Ask Engadget HD: What's the best graphics card for my HTPC?
by Darren Murph 
posted Sep 10th 2008 at 12:00PM
"I'm looking to assemble a living room PC to play back Blu-ray Discs, internet video, streamed HD clips, etc. I'm stuck when it comes to selecting a graphics card powerful enough to handle all of that. I haven't decided whether or not to get a full-sized tower or just a mini-tower, so I'd appreciate suggestions for both setups. Cheaper is better, but I'll pay to make sure all playback is buttery smooth."
So, dearest readers, what's the GPU to get these days for handling multimedia content? Is ATI's new All-in-Wonder HD worth a look? Drop your advice in comments below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JaxChris @ Sep 10th 2008 12:17PM
Right now I would suggest keeping an eye on getting a half-height card that includes (or manufacturer offered) low-profile bracket. As current MediaCenter Hardware is getting small enough to fit into tighter cases and still provide the function of full towers, the growing trend right now is making "cable box" sized HTPC's.
Look for the Chaintech 512MB GeForce 8600 GT, Model GSV86GT. The KFA2 9600GT low-profile card is too power hungry for most MediaCenter use, but the 8600GT from Chaintech doesn't require additional power and works great. If you want to put it in a slimline case then you can order the low-profile bracket from Chaintech directly for 10$ (includes shipping).
And last, I recommend Nvidia over ATI for HTPC use because PureVideo HD is just a better looking software video processor in my opinion.
Jim Petkus @ Sep 10th 2008 12:46PM
I would just opt for an onboard solution. I went through this process recently and I just could not find a card that was powerful enough to handle bluray, small enough to fit in the case and silent enough. The cards with passive cooling all seemed to have negative reviews due to the heat.
The 780g chipset has worked out wonderfully for me. It is a low power chipset so the passive cooling has not been a problem and it has handled everything I have thrown at it.
Ghoti @ Sep 10th 2008 2:59PM
I totally agree about the AMD 780G chipset. It has the ATI HD3200 graphics chip on board. Plays back everything I have thrown at it. If you shop around, you can get a 780G motherboard and processor for $150-ish.
t3yf5g @ Sep 10th 2008 12:55PM
I would suggest looking into motherboards with integrated graphics. Whichever CPU you are using, there is options for both. Asus and Gigabyte both have nice boards with HDMI outputs.
With RAM so cheap these days, I would suggest using a 64-bit OS to be able to stick as much RAM that is supported by the board, most of them support 8GB to 16GB. Even though your programs might not be 64-bit to address more than 3.5 GB, once the OS snags all the RAM it needs for the kernel, graphics, etc, you will still have left over RAM to be addressed to your players and decoders.
air12ick @ Sep 11th 2008 1:45AM
I agree with the intergrated graphics because at the same time you want to keep your HTPC as quiet as possible. But when you choose intergrated graphics, make sure you can get the most powerful intergrated graphics available on the market. Right now, Intel and AMD has good ones up their sleeves (I currently use an Intel DG33TL motherboard and it provides enough power for my HD needs and in dual display mode, but HDMI would be nice one day). Now if your gaming with this HTPC...well then go all out with the video card and get the best one out there. But try to get a better cooling solution as the HTPC will be loud with high end video cards.
AndyS @ Sep 10th 2008 6:07PM
I've been looking at this a bit myself, and HDMI audio support (full support for all formats) is an important factor for me. It seems that Intel's integrated chipsets have kind of led the way in this regard wtih others still playing catch up. But then you trade off more advanced decoding on the GPU.
nohone @ Sep 10th 2008 2:08PM
To me, a good media center video card needs:
1) HDMI with audio (most with HDMI also have audio out)
2) Quiet
3) Single slot height (need to fit in small boxes and not block slots for capture cards)
4) Low power consumption
5) Powerful enough for Blu-ray/HD DVD
There are not too many NVIDIA cards with HDMI, so that eliminated them.
I recently bought an ASUS 2600Pro. I am not sure about #4, but all other qualifications were met except #5 so it went back to the store. It took up only one slot, but the fan covered the PCIE x1 slot which I have a firewire card and the DVD changer connected to.
So I ended up buying a Diamond Viper 3450 ($60 at Amazon - note the Amazon picture shows VGA out, but it is HDMI). It has a bracket to allow placing in a 1/2 height box, and satisfies all the items I listed (using the LG combo drive for Blu-ray/HD DVD playback). The only problem I have with it is with Vista MCE and TV Pack, about once an hour the screen flashes to black for a second while watching live TV - probably a driver issue. It is much more quiet than the 8600GT that it replaced, and has a HDMI port rather than an DVI-HDMI adapter like the 2600Pro. The power requirements are low, they claim a 35w power supply. Playback of Blu-ray/HD DVD was horrible at first using WinDVD out of the box, but there is a free update that made everything work as well as my PS3/A3 (OK, not as good - the remote control is a little more clumsy).
I wish ATI/NVIDIA would understand that people need a capable card, but not too cabable. I need all the items I listed above, but I am not playing games on this box and don't need the power drain of all the extra bells and whistles, the fans to go along with that power drain.
Peter F @ Oct 7th 2008 11:18AM
I get the black flashing on a 9000 series Nvidia card, i think it's a tv pack problem. glad to hear someone else has the problem :-)
S4Rs @ Sep 10th 2008 2:36PM
I would actually still wait another six months. Get a PS3 to hold you over. I plan on making an HTPC that does what your describing. Its nice to have that one box that I can put any disc in and play and handle all my digital media. But unfortunately they can output Video but are limited in the audio that will come out through the HDMI (no bitstream). Once they do that I will jump on board.
Otherwise the ATi 780g mobo's are so small, quiet, and cheap, and even handle 1080P as well as the latest Direct X spec.
HTPC, Cable Box, PS3 into an A/V Receiver. I would never leave my living room.
Sam @ Sep 10th 2008 3:03PM
I found that NVIDIA cards (GeForce 8300 on an ASUS M2N79 PRO) don't work through an HDMI switch. As soon as the HDMI port on your A/V receiver goes dead, NVIDIA uninstalls the HDMI "monitor." When the receiver switches back, the NVIDIA driver doesn't notice and you have to do a manual hardware rescan to get the monitor back. ATI doesn't suffer this problem. ATI automatically adds the HDMI monitor when the port becomes electrically active.
Charles @ Sep 10th 2008 2:54PM
On-board is the best.
780G or 790GX.
goAMinD @ Sep 10th 2008 2:59PM
The obvious solution is onboard. The 780G chipset handles HD playback perfect. I'd choose the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard. I know I am :)
For this board you can always add a crossfire graphics card and setup the onboard and add-on card as dual graphics to gain even more power, but it really isn't required.
GaryZ @ Sep 10th 2008 3:41PM
If small form factor is highly desired, try Intel's DG45FC motherboad, G45 chip on a mini-ITX board.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1050640
glenn s @ Sep 10th 2008 4:18PM
780G onboard AMD/ATI has worked out great for me. You don't need even mid-range graphics for an HTPC. You just need decent drivers supporting hardware accelerated decoding, and the 780G has that in spades. (I can't believe I am praising ATI drivers, but there it is...) AMD has really turned the graphics world on its head in the past 6 months.
Note: even though I tried the windows drivers, which worked well, I ended building my HTPC on Ubuntu, and the linux drivers are not nearly as polished as the windows version. For HiDef in linux the GPU is not nearly as important as a fast CPU.
David S @ Sep 10th 2008 4:31PM
I'd look out for the new ATi 4670. $80 card that does 7.1 PCM over HDMI. That means with a Blu-Ray player software that can decode TrueHD or DTS MA, you'll get all the sound that comes with Blu-Ray, and not downgraded DD or vanilla DTS that you would with any other video card.
Jimmy @ Sep 10th 2008 5:47PM
This is a great card but the specifications say:
"Integrated HD audio controller with up to 2 channel 48 KHz stereo or multi-channel (7.1) AC3 enabling a plug-and-play cable-less audio solution. Maximum supported audio stream bandwidth is 6.144 Mbps."
So, I am not sure which of Blu-ray audio codecs it will support.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102792&Tpk=hd%204670
The image that Newegg has for this product does not show HDMI outputs but the specifications on ATI's website claim HDMI and HDCP support. Also, the specification list upscaling of 1080P content to: "upscale video display to 2560x1600 on dual-link monitors".
Looks like a very intriguing card.
Brian K @ Sep 10th 2008 6:44PM
My Nividia GeForce Go 7600 GT in my lappy from 2006 does an excellent job.
Quiet, Has lasted two years, Great sound thru 700 watt HDMI receiver -
does 1080 24p - (filmed and burned a test BD just to check)
I don't know what the desktop version is but this has worked for me!
Big John @ Sep 10th 2008 9:51PM
Onboard is the way to go, unless you plan on doing gaming. All-In-Wonders are a waste. I had one with my first HTPC and it's just a nightmare. It does neither job (graphics and tuning) well and instead is simply adequate.
For Intel-based boards, you're looking for anything with the G45 chipset. The X4500HD is the top of the line here, though the X4500 will do you just fine.
tim @ Sep 11th 2008 11:48PM
I'm running a dell 531 that i added a lg dual hd and blu-ray player. also added a nvidia 8600gt. now i'm just waiting on the asus hdav 1.3 for true lossless sound. but for now i'm running a toslink cable to my onkyo 705. i've got the 8600 gt hooked up to my 52 inch sharp aquos through a dvi to hdmi cable.
uncola @ Sep 11th 2008 1:09AM
just get a popcorn hour
Ruben @ Sep 11th 2008 4:22AM
I've put an ATI HD2600Pro in my HTPC. A passively cooled version from Sapphire. It has enough 'power' to display some nice images on-screen, without generating annoying fan-noise.
Next to all that, it comes with ATI Avivo HD, the equivalent of NVidia PureVideo. These two pieces of software make use of all the hardware's capabilities to display HD. Major difference is: PureVideo doesn't come bundled with the card and isn't free. ATI Avivo is integrated into the driver package for all supporting ATI cards. So all HD content is handled by the hardware, making the images nice and smooth.
Back to the HD2600-series. It's capable of transmitting audio through HDMI. This has a downside though, since it only can transmit 5.1 AC3 audio (Dolby Digital) - so I still recommended getting a seperate soundcard (I went for the Club3D Theatron Agrippa DTS 7.1 soundcard). Next to that, as far as quality goes, it's always better to have a seperate soundcard for minimal interference and optimal quality - at least, in my experience.
And of course - it's nice that it is affordable at about $60,- ---- but as someone else already stated: keep your eyes on the horizon for the ATI HD4650 - it promises to be quite the HTPC-card. But that is... if you want to wait ( I didn't ;-) )
Ian @ Sep 11th 2008 10:12AM
Since only OEM's sell CableCard capable PC which of the ATI cards is the best to choose from?
Alan @ Sep 11th 2008 3:17PM
I recently built a HTPC with Blu-ray. Used an MSI NX8500GT-MTD256EH Nvidia card with HDMI out with a heat sink (no fan). Along with that I used an Avermedia AverTV Combo PCI White Box tuner and a Pioneer Blu-ray drive. I am currently running Vista Home Premium and it works great for Blu-ray/Dvd's, standard/HDTV, downloaded video files, and streaming video. It is outputting 1080i to my 55-inch Mitsubishi HDTV and it looks great. The MSI Nvidia card was 76.99 and the AverTV board was 86.99. The Avermedia forum is very active and there has been steady improvement to the driver.
Terminator @ Sep 11th 2008 3:14PM
I just have a P35 Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard, Antec mid tower case, Intel E6750 cpu, EVGA 8800gt superclocked Videocard (for Purevideo 2 and cpu offload), 2 gigs of memory, and a LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player/drive. Everything runs terrific!!! I like the idea of onboard audio with this setup because if you can utilize a coaxial (SPDIF) output on a motherboard and run it to an AV receiver for 5.1 AC3 audio. That's all you'll really seriously need at this time. I'm just starting to build a blu-ray collection. And things like Dish Network, Direct Tv, Cable and over the air TV Broadcasters only have the ability to send AC3 5.1 audio surround signals. So hdmi equipped video and soundcards for TrueHD and DTS-MA 7.1 lossless audio are not necessary or needed yet. IMHO :) Cheers.
marc @ Sep 13th 2008 2:23PM
Another 780g plug, although I'd add to throw in an AMD 4850e low power 45watt processor. The onboard video does great with 1080p, minimal fan noise with the 4850e low power processor. I have ripped 1080p HD videos playing over the network, this thing performs beautifully.
Keith @ Sep 15th 2008 3:00PM
I would really think about an OEM PC from Dell, HP etc is the better purchase. There are some great deals. You didn't say you wanted PVR/DVR functionality but the price you pay for a DIY HTPC is the same. The OEM PC will get you cable card support and basically future digital TV support. The DIY is nice, but you will get reduced functionality for sure!
As far as graphic cards
1. Integrated graphics is a good choice, but I prefer standard graphic card approach. I have one HTPC chassis and that I have uprgaded the GC about three times within the last three years. GC upgrade is much easier than board upgrade.
2. I recommend ATI because of the HDMI (audio) support.
3. Recommend any 3XXX series or higher. The 46XX series is looking really good because of lower lower (so slow noise) and performs well.
4. ATI/NVIDIA. Again ATI has the better HDMI support and all functionality is enabled without needing to purchase pure video.
5. I use ATI TV Wonder Pro, HDTV fusion and HDHomeRun. Recommend all products! TV Wonder Pro has noticeable better picture quality for STD Def.
M.Rayes @ Oct 11th 2008 1:54PM
You don't need the expensive graphics cards.ATI Radeon HD3850 or NVIDIA 8600
will enable you to watch pure video at low cost.
.Visit ” http://inanotechnology.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-choose-perfect-graphic-card.html ” to get the correct card.
Brady @ Oct 2nd 2008 2:53PM
since this is doing to be for an HTPC and you might be hooking it up to a 1080p tv one major thing would looks for is that the card can do hardware acceleration for the 1080p video. i had found that even if it runs fine on the cpu it is still more likly to have issues. so one of nvidias 9 series or 2xx series. and a 3xxx hd series radion.
I actually pretty much agree with the posting from engadget and would suggest http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103062 not only does it come with a tv tuner and HDMI built in but will allow hardware decoding of 720p and 1080p signals
Caracticus @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:58PM
These "Ask Engadget HD" posts really irk me: lure people in, not with real advice, but a post that is supposed to make knowledgeable contributors write your columns for you! FOR FREE! While Time Warner sells advertising!
So, all the people have left Engadget and now it's a computer that doesn't actually know anything posting random questions then posters come along and make up the real content.
How about at least TRYING to answer the question yourself, then let the discussion ensue.
Sad. So sad.
Amuth @ Oct 29th 2008 3:48AM
my ATI 3650 with HDMI out + Asus D2X Sound card + Pioneer Plasma with a 7m Phoneix Gold HDMI 1.3 cable in between ,and the result is equivalent to SEX