Recommend a Video Card for HTPC

[ghetto buck]

I've just about picked all the components for my home theatre pc. The only thing remaining is one of the most crucial, the video card. Basically I need a card with really high quality svideo output for $60 give or take a bit. I'm thinking about the Radeon 7000 which I hear is awful for 3d, however its great for tv-output and dvd.

My main use for this will be divx movies and playing emulators. I'll also be using it for dvd and mp3 playback. I won't be playing any demanding computer games and everything will be at 640x480. The most taxing thing i'll be doing 3d wise will be playing n64 and playstation emulators. So the questions I have are;

Will the 7000 radeon be sufficient?
If not what do you recommend?
Where should I buy?
Does it matter if I buy an ATI brand card if I go with the Radeon?
Have ATI's drivers matured for win2k?

Also if you could possibly point me to some benchmarks that would be great.

I look forward to your input,
Thanks

 

[ghetto buck]

-bump-

 

[DaveSimmons]

Will the 7000 radeon be sufficient?

Yes, even for 3D for many games since res is only 640x480

Where should I buy?

Newegg.com is good.

Does it matter if I buy an ATI brand card if I go with the Radeon?

The TV-out that people rave about is from "made by ATI" cards,
if you get a cheaper "powered by ATI" card made by someone
else (using ATI chips) the TV-out quality might be lower.

 

[ghetto buck]

DaveSimmons, Thanks for your reply that helps me a lot. I went to newegg and found one card which uses sdram and looks to be made by ati for $48 and another which uses ddr by sapphire for $46. Both have tv-out, the question is do I get the slightly slower sdr by ati or the ddr by sapphire. I'm all about tv-out quality so i'm leaning towards the ati.

What do you all think?

Also how are ati's drivers in windows 2000?

 

[Diable]

That card should work fine since your not going to be gaming on that machine. Also ATI's drivers are fine in Win2k.

 

[SUOrangeman]

www.avsforum.com

'nuff said.

-SUO

 

[ghetto buck]

Thanks SUOrangeman, i've actually been reading the avsforums for quite some time to help with my decision. Actually thats where i saw a Radeon 7000 recommendation, but those guys are all about high quality dvd output and stuff and don't seem to care about gaming. I'm almost in the same frame of mind but I want to also do a little 3d gaming (n64 / psx emulators) and what better place to ask about 3d performance than anandtech