Video Card Advice needed

burrellsjeep

burrellsjeep

Breaking Stuff...
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Location
Morganton NC
So I come home from the flats yesterday and try to get the computer to come up (Sleep mode). It failed to respond, I am running dual monitors, nether would respond.

So I put a monitor on the monitor output on the mother board and it came up after a restart, inspected the Video card and it seems to be dead, weird thing is its like it was never installed, there is no trace of the software, although I restarted which may have removed it since it is not showing in the device list. Anyway its bad.

So I am looking for a new card and need some advice on what to get or look for in a card, I don't want to spend a ton but I don't want a piece of crap also.

Here is what I am looking for, my mother board says it supports 16 bit PCI Express cards, I have seen PCI express and PCI express 2.0 not sure of the difference. I will need dual monitor capability, VGA and DVI or both VGA, I have a long run to my wall mounted Flat Screen with a VGA, So I have to keep a VGA, my desk top LCD will support both. I do next to no gaming mostly movies and internet, Just need a card that can handle movies well.

Here is the video card I had before

GeForce 8300GS
128 MB DDR memory
I/O Ports: HDMI, dual-link DVI , S-video

Mother Board
c01080274.gif


Here is a link to the specs on the PC (HP a6244n)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ry&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3552345

Thanks for the help
 
FYI any card w/ DVI output can be "converted" to VGA via an adapter. If you look at the pinout for the DVI-I spec, it contains signals for both digital (DVI) and analog (VGA) lines.
Sothe point is, even if a card has "only" 2 DVI output lines, it's no big deal. Often cards liek that come w/ at least 1 DVI-to-VGA adapter anyway.

Now, FYI HDMA and DisplayPort are digital-only specs so you can't convert those to analgo (VGA). Recent cards are coming w/ those connectors.

Or... does your LCd TV not have a digital video input? EG HDMI or DVI? Go all-digital...
 
RatLabGuy said:
FYI any card w/ DVI output can be "converted" to VGA via an adapter. If you look at the pinout for the DVI-I spec, it contains signals for both digital (DVI) and analog (VGA) lines.
Sothe point is, even if a card has "only" 2 DVI output lines, it's no big deal. Often cards liek that come w/ at least 1 DVI-to-VGA adapter anyway.
Now, FYI HDMA and DisplayPort are digital-only specs so you can't convert those to analgo (VGA). Recent cards are coming w/ those connectors.
Or... does your LCd TV not have a digital video input? EG HDMI or DVI? Go all-digital...
Click to expand...

Not true. A lot of cards are not DVI-I, they're DVI-D only. Same goes for monitors -- some monitors require the DVI input to be digital only, and won't handshake properly with DVI-I connections. DVI is almost as fawked-up of a spec as HDMI. (Not coincidentally, the ones you'll likely have the biggest problems with will have HDMI connections as well).

Any cheap video card should do for what you're asking.

Here's one that's currently a daily deal at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...125251&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-14-125-251-_-Product

Although, for a low-end card like you're asking for... I'd be inclined to look for one that's passively cooled.

Also: $21.43 for a 30ft HDMI cable: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240
 
Since you're running dual monitor setup... my personal bias is the nVidea card.
in my expereince the ATI drivers are flaky and overly complicated when it comes to dual video stuff. Work OK once setup, but in my experience, can be a little finicky.
plus it seems the nVidea chipset drivers are updated more often, easier to get, and easier install.

But at this level, the difference is small. Get the cheaper one and save the $$ for beer.
 
It shows a DVI to DB15 adapter in the photos... so, I guess so.

Take a look through the comments on that Sapphire card before you buy. Look for any mentions of fan speed problems, high noise levels, etc. I only mention it because I had a card from them a year or so ago that had a firmware issue that caused the fan to run full blast all the time. I was able to turn it down with fanspeed or something, but then that caused other issues. I returned it.
 
I hates you, HDMI. I hates you so, so much. :rolleyes:
 
saf-t scissors said:
I hates you, HDMI. I hates you so, so much. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

As much as it certainly has more than its fair share of issues, it certainly does work well when it works, and I liked having just one (albeit, one THICK) wire to run the 50' to my projector. Or one wire from the PS3 to the AV processor - certainly cleans things up, and no worries about crummy cables offering mediocre performance.. it either works, or it doesn't. :D
 
saf-t scissors said:
I hates you, HDMI. I hates you so, so much. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Why is that?

As for Tigerdirect, I have only heard bad things about them. Ive spent close to 800 dollars at Newegg in the last month and they do a GREAT job. I will only stick with them for every computer need I have now.
 
Rich said:
As much as it certainly has more than its fair share of issues, it certainly does work well when it works, and I liked having just one (albeit, one THICK) wire to run the 50' to my projector. Or one wire from the PS3 to the AV processor - certainly cleans things up, and no worries about crummy cables offering mediocre performance.. it either works, or it doesn't. :D
Click to expand...

Hardly Dependable, Mostly Intermittent. Although my stuff is less intermittent now than it used to be.

I hope that wire you ran is easy to replace... because it's obsolete now. :flipoff2:

Macdaddy4738 said:
Why is that?
Click to expand...

At the end of the day, HDMI was designed to make it harder for you to consume media. That's not what they say, of course. But that's what they did. The media conglomerates wanted to protect their precious digital stream, so they locked it up with HDCP handshake bullshit that makes it so every once in a while, you've got sound but no video or video but no sound until you power cycle everything and get the offending piece of hardware to play nice with everybody else.

Then you've got a fat, bundled cable that can't be field terminated, that has to attach with a small, fragile connector that is easily broken by the fat cable and often comes unplugged should you have to mess around back there for any reason (because there are no thumb screws or connection reinforcements in the spec). Several bad design choices in the spec mean that cable runs longer than about 15ft can be problematic. And as I hinted about earlier, every time the next HDMI spec comes out, it makes all previous HDMI stuff (cables included) incompatible with the new spec, raising the question of why they even bother having a nominal standard in the first place.
 
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