GPU for 4K Video (not gaming)

MajorYikes

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Doing a simple budget build for the first time in 5+ years. Asus B250M-A, Celeron G3930, 8GB Patriot Viper DDR4-2400, with a Corsair CS650M PSU.

I’ve been out of the PC game for quite some time so I’m a bit out of the loop. Will my onboard graphics feed 4K movies/video? This rig will not be used for gaming at all, most just HTPC use and web browsing.

Any suggestions for a video card sub $100-$150? Thanks in advance.
 
The onboard graphics might be capable but a lot of intel boards (including the one you’ve selected) only support hdmi 1.4, so they can’t output 4K @60hz.

You’ll need a discrete gpu for that, as you’ve guessed. If you’re not gaming something like a Radeon RX 550 or GeForce GT 1030 would be capable.
 
Thanks for the reply, guys. I was already eyeing the GT 1030, but might go for the GTX 1050 for just a little more cash for the purpose of future-proofing, etc.

Any thoughts on the Celeron with video playback? Surely it can handle the web browsing and basic functions, but with a discreet video card do you think it could handle the video output I’m looking for?
 
The bulk of the work would be handled by the gpu, so as long as you don’t hit a format that needs to fall back to cpu processing you ought to be fine.

Nice thing about buying low is you’ll probably be able to upgrade it to an i5 or i7 for pretty cheap a couple years down the road if you find you need it.
 
Thanks for the reply, guys. I was already eyeing the GT 1030, but might go for the GTX 1050 for just a little more cash for the purpose of future-proofing, etc.

Any thoughts on the Celeron with video playback? Surely it can handle the web browsing and basic functions, but with a discreet video card do you think it could handle the video output I’m looking for?

Honestly I would MUCH rather have an Ryzen R3 2200g or 2300g. The GPU is on par with a gt 1030 and both are true quad cores. You are paying a tiny bit more on the CPU, but getting a lot more and you won't have to worry about a GPU.
 
Honestly I would MUCH rather have an Ryzen R3 2200g or 2300g. The GPU is on par with a gt 1030 and both are true quad cores. You are paying a tiny bit more on the CPU, but getting a lot more and you won't have to worry about a GPU.
Agreed. OP is spending more (Celeron + DGPU) and getting less. 4K on a dual core?
 
I got my chip and board for $80 shipped. The Ryzen and a mobo would be twice the cost. However, by the time I buy my GPU it would indeed be about the same cost.

I do, however plan on upgrading this to an i3 or i5 in a few months, which is my reason for going with 1151 platform.
 
You need an onboard DisplayPort to output 4k a 60hz, but your motherboard doesn't have one.

You can get 4k @ 30Hz out of the HDMI port, but that's the best a budget board can do.

After some research, Intel can't support Chroma sub-sampling like Nvidia, so get can't get 60 fps @ 4:2:2 chroma. You're going to have to buy a discrete card.

This is the cheapest one I can find with both DP1.4 and HDMI 2.0:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814930001&Description=rx 550&cm_re=rx_550-_-14-930-001-_-Product

If you havn't already purchased the motherboard, that would have been the cheaper option, since the onboard graphics fully supports 4k HEVC 10-bit, and will work fine if you ave a DisplayPort,
 
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You can snag a used 1050ti for about $100, I got one for $85 here at [H].

If you want to do any processing like MadVR, its good to have a little headroom, 1030 is pretty weak. I would do 1050 minumum but preferably 1050ti and above. I think there are a lot of 1060's in the for sale section going for $130 each.
 
You need an onboard DisplayPort to output 4k a 60hz, but your motherboard doesn't have one.

You can get 4k @ 30Hz out of the HDMI port, but that's the best a budget board can do.

After some research, Intel can't support Chroma sub-sampling like Nvidia, so get can't get 60 fps @ 4:2:2 chroma. You're going to have to buy a discrete card.

This is the cheapest one I can find with both DP1.4 and HDMI 2.0:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814930001&Description=rx 550&cm_re=rx_550-_-14-930-001-_-Product

If you havn't already purchased the motherboard, that would have been the cheaper option, since the onboard graphics fully supports 4k HEVC 10-bit, and will work fine if you ave a DisplayPort,

That's a lot cheaper than the 550 I recommended, good find.
 
Buy a used card, i have a 970 in my wife's netflix/hulu rig not because she will ever game on it but for the money you would spend on a trimmed down bottom of the line GPU you could get a real one and this is still [H].
 
I always recommend buying new for cards used by normal people for a few reasons.

You get the latest outputs, and codec support. 970 doesn't support HEVC or VP9 (used on Youtube 4k/8k exclusively) hardware decode or dp 1.4 nor freesync.

You get a factory warranty. A card as old as the 970 is warrantyless.

You get lower power and smaller card size. Even if you never use the power of the chip, you still need to supply the PSU and play the cable puzzle game just to get it to boot, along with shoving the much longer/thicker card into a potentially smaller case.
 
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What are you trying to do, just play 4K movies to a TV?

If that’s the case I’d just spend $30 on a cheap Android S905 based box and put CoreElec/LibreElec on there. They all play 4K video just fine, complete with bitsreamed audio. Then you can get whatever video card you want.

Either that or get a Nvidia Shield.
 
Yeah OP, have you already purchased the above system, and are just looking at ways to hack things together to get 4k output, or can we steer you toward a more capable motherboard, or just an Android Streaming box?

You need to clarify what stage we're in here. Your post earlier implies you've already bought the motherboard and processor for $80, is that correct? Otherwise you're going to get inundated with grand plans for fishing expeditions you don't really need.
 
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I got my chip and board for $80 shipped. The Ryzen and a mobo would be twice the cost. However, by the time I buy my GPU it would indeed be about the same cost.

I do, however plan on upgrading this to an i3 or i5 in a few months, which is my reason for going with 1151 platform.

If you went with the 2200g or 2300g, you could upgrade to 3rd gen Ryzen without upgrading your board. Asus B250M-A will only support as high as a 7700k, a cpu that is already 2 generations old. Not a good purchase at all.
 
I’ve already purchased all of my parts. I own a few streaming devices already. There’s a certain room in my house I want a PC in for various reasons. Web browsing, creating eBay listings, phone backups, a little word processing, and a few other things.

I’m also getting back in to the PC world..so I just want a PC. I’ll upgrade it little by little. It’s just a hobby I’m trying to get back in to. Playing 4K movies is just something this computer will be doing.

Also, I’d consider used parts but I’ve discovered I have to have a certain amount of posts/credibility to use the for sale/trade forum here, which is understandable.
 
At the school where I teach and run the IT dept, we have 20 workstations for Adobe CS stuff. Each machine has a 1050ti on it because they are attached to 4k monitors. Have gotten really good results from the 1050ti.
 
I’ve already purchased all of my parts. I own a few streaming devices already. There’s a certain room in my house I want a PC in for various reasons. Web browsing, creating eBay listings, phone backups, a little word processing, and a few other things.

I’m also getting back in to the PC world..so I just want a PC. I’ll upgrade it little by little. It’s just a hobby I’m trying to get back in to. Playing 4K movies is just something this computer will be doing.

Also, I’d consider used parts but I’ve discovered I have to have a certain amount of posts/credibility to use the for sale/trade forum here, which is understandable.
If I'm not mistaken you can still browse the sale section and pm people. At least you could when I started here. You just couldn't post.
 
What are you trying to do, just play 4K movies to a TV?

If that’s the case I’d just spend $30 on a cheap Android S905 based box and put CoreElec/LibreElec on there. They all play 4K video just fine, complete with bitsreamed audio. Then you can get whatever video card you want.

Either that or get a Nvidia Shield.

That is what I am trying to do. Will this work with HDR support too ?
 
Also do you need a 4k computer monitor to be able to stream 4k hdr over your pc to your 4k hdr projector or 4k hdr tv via hdmi ?

Basically how I will be doing it is using my media player of choose and moving the player from my computer screen to my projector or tv screen.
 
If I'm not mistaken you can still browse the sale section and pm people. At least you could when I started here. You just couldn't post.
Yes, you can browse and PM peeps. I've bought a metric ton of stuff through the FS/FT thread. Good Luck!

Silver
 
At the school where I teach and run the IT dept, we have 20 workstations for Adobe CS stuff. Each machine has a 1050ti on it because they are attached to 4k monitors. Have gotten really good results from the 1050ti.

Cool.
 
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