I have never purchased a video card so I have no idea what I'm doing.

I have a Dell XPS 400.
It has a nVidia 7300 le

What i'd like to be able to do is connect a 46" LCD tv for a second monitor so I can have a larger screen to play LFS and I plan on building a cockpit for my G25 soon which won't fit in my room to use my current monitor (23" LG)

Any advice would help.

The resolution for the tv is 1920x1080 which is the same as I am running with my 23" LG. It would be perfect if I could just display my monitor screen on the tv (no need to extend it.)

It would be nice to have one DVI out and one HDMI out as I have the cables to hook it up that way, but its not necessary it be like that.

Thanks,
Branden

First of all, which type of interface is your GPU?

PCI Express x16

What's your budget? And is your computer case a regular case, or is it one of the really small and compact ones?

Its a regular size case. I'd like to stay on the wallet friendly side of things. Not set on a number really. I'd just like to get an opinion on what card will do what I want and how much.

Well the card you buy really depends on your budget. But I will give you a bit of info. I personally only use ATI cards, so that's what I'll talk about. The Radeon 5000 series cards have all those abilities which you described in your first post, namely they can display very high resolutions and all have HDMI, DVI, and even DisplayPort connectors. So they have you covered with many cards ranging from the 5450 (which goes for about 30-40 pounds), to the 5970 which goes for over 450 pounds. So now you have to decide which one to get, meaning how much you're willing to spend. The more expensive cards obviously perform much better than the cheaper ones, but you really have to think about how much time you spend gaming on your computer. If it's a lot, then you should go for a more expensive card (5700 or 5800), if it's not a lot then go for a cheaper card (5500 or 5600). I would stay away from the 5400 as they won't perform well in games, they are more for HTPCs than anything. Also, I wouldn't recommend the 5970 to anyone, it's far too expensive to be worth it.

I don't own any Nvidia cards but they have similar offerings to ATI, their 200 series of cards also have HDMI and DVI connectors which can display very high resolutions (though it looks like not all the cards have HDMI, so you just have to pick one that does have it).

The old X1950? Amazing card and amazing price . Maybe CrossFire .

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

The Radeon 5000 series cards have all those abilities which you described in your first post, namely they can display very high resolutions and all have HDMI, DVI, and even DisplayPort connectors.

This. My 5770 was only £115 or £105, can't remember, but it has 2 standard connections and a HDMI, I had 2 monitors with a combined resolution of 3150x1050, and I had no drops in FPS in games or W7 whatsoever.

Remember, it's unlikely you have a PCIe power cable (especially if it came with a 7300), if so you'll need something that doesn't require external power.

...and there's very little point in buying a card from 3 generations ago tbh...

Doesn't matter how old it is! The X1950 is very cheap and will easily outperform the HD4650.

Quote from shaun463 :

Doesn't matter how old it is! The X1950 is very cheap and will easily outperform the HD4650.

I do agree it's awesome, gave it to my brother, works well, one thing, the (driver) support is/will stop/ped.

Yeah, but it is a great upgrade from the 7300LE. Or, as it just arrived, to replace my X800 . Support wise too.

Quote from shaun463 :

Doesn't matter how old it is! The X1950 is very cheap and will easily outperform the HD4650.

Yeah, and I'm George Bush...
Can you play GRID on all maxed or CoD Modern Warfare (1) on all maxed with X1950?
The HD series is called HD because it gaves you HD resolutions and good performance...

The HD series name is all but a gimmick. The HD4650 is not quite as good as the X1950. I'll test DiRT later on full.

Quote from shaun463 :

The HD series name is all but a gimmick. The HD4650 is nowhere near as good as the X1950. I'll test DiRT later on full.

I'm playing DiRT 2 on full... And why the **** would I buy HD4650 if X1950 is cheaper and "better"? I know the guy where I buy PC stuff, and he recommended me that GPU... I just found this. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ ... 280004-15-x1950pro-hd4650

Quote from shaun463 :

The HD series name is all but a gimmick. The HD4650 is nowhere near as good as the X1950. I'll test DiRT later on full.

OK now you're really starting to bug me. The X1950 is NOT necessarily better than the 4650. They may give around the same performance, but they are not far apart. Also, given that the X1950 is a DirectX 9 card and the 4650 is a DirectX 10.1 card, I would say the 4650 is better for modern games.

Quote from matijapkc :

Yeah, and I'm George Bush...
Can you play GRID on all maxed or CoD Modern Warfare (1) on all maxed with X1950?
The HD series is called HD because it gaves you HD resolutions and good performance...

I have a onboard HD3300 on my motherboard. I somehow doubt that will play "HD games" at "HD resolutions"

I'm not saying the X1950 is better for modern games, I'm talking about LFS. Not by that far a margin though. It's much cheaper and that is why I recommended it. It suits his needs budget wise much better. The main point of my statment was that newer doesn't mean it is better necessarily. I somehow doubt my brother's HD3200 laptop chipset would beat the old X1650. Or the old X800 even.

Jeez, someone just help this guy out....


Look, right now ATI is the better in my opinion, but first things first, you likely don't even have the power to use anything that's even been recommended yet.

If you want a card that well supports HDMI and won't break your budget, a Radeon 47xx/57xx series card would do just fine. You should shop for a power supply as well, you can probably pick up something with 2 Pci-E and enough amps to power those cards for under 100eu, just gotta shop around.
Also, there are sites that sell Psu's and Gpu's together, just the same as sites sell mobo's and cpu's together. My cousin just spent $1,200 on an HP Elite PC, totaly decked out, but...!!! 300watt power supply!! Barely enough power for the system, maybe a drop to spare.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and just keep this simple, and let you decide, and then you'll need to choose a source, where to buy. If you want more information, entirely unbaised, PM me.

I would shoot for a XFX Radeon HD 5770, and at least 500watt power supply (Pci-Express capable...although virtually all are) from PC Power & Cooling. If you cannot get from PC P&C, go for Thermaltake.

If for some reason you absolutely don't want an ATI card, I cannot recommend more than a GTS 250, from Nvidia. It will have dual DVI...perhaps there's a model with HDMI I'm not sure, but this won't stop you from using HDMI, as you already know.
The next card up in my opinion, considering price and what ATI is doing, would "have" to be a GTX 260 448 bit, 216 shader model. Anything less you're throwing money away, you could grab a Radeon HD 4870, or the highly optimized 4890 and OC the hell out of it, but I'm going to assume you want to install, and be done with it, power from the get go.

ATI= 5770, Nvidia= GTX 260 448bit 216s. Now the 5770 is more powerful than the Geforce, it's just that you don't need anything more from Nvidia, and their prices aren't friendly, however they may be when the GTX 470 and 480 drop, very soon.
If you can, wait a month, otherwise, I'd shoot for an ATI card. There's just so much to choose from, ranging from DX10.1 and DX11 gens, this creates separation from Nvidia and allows for a huge market of ATI cards (budget mostly) to be had very cheap. 550watt Psu should be plenty for what I've mentioned, it's mostly the amp-age that matters but any Pci-E Psu at 500w will be sufficient for what I've recommended, assuming you're not running an extreme system.

P.S. There are vendors that will sell you an video card, "and" a power supply, together, with great warranties. In fact if you decided to go with Nvidia, I'd say visit BFG's web page.

Forgive the length, it's a very broad topic. I can give you links and unbiased reasons for choosing Nvidia or AMD, via PM "ONLY", otherwise people will flip out and start arguing in the thread

GL