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What card for non-gaming computer?

A

asintu

Senior member
Card has to handle a dual-monitor setup (a 19" 1280x1024 and a 22" 1680x1050) with Vista graphical stuff (Aero and what not) running flawlessly.

I'm thinking HD3450 (64bit) or HD3650 (128bit) since they have directx 10.1 , silent cooling and they're pretty cheap.
Will be using the card in a non-gaming E8400, 4gb, vista 64 system.
Are these good choices?
If so, will the 64bit vs. 128bit make any difference for my purposes?
 
What exactly does your not-gaming entail? If it's just web browsing, hell, a PCI card would be good enough.
 
Originally posted by: Lithan
What exactly does your not-gaming entail? If it's just web browsing, hell, a PCI card would be good enough.
Click to expand...

non-gaming...as in web/office/programming/multimedia applications
 
non-gaming is vague. Does multimedia include video encoding or just decoding? is it HD media or SD?

If there's nothing to accelerate, yes, a PCI card would be adequate, or whatever the cheapest card you can find.

If it's for a HTPC-type setting (lots of decoding), I'm pretty sure the HD3450 was designed for that market. Should be fine.

If it's for encoding, I have no idea. Do GPUs even accelerate encoding?
 
Originally posted by: asintu
Originally posted by: Lithan
What exactly does your not-gaming entail? If it's just web browsing, hell, a PCI card would be good enough.
Click to expand...

non-gaming...as in web/office/programming/multimedia applications
Click to expand...

What kind of multimedia? HD decoding and playback or simply watching the occasional .AVI?

You don't need to spend any more money than you need to with DX10.1 if your situation is the latter.
 
Originally posted by: Jax Omen
non-gaming is vague. Does multimedia include video encoding or just decoding? is it HD media or SD?

If there's nothing to accelerate, yes, a PCI card would be adequate, or whatever the cheapest card you can find.

If it's for a HTPC-type setting (lots of decoding), I'm pretty sure the HD3450 was designed for that market. Should be fine.

If it's for encoding, I have no idea. Do GPUs even accelerate encoding?
Click to expand...

multimedia for me means the extremely occasional photoshop/video editing, mostly dvd burning/movie watching.
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
why not onboard video? 780g looks good...
Click to expand...

Does the 780G support dual monitors? I don't believe it does, but I could be wrong.

Edit: And his E8400 isn't going to be very happy in an AM2+ board.
 
another thing...will a 3450 be enough to run the x64 vista graphical "goodies" (aero and what not)? I saw a review that vista only gave 3.6 for windows aeor performance and that score "meant" minimal requirements. Should I get a 3650 just to be on the safe side?
 
Originally posted by: daveybrat
ASUS EAH3650 SILENT/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 3650 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

This HD3650 is $74.99 after rebate and also has the excellent passive cooling system. With 128-bit memory interface, 725MHz core and 1.4GHz memory, this should give you a 5.9 Aero score in Vista.

If you have the money, then get this card. Be aware though that this card will take up 2 pci slots due to it's thickness.
Click to expand...

will actually get that exact card. thanx.
 
Looking at the HD3450 at Newegg, how are you going to attach two monitors with only one DVI connector on the card?
 
Originally posted by: htne
Looking at the HD3450 at Newegg, how are you going to attach two monitors with only one DVI connector on the card?
Click to expand...

well my old monitor is has vga..but that doesn't matter now cause ill get the 3650..better, silent, has dvi to hdmi adapter
 
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