a high end card in the Longhorn would probably only come if the Avalon APIs can be adapted to Adobe and Pinnacle image and video editing software to enable them to offload a lot of the graphical work to the GPU, like Apple is doing with the Core Image graphics engine that is part of Tiger (which just so happens to also require a DX 9 level graphics card).
 
What in the grey god damn are you doing with an SLI board and $200 video card if you're "never going to game"?

Get the MSI RS480 board with the Radeon Xpress IGP, and you're done.

- M4H
 
Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
Originally posted by: ribbon13
too late snake... he already bought it
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yup, even bought an Antec 550 True Blue. 🙂

figure that should be sufficient even tho it isn't an ATX 2.0 power supply.
Click to expand...

Video overkill and PSU overkill? 🙁

- M4H
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would you have been happier had i stayed with my XP 3200 (barton) system?
 
I don't understand, you already bought the MSI SLI mobo? I thought you said you were going to get nForce4 Ultra instead 😕
As for the video card, get the cheapest PCI-e you can find and don't worry about Longhorn. Upgrade later when you need to. And don't get an AIW if you don't need ViVo/TV Tuner.
 
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