Another video card recommendation Q

[djdube]

I'm planning on building a new rig within the next month or so to coincide with Win 7.

I'll go with either an i5 750 or i7 860 for processor...
I'm trying to decide on a video card

Dual DVI is a must
I'd like to keep the cost under $100... lower the better
Prefer to keep power consumption down
No intention of gaming
Primarily an office type machine


My question is on video encoding, playing back movies, etc... I would assume a graphics card would help off load the CPU?

I'm currently using an Opteron 165 based system with an NVidia 6600GT video card.
So pretty much anything out there will be an upgrade.

Tending to want to stick with ATI - although I don't have a compelling reason...

Thoughts? Something in the 47xx series? Would a 3xxx series card suffice (3650 in the $50 range looks like a potential decent option)? For what I'll primarily be doing (office apps, photoshop, video editing, etc), suggestions for class of cards I should be looking at?

Just wanting to make sure I don't overlook paying a smidge more to get significant performance increase if its ever needed.

Much appreciate the input!

Dave

 

[Qbah]

For movies and office work I'd say a dual DVI passively cooled HD4350. I currently have this one. Does everything but gaming perfectly fine.

The best under 100$ from ATi would be a HD4850 - you can still find them that low. I can see 6 models under 100$ on Newegg.

 

[crisium]

If you're willing to toss a little cash around (as in $50-$60) I'd get a Radeon 4650 just to have a bit of a performance boost while still keeping reasonably low levels of power.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

HD4650 or 4670 are excellent options and well under $100.

 

[djdube]

Thanks for the pointer... I hadn't seen this one. Not sure why, but when using NewEggs search using 4xxx, and Dual DVI, this doesn't appear to pop up.

Odd.

Originally posted by: Qbah
For movies and office work I'd say a dual DVI passively cooled HD4350. I currently have this one. Does everything but gaming perfectly fine.

The best under 100$ from ATi would be a HD4850 - you can still find them that low. I can see 6 models under 100$ on Newegg.