suggestions for vid card

[skreien]

Hey everyone,

My dad has asked me to get him a new video card for his PC so he can play back HD video without stuttering, and with hardware decoding so it doesn't tie up his CPU. Any suggestions? His computer is a Dell Optiplex Core Duo-Conroe, it has an open PCIe 16x slot in it.

Thanks!

[Pob]

The monthly round-up on Tom's Hardware has always pointed me in the right direction and groups by price;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gefo...,2491.html
Any of the $65 cards would be fine, but the decision really is Nvidia or ATI? For me, I had all sorts of problems with ATI drivers and Nvidia would be my choice, but I'm sure many would say ATI...

[pcostanza]

Been an nvidia fan for years and on my recent build, went the ATI route. So far, no complaints but mine is overkill for what skreien needs.
The Geforce 9400 GT is great is you like Nvidia and for the ATI side, I'd say the Radeon 4830. You should be able to find both of these for under $70 or so with prices going lower almost each month.

[tonyimp]

Try the Radeon 4350 line of cards. I have one, and it does the job for me.
These cards list at less than 40 bucks. Sometimes you can find a deal for below 20-25 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814121310