Looking for new video card [ATI] some questions

[MGCJerry]

I currently have a gForce 6600 and I extensively use the fullscreen video overlay on display 2 (s-video to my video mixer, then to my TV for video work). I bought a 9800GT last week only to find out nividia has removed the fullscreen overlay "feature" in the hardware as well as the drivers and they dont plan on "fixing" it. As a result I've struggled and tried getting the new card to play nice with having fullscreen video on my video gear. Since nivida doesnt want my money, I'll give it to ATI after RMA'ing my 9800GT.

During my research I've read that ATI has a similar feature called "Theater Mode" and my questions are...

1a:
How well (set it and forget it) does it work compared to nvidias overlay mode? Its hard to move a video player to a TV and being able to READ the text and filenames while browsing for videos. Its nice being able to have the player open on my main monitor and choose files while the player is playing fullscreen on the TV and I dont have any icons in my taskbar for when I frequently hit "Show desktop" while recording which makes the "drag the player onto the tv and load files" I cant read it and "showing desktop" stops the fullscreen playback anyway. I have the resulting video & audio re-routed back into my pc for recording and recording minimizing windows is unacceptable.

1b:
Does the Theatre mode allow you do play fullscreen video on a TV screen, and not pepper your taskbar with applications. I use Media Player Classic with ONLY a systray icon. This doesnt work right with the 9800 and it requires something in the taskbar as well, but clicking "show desktop" stops playback in fullscreen.

2:
I'm also looking for a card with comparable gaming performance as the 9800GT, can anyone comment on one? I havent looked at ATI cards in a long time, so I don't know how they compare or stand. My budget is 120-150 (firm). I dont need a high-end $400 gaming card, just something toward the bottom of the middle of the road. I'm looking at the HD4850 card, comments? Edited: Planning on playing CoD World at War on it as well as a number of other older games.

3.
What is a good brand to get an ATI card? Ive seen a lot of sapphire cards...

So... Anyone willing to give me a few comments based on the above?

OS: Windows2000, WindowsXP (primary OS), Windows7 (7000 build) (all 32bit)
Board: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
CPU: Q8200 (no oc)
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS
Power: OCz 600w

Thanks for any comments.

 

[krameriffic]

XFX is a good bet for an ATI card (or NV for that matter). The 4850 is good in your price range, but the GTX 260 and 4870 fall on the upper end of your price range as well. You can sometimes find good deals on them in the $130-140 range.

 

[obobski]

just a question, you're looking for video overlay, yet using DirectShow, why not use an application which supports DirectX Overlay, which almost all videocards since the dawn of time will do correctly, and almost any application worth its salt will do correctly (for example VLC) (theres like another 800 pages along this line of thought/questions WRT your issue, PM me regarding your specific implementation details/requirements for more)

regarding "what hardware is the bomb for MGCJerry", the HD 4850 would be more than good enough, should give you a bit of performance above the 9800GT, and probably use less power, brand wise, I've always liked Sapphire, and XFX has always made a solid nVidia board, no reason to doubt their AMD boards and their customer service is great (I HIGHLY doubt this will change just because it says AMD on the GPU and not nVidia)

 

[andrewsmc1]

HD4850 or hd4870 used all should be in your range.Shoot i had a 4870 and loved it.. Just a 512 should be enough.

 

[MGCJerry]

I know I'm a bit slow with this thread, but I just now managed to get my HD4870 (1gig) and I'm lovin it so far. It does run a little warm, but still well within specifications.

The version I got (XFX) didn't come with an s-video port but I decided I'm going to use the DVI and convert to s-video and thus if at a later date I get HD capable hardware I can easily adapt. Now this little 6600 can go away. UT2k4 (killing floor, chaos) maxed out, CoD WaW maxes out and looks beautiful and runs like silk.

Now to do some modding to help this thing run cooler since my capture card is right below the video card and I'm sure I could get it to run cooler if it had more air.

</new ati fanboi now>

Thanx again for the suggestions.