Need lower power card with HDCP compliance. Which one is best ?

[Dazed and Confused]

Okay, I'm looking to downgrade my X1900XTX to something that uses less power mainly but also has HDCP Compliance.

I'm kinda eyeballing he following types of cards :

GDDR3 HD 3650
X1950 Pro
8600GT
8600GTS
and
7900GS

Does anyone have any input on which would provide the best performance per watt ? Also I'm trying to find a power draw chart showing all these cards which is proving to be difficult, if anyone can linkify one that'd be great

 

[Foxery]

What sort of gaming performance do you desire? Many of these newer generation options will outperform your X1900. ATI's 3650 in particular uses very little power. The X1950 and 7900GS are performance cards, so those will not help you much.

Not sure about the 8600s.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Originally posted by: Foxery
What sort of gaming performance do you desire? Many of these newer generation options will outperform your X1900. ATI's 3650 in particular uses very little power. The X1950 and 7900GS are performance cards, so those will not help you much.

Not sure about the 8600s.

Not much really as far as gaming goes. I won't be using the PC in a month anyways as I'm going into ther Army. I just want a decent card in the system so my nieces and nephews can play some games when they visit my father. I'm almost half tempted to remove the card alltogether and just run the integrated HD3200 video on the mobo but I figure I might as well at least put a basic card in it instead.

 

[angry hampster]

What games will they be playing?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
What games will they be playing?

Prob any of the ones I have installed atm. I'm not so concerned with them being able to enable eye candy as long as the game looks okay and is playeable overall.

Here are the games I own and have installed atm :

Crysis
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Call of Duty 4
Oblivion
Call of Duty 2
FarCry
Hitman series
Splinter Cell Series ( due to ATI issues the orig SC won't play properly )
CnC series
Dungeon Siege series
DooM 3 + Doom classic mod ( pure pwnage )
Pain Killer Black Edition
Hellgate : London
Quake 4
HALO

 

[myocardia]

The 3650 will definitely use the leasy power, but I'd sure hate to try to play Crysis or STALKER with that card, or the 8600GT or GTS. You'd be better off leaving your X1900XTX in it. If you do decide to get another card, the 7900GS offers the best price/power usage/performance of the cards you listed. Of course, I'd recommend a 3850. They're about as powerful as your X1900XTX, but use ~half the power.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Originally posted by: myocardia
The 3650 will definitely use the leasy power, but I'd sure hate to try to play Crysis or STALKER with that card, or the 8600GT or GTS. You'd be better off leaving your X1900XTX in it. If you do decide to get another card, the 7900GS offers the best price/power usage/performance of the cards you listed. Of course, I'd recommend a 3850. They're about as powerful as your X1900XTX, but use ~half the power.

The problem there lies that noone in thier right mind would do a str8 trade for my X1900XTX for thier HD 3850 I've limited it to those cards because I have a chance of swapping my card for thier card.

I'm trying to make this move without spending more than $10 in shipping to get my card to someone else. Even if I sold my card with the Accelero S1 thats on it I'd prob get no more than $80 or so shipped of which I'll lose $10 leaving me with $70 which I highly doubt will get me an HD 3850 and I really don't want to put up any more moneys :-/

 

[cubeless]

are u just looking for a trade for a quieter, less powerful card and some cash? Like a 7950 512 and all the shipping costs?

the 1900 isn't using all that much power when u r using it...

and these forums are just the place to find people who aren't in their right minds...

ok... i lied... the xtx uses 2x the power of the 7950...

 

[AzN]

Do they have a blueray drive and a HDCP compliant monitor? That is the only reason you should get a HDCP compliant card. Even then you can easily play HDCP stuff if you have a powerful CPU.

1900xtx is better by a mile than all those cards. If the kids are going to mainly watch dvd, divx, 720p encoded movies and play games I see no reason to downgrade.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Originally posted by: Azn
Do they have a blueray drive in their computer? That is the only reason you should get a HDCP compliant card. Even then you can easily play HDCP stuff if you have a powerful CPU.

1900xtx is better by a mile than all those cards. If the kids are going to mainly watch dvd movies and play games I see no reason to downgrade.

I'm gonna order an HD DVD-rom for the PC so HDCP compliance is a must. And the reason to downgrade the card is to reduce the power consumption and heat output.

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are u just looking for a trade for a quieter, less powerful card and some cash? Like a 7950 512 and all the shipping costs?

the 1900 isn't using all that much power when u r using it...

and these forums are just the place to find people who aren't in their right minds...

ok... i lied... the xtx uses 2x the power of the 7950...

I'm just looking to do a str8 trade for a lesser card as long as it meets my req. even if it's worth a bit less on the cash side. I just need a target card to put in my thread to narrow it down a bit and increase my chances of finding someone to trade with.

 

[AzN]

Perhaps you meant blueray. HD-DVD as we know it is dead technology like betamax. 1900xtx eat much wattage as a 8800gt at idle and eat a little more while gaming but it's not that bad far as power hungry it is. It the computer is going to be used mainly for gaming you have to take gaming performance into account. 3650 or 8600gt doesn't even come close and would be limited to medium settings or 1024x768 gaming. A 3850 would be a slight upgrade even than not totally justified. You might as sell your card and buy a 3850 instead. Shouldn't be more than $30-50 to upgrade after you sell your card.

 

[cubeless]

may be ameniable to swappin for a 7950 if u get that far...