Non-gaming gfx card

01101001

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
102
I have a Q6600 / ASUS P5K Premium rig in the planning stages and, since I know nada about gfx cards I've come to y'all for advice.

I am a non-gamer so a basic, future-proof card with TV-out will suffice. I'm thinking around $300 will be more than adequate. I'm not squeemish about spending money but there is no sense in spending money on something I don't need and will never use.

My regular online retailer has these as possibilites:

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GTS 675MHZ 256MB 2.0GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card @ $177

Gigabyte GeForce 8600GTS 675MHZ 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card @ $270

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS Superclocked 576MHZ 320MB 1.7GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV HDCP Video Card @ $320

I'm clueless as to why the two similar 8600's are so far apart price wise. No doubt the 8800GTS is more card than I need but if the extra oomph is worth it...

Thanks for your time.
 
One thing I don't really understand here. You say you're a non-gamer, yet you want a future proof card? I don't really understand why you're going to spend that much money for a gaming card if you don't game? A cheap-o 50$ card will be fine for everything else than running realtime dx / opengl graphics.
 
You seem to be saying that a video card has no impact on the rest of the system. That's not the way I understand things.

As far as being future-proof -- it makes sense to future-proof as much as possible in a new build so the option is there to grow into it. Future-proofing need not be relegated to the gaming realm alone. I'm hoping the new rig will last me 4 years or so, today I don't ~need~ 4 cores but who knows what I'll need two years from now? As for the gfx card ... TV-Out & HDTV aren't required today but ~maybe~ in the future. I occasionally play DVDs and wonder what a two-bit AGP card is going to do for me. (Anyhoo, the mb doesn't even support AGP.)

I'd much rather spend a little extra now, knowing the card has some quality than spend $50 on disappointment.

Besides, if I were interested in "good enough", I'd just keep chugging away on my ol' P4. :D

Thanks.
 
HD2400Pro

Non gaming, PCIExpress 45$

as far as futureproofing, its really all about the port.. (PCIExpress)..


as far as future proof 4 years from now, as long as the PCIE standard is still being used, any PCIE graphics card will be future proof..
 
One thing I don't really understand here. You say you're a non-gamer, yet you want a future proof card? I don't really understand why you're going to spend that much money for a gaming card if you don't game? A cheap-o 50$ card will be fine for everything else than running realtime dx / opengl graphics.

Non-gamer's will still want a graphics card that supports HDCP to support to watch high definition movies.

There is a thread stickied at top of this forum that lists of HDCP capable cards. If you're not going to game, just find something with directx 10 support and hdcp support. The EVGA 8600 GTS you mentioned should fit the bill just fine, or even a cheaper ATI 2400 pro.
 
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