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[apostos]

I’ve been using the onboard video chip on my Intel processor to view my media. (mostly BD rips - some DVD rips – no TV) I’ve been looking for a passive video card that would enhance my experience but to my untrained eye most of the available products don’t appear to offer much in the way of improved performance over the onboard chip.

My HTPC is on the smallish side and requires a mid-length, low profile card. The result of these limitations was to provide me with relatively few upgrade options.

But I have found a few, and I’m hoping for some feedback as to possible choices and thoughts as to any possible performance benefits over the onboard chip. I find the information/specifications around video cards somewhat confusing and the video lingo around MC more so.

The cards:

XFX Double D GeForce GT640 – 900 MHz - 2 GB DDR3
http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Double-GEFORCE-Graphics-GT640NCDF3/dp/B008UQWXG0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3AMGXUD8CGV99&coliid=I2EBURHX3K92H3

XFX AMD Radeon HD 7750  - 900 MHz - 1 GB GDDR5
http://www.amazon.com/XFX-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-FX775AZNP4-FX-775A-ZNP4/dp/B007Z3T5JC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3AMGXUD8CGV99&coliid=I3RWUGK3QU075L

HIS Radeon HD 6670 - 800 MHz - 1 GB GDDR5
http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Express-Profile-Graphics-H667FN1G/dp/tech-data/B0062HIQLU/ref=de_a_smtd

I’m leaning towards the HD 7750 because of the clock speed and the GDDR5 memory but I have little to no idea as to any performance benefits MC would receive as a result. I’m hoping to avoid the buy an’ try scenario.

My build: ASRock Z68M-ITX-HT motherboard - Intel i5 2550K processor – 8 GB RAM

[vroom]

I just bought an HD 7770. Not sure if this card would fit in your enclosure.

Keep in mind you will have to driver hack an NVIDIA card to get it to output RGB 0-255 (if that is what you intend to calibrate to).

[Sandy B Ridge]

Keep in mind you will have to driver hack an NVIDIA card to get it to output RGB 0-255 (if that is what you intend to calibrate to).

Not exactly difficult though. MadVR comes with an NVIDIA tweak tool in its installation directory to do this. Just needs a reboot after to 'restart' the driver!

[apostos]

I’m sure the HD 7770 is a nice card but the power requirements are beyond the capabilities of my small (400 Watt) power supply and the height of the card puts it well out of contention.

Any opinion as to the merits of the cards I mention in my post?

[jmone]

The IGP is fine for "most" content but will not cut the mustard if you plan to use RO HQ especially with the latest Jinc3 + AR.  If you go a discrete GPU make sure you get something with DDR5 memory as madVR needs fast memory.  Even then you will need something like a GTX 660 (I managed to just get the ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II OC into a shuttle box but it was a very tight fit).  Also if you have a relatively small screen (say 40") that you view from more than a couple of metres you will not perceive the difference anyway.  These high quality algorithms really come into their own when you push video out to say a 100"+ screen.

[apostos]

I believe I’ll give the XFX AMD Radeon HD 7750 card a shot. If I’m not satisfied with the results I suppose I’ll be looking at a different form factor and a larger enclosure to house it in.

Thanks for your input …