Quiet card for HTPC gaming at 1080p?

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ebolamonkey3

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Hey guys, I would like to use my HTPC to game on my 1080p HDTV and was wondering what would be a good video card to use that's also quiet? I'm using a Lian Li PC-33B case btw. Thanks!
 
any GTX2xx series card will work.. they are pretty quiet and should be enough for that resolution..
 
Are these powerful enough to game at 1080p? I know these run videos fine, but I don't think they're powerful enough to handle video games at that resolution.
 
ebolamonkey3 said:
Are these powerful enough to game at 1080p? I know these run videos fine, but I don't think they're powerful enough to handle video games at that resolution.
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Not for gaming, no. You would need to look at the 5750 and up if you want to do some gaming at that resolution.
 
Yea that's what I was thinking too. I heard the vapor-x version of the 5770 runs quieter and cooler than the vapor-x 5750, anyone knows anything about this?
 
That's ridiculous, the fan doesn't spin faster under load??

Sigh, I just wish it looks as good as the vapor-x versions.

Nvm, after reading a bunch of reviews it seems that there are some pretty different opinions about the MSI HAWK. Overclocks well, but doesn't seem to run much cooler or quieter than any other 5770s.
 
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ebolamonkey3 said:
That's ridiculous, the fan doesn't spin faster under load??

Sigh, I just wish it looks as good as the vapor-x versions.

Nvm, after reading a bunch of reviews it seems that there are some pretty different opinions about the MSI HAWK. Overclocks well, but doesn't seem to run much cooler or quieter than any other 5770s.
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Don't put it in default fan speed. Use MSI afterburner and make your own profile. That card is well received at SPR (where they are almost to the extreme when it comes to silent computing):
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=504000&sid=16df8881bba1908dfe1994837e1d6a56
 
Powercolor Radeon HD5750 GoGreen!
Passive cooling and all power drawn from the PCIe slot.

Cheers
Olle
 
If there's enough space in your case, just buy any card you want and put an aftermarket cooler on it.
 
I own an htpc.
My previous gtx280 was very quiet after setting the fan at 50% speed.

My current 5870 is just as quiet as the gtx280, on auto fan speed.

Either will work great, but I feel that nvidia offers better features for an htpc's other functions, namely playing movies.

CoreAVC, probably the best h.264 codec available, uses CUDA. Video scaling is natively supported on windows media player and media center. Since switching to ATI I am now forced to look for alternatives to watching movies on media center and CoreAVC. The main reason I'm exchanging it for a gtx 480 once it's in stock. Gaming wise the 5870 is great, it's just a shame ati users don't have as many options as nvidia where media software is concerned.

Forum posts indicate that the gtx480 can be as quiet as a gtx 280, it just runs 20C hotter. I'll risk it.
 
Surprised no one have mentioned a 250 yet. I just use mine for Physx, but they get pretty decent benchmarks and it is pretty quiet.
 
mashakos said:
CoreAVC, probably the best h.264 codec available, uses CUDA. Video scaling is natively supported on windows media player and media center. Since switching to ATI I am now forced to look for alternatives to watching movies on media center and CoreAVC. The main reason I'm exchanging it for a gtx 480 once it's in stock. Gaming wise the 5870 is great, it's just a shame ati users don't have as many options as nvidia where media software is concerned..
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Newest free alternative (haven't tried it myself yet) is this:
http://labs.divx.com/DivX-H264-Decoder-DXVA

I wouldn't use Nvidia if you are going to use sound over HDMI on HTPC. Especially if you go blueray.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
Newest free alternative (haven't tried it myself yet) is this:
http://labs.divx.com/DivX-H264-Decoder-DXVA

I wouldn't use Nvidia if you are going to use sound over HDMI on HTPC. Especially if you go blueray.
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DXVA is free anyway, heh, any graphics card capable of dxva will support it. CoreAVC's upscaling is much better than DXVA though, only downside to it in the past was that it was software only. Hardware acceleration was added via CUDA, so it's basivcally CoreAVC quality upscaling (much better than DXVA) with hardware acceleration (same performance benefits as DXVA)
 
mashakos said:
DXVA is free anyway, heh, any graphics card capable of dxva will support it. CoreAVC's upscaling is much better than DXVA though, only downside to it in the past was that it was software only. Hardware acceleration was added via CUDA, so it's basivcally CoreAVC quality upscaling (much better than DXVA) with hardware acceleration (same performance benefits as DXVA)
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Both have hardware acceleration. I'd like to see some recent test where they show the upscaling (DXVA2 vs. CUDA performance and PQ) against each other (next version of coreAVC supports DXVA1 and DXVA2, so then it doesn't matter which card you have). :)
 
Purchased a Diamond 5750 with AC cooling preinstalled and it's virtually is silent as well.
 
It depends on what you mean by "gaming". For example, the HD4550 in my server can handle Guild Wars at 1400x900 @ 4xMSAA @ 60FPS (except in the most intensive areas). But GW is a game that scales very well. I originally didn't have a fan on it, but the temperatures were getting too high for comfort, so I stuck an undervolted 40mm CPU fan on it (cable ties) and dropped the temps by 20C.

The 9500GT in my main HTPC had absolutely no problems when my nephews were playing LEGO Star Wars on it at the highest resolution it allowed.
 
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