battle of the low end ATI cards

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bassballboy

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Apr 25, 2007
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So my brother just for a new TV in his room, and he now wants a card that will do sound over HDMI.

He's pretty cheap, and would like to keep the cost low though. He won't be doing any gaming on the computer, he just wants it to be able to handle blu-ray/streaming high def/downloaded high def video.

what's the best bang for the buck? 3450/3650/4350/4550?

I'd like to recommend him something mroe in the 3850/4670 range, but it seems as though there aren't any good deals in that range as of now.
 
If he has a dual core CPU, period. The HD 4350 would be the best bet and you might as well go passive as the low end cards with fans tend to have cheap noisy fans. Even the HD 3450 can take enough of the load to nicely decode HD content when used with a dual core CPU.

If you're gonna go cheap then do it right, otherwise go all out :)

Would help to know what CPU he has now that I think of it. If its a single core CPU he's gonna need something a lil more powerful than the HD 3450 to handle the load while maintaining an enjoyable movie experience.
 
If he only wants HDMI and doesnt care about 3D at all, go with the cheapest HD4xxx series.
 
he's running a stock Q6600.

The 4350 would be fine for HD content as long as he isn't planning to game with it?
 
Tbh, go with the HD 3450 and save him $10. With a Q6600 the HD 3450 will be plenty as its still the same speed as the HD3200 IGP which does wonders with even the 1.6ghz dual core sempron.
 
bassballboy said:
he's running a stock Q6600.

The 4350 would be fine for HD content as long as he isn't planning to game with it?
Click to expand...

The 4350 would be fine for video acceleration, but keep in mind that unless he's playing actual Blu-Ray discs he's not guaranteed to actually have the card doing any work. The vast majority of HD rips available from various sources on the interwebs aren't DXVA compatible (that is starting to change, though). Granted, I would imagine a stock Q6600 could decode the video on its own if the card isn't kicking in.
 
I'd get a passive 4350 w/ HDMI output. IT has a newer version of UVD than the 3400 cards.
 
i bought a MSI 4350 for my parents computer. Their videcard dvi port suddenly died and then the whole care. I got one of these cards when they were first released from newegg for like $30 bucks ! They were actually pretty powerful. I didn't test it with any games or anything but for for video acceleration they are snappy. I did read somewhere that it does ok 20-30fps range in modern games and supports 10.1 dx i know that does not mean much but oh well.
It can also do the HD dolbly 5.1 audio thing that my 4850 can do but it didn't include the adapter. I don;t know why but the packaging was really small. The box was like 2 game cases together and the card itself is tiny with a passive heatsink
 
bassballboy said:
he's running a stock Q6600.

The 4350 would be fine for HD content as long as he isn't planning to game with it?
Click to expand...

Bingo!

I just built my first HTPC (for myself that is heh) and i'm using a passively cooled 4550, the only reason I purchased the 4550 at the time was because it was the only passively cooled video card I could get, the 4350 and 4550's do not stay in stock especially the passive ones.

They are cheap, very low power, don't get hot, great for blu-ray and every 4550 I've seen for sale has the HDMI port, make sure to look around if you are going the 4350 rout some do not include the HDMI port on it and you have to buy a DVI-HDMI adapter.

Brands to look for would be ASUS and Gigabyte.

edit: The only difference between the 4350 and 4550 is memmory, the 4350 has GDDR2 and the 4550 has GDDR3 no performance improvement.
 
My 3450 paired with an AMD X2 4400 plays HD rips, blu-rays and just about any other video I toss at it with ease. CPU utilization never goes above 5%, spikes to 10% on rare occasions. It included a DVI->HDMI adaptor, but didn't come with the audio connect cable. Paid another $5 for that and it passes audio through with no problem. Best $25 I ever spent.
 
Ok all, so I'm definitely leaning towards getting a passive 4350, it sounds like it fits the bill.

My brother suggested I get it for him for Christmas and install it. Generally we get each other gifts more in the ~$50-$60 range though, so I'm considering getting him something a bit nicer, say a 4670. How loud/hot do they tend to get? I just want to get him the best card in that range, but if they're loud I'll just get a $30-$40 4350 that has native hdmi and maybe a couple of GB of RAM.
 
bassballboy said:
Ok all, so I'm definitely leaning towards getting a passive 4350, it sounds like it fits the bill.

My brother suggested I get it for him for Christmas and install it. Generally we get each other gifts more in the ~$50-$60 range though, so I'm considering getting him something a bit nicer, say a 4670. How loud/hot do they tend to get? I just want to get him the best card in that range, but if they're loud I'll just get a $30-$40 4350 that has native hdmi and maybe a couple of GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

the 46XX series are also very low power, don't have any first hand experience with them but they shouldn't get too hot or be loud at all, if you have any worries about that you could look for aftermarket coolers.
 
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