Please recommend a video card to me!

[Xanderski]

Hi, I'm a total newbie and just installed my SageTV/PVR150 bundle a few hours ago. My computer only has the integrated graphics card that came with the system, and I think it shows. If I upgrade my video card, will the video quality rival my TV's quality? If so, what video card do you recommend? I want something that will boost the quality of my PVR's quality...I don't need to play the latest and greatest computer games or anything.

Please let me know what you think, and if you know of any good deals.

Thank you!

Xanderski

[Wakecrash]

If not hdtv any budget version of nvidia or ati seem to be fine. I have an nvidia 5500 that looks good, If I bought a card today, I would probably go with 6600, or perhaps 6200 if TV features were the same.

[korben_dallas]

If its AGP, then I'd go with a 9550/9600 class.. or spend a little more and get a 6600GT. If its PCIe, then yeah wakecrash makes a good suggestion w/ the 6200.

[reboot_this]

Xanderski, my opinion is:

My favorite chipset is Nvidia without a doubt, and I have always had PNY graphics cards and never had problems with them.... anyway below are some ideas/links for cards that I would buy... If I were to replace my 5200 AGP, I would get a 5500 or a 6200, I think the 6600/6800 series is overkill (but then again I wouldn't mind getting one for christmas )

Budget:
PNY FX 5500 128MB AGP with nVidia's Verto GeForce FX 5500 3D Chip

PNY FX 5500 128MB PCI with nVidia's Verto GeForce FX 5500 3D Chip

Mid-Level:
PNY GeForce 6200 128MB DDR AGP 8X WITH VGA+ DVI+ HDTV/ S-VIDEO OUTPUTS

Top-of-the-Line:
PNY GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 AGP Video Card with Dual DVI + HDTV/S-Video Outputs

PNY GeForce 6600 GT with 128MB DDR 3 PCI Express Video Card

Good luck

[alijiwani]

It may be begginers luck, but my roommate and I just built a SageTV 2.2.6 server using a Sapphire ATI Radeon 9550 AGP using its TV out with the latest Catylst 5.2, DirectX 9.0c. It's been running for about a month now without a single video related problem. (The computer has only been off for about 2 hours in the last 4 weeks, rebooted only a couple times to install random software and used for live/recorded TV 5-7 hours/day. Running XP Pro SP2, PVR350-TVout Off.)

We purchased this from newegg: $57 + $2 S&H

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-458&depa=0

good luck!

[g808]

I tried a PNY 6600GT AGP and it was very loud! I since returned it and got the MSI version, which is much quieter. If noise is a concern, then I'd recommend staying away from PNY. You can always get a VGA silencer for it if necessary. Arctc Cooling and Zalman have good ones. Even better, get a fanless card.

I had the Sapphire 9600 non-pro which was pretty good:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-289&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-295&depa=0

Gigabyte has a fanless 9600 Pro, which is the only fanless 9600 Pro I know of:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...125-169&depa=0

There are a lot of fanless nvidia 5200 cards out there, which are supposedly good for SDTV output.