Best bang for buck HDMI card

[Showtime]

With all the deals on video cards, I was hoping to upgrade the onboard graphics on a couple of rigs to pci-e cards. Most of the deals are for dvi cards with s-vid, but there was one deal for a 1gig 4850 with HDMI for $120 that would have been good. I am sure there will be plenty of better deals in the future.

1 just has to be cheap, cool, quiet, able to do 1080 and decent audio through HDMI for movies.

The other video card is for moderate gaming 1920x1080 and needs to have dvi and hdmi output. It doesn't need to be silent.

 

[PCTC2]

Any ATi 4000 series should be able to do PCM over HDMI with a DVI to HDMI adapter. Take your pick. The HD 4770 would probably be a good bet for your HTPC and HD 48X0 1GB for 1920x1080 gaming (4850,4870, or 4890).

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd get at least a 4870 512 MB for 19x10 gaming, the 4850 was already a little weak for 19x10 when I was card shopping last July.

Hot Deals has had 4890s for well under $200 and there's supposed to be a price drop before the DX11 cards are introduced. The 4890 would be my choice if buying now or soon.

 

[ther00kie16]

yea, look around (try slickdeals too). i've been seeing $120 4870 and $150 4890 after rebates. tigerdirect also has 15% cashback from live (now bing.com)

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: Showtime
With all the deals on video cards, I was hoping to upgrade the onboard graphics on a couple of rigs to pci-e cards. Most of the deals are for dvi cards with s-vid, but there was one deal for a 1gig 4850 with HDMI for $120 that would have been good. I am sure there will be plenty of better deals in the future.

1 just has to be cheap, cool, quiet, able to do 1080 and decent audio through HDMI for movies.

The other video card is for moderate gaming 1920x1080 and needs to have dvi and hdmi output. It doesn't need to be silent.

For the HDMI, any Ati 4xxx series with an hdmi output. Just make sure the card fits the case. Just about no HTPC case will take any card above the 4770.

 

[AstroManLuca]

If you use HDMI, though, doesn't that prevent the screen from doing 1:1 pixel mapping and giving you a true 1920x1080 screen resolution? I know I tried hooking up my HDTV to my computer via HDMI and the picture did not fill the screen. It only worked when I switched to VGA.

So do you really need HDMI? Seems to me like VGA + separate audio cable should work as well or better.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
If you use HDMI, though, doesn't that prevent the screen from doing 1:1 pixel mapping and giving you a true 1920x1080 screen resolution? I know I tried hooking up my HDTV to my computer via HDMI and the picture did not fill the screen. It only worked when I switched to VGA.

So do you really need HDMI? Seems to me like VGA + separate audio cable should work as well or better.

perhaps it was problem with your TV?

HDMI is elegant solution, single cable to TV and Tv controls video and audio at same time.