What video card should I get?

[DonTadow]

I"m in the market for a new video card for my HTPC.

THe output for the video is a projector and TV (tv shows and my d and d maps).

but I also want it to be able to play RTS games command and conquier and Rise of Legends at a low to medium setting.

What do you suggest? My googling has led me to the NIIDIA 8500GT and Nivida 7600gt but I"m still trying to figure out what is the most economical choice for my needs.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I haven't seen performance numbers on the 8500 yet. It'll support DirectX 10, though, which will become more important as time goes on. OTOH, for the real-low end, I don't think future proofing is that important.

My bigger concern would be making sure you've got sufficient power for a new video card. A lot of HTPCs use lower capacity power supplies to reduce noise, and some of the newer cards are real power hogs.

 

[Rackhir]

Well, the "shortly" (supposedly some time in May) to be released ATI/AMD cards the Radeon 2xxx series are supposed to have HDMI outputs with some sort of built in sound card/surround sound (at least 5.1, possibly 7.1) as part of the card. This might be of interest for a HTPC. Of course, you seem to be looking more at mid-low end cards and I'm not sure what if anything is going to be offered in that sort of range. Usually, the inital release of a new card series starts out at the high end and then gradually works it way down.

Here's the link to Tom's hardware Spring graphics card round up. Though it doesn't seem to be covering the recent mid-range releases from nVidia.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html

I have seen some less than inspiring reviews for the 8600 series cards when compared to the 7600 cards. But I would do more investigation. Generally you are better off with a previous gen card than the latest and greatest if there isn't a quantum leap in performance (the 8800 is a ql). The main thing the latest nVidia seems to be bringing to the table is the DX10 compatability, which doesn't sound like it's a compelling improvement.

 

[ThirdWizard]

The big question is are you interested in HDCP viewing? That is, are you interested in, eventually sometime down the line, using this card to view either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray formats?

That will make things a lot more complicated. I haven't looked into this topic in months, so I'm obviously behind the curve on this one, but I can tell you that the last time I researched that topic, there were no HDCP capable video cards on the market. There were HDCP capable chipsets, but the board was not HDCP capable. When searching for a card, make sure that both of these qualifications are there!

Also, keep in mind that many are going to be calling anything with a better resolution than a TV an "HD Capable" monitor, or perhaps even apply that to cards. It does not mean they are HDCP enabled. And, to throw another hot topic out there, only Vista at this time is HDCP capable.

If anyone knows anything more about this, I'd be very interested in getting caught up.

If you don't care about HD-DVD or Blu-Ray then just ignore this post.