Video Card choice??

[sandy]

I have an HP with 1TB and 8 gig RAM. I bought a monitor w/HDMI but need to add a video card to have that output on the PC. Prices range from $20 to over $200. I also want to hook it up to my TV (47" Samsung) to run blue ray DVD's. What specs should I look for to accomplish this? I don't run any gaming so moderation is the key, but not so cheap that I have problems.

[ValkISDan]

If your computer has an amd processor I would probably use a Radeon video card if it has an Intel processor I would use an Nvidia video card. Just make sure you get one with an HDMI out as well as the monitor end you need. The speed of your computer is kinda important too. If you have a slower dual core a better graphics card isnt probably necessary. At a very minimum get 512Mb of ram 1Gb would be preferred. Don't purchase a card that needs extra power if you don't have a spare power adapter for it off of the CPU power supply. Other than that I really don't know anything.

[Robert]

Most any video card that is compatible with your computer on this page below will work, Please tell us some more about the pc you have, like how old, what processor. Another question, do you currently play blue rays on your computer, because if you don't you know you need a program to play them and a dvd drive that plays blue ray. I use my computer like a entertainment center and currently have it hooked to a 32 inch Samsung and have surround sound and a Bluray player. Works great. New Egg is a good company to deal with and read the reviews they are helpful also. They do have a cheaper category of card that may work ok also but this is the performance listing  and the price is in the range you quoted. Another suggestion there is a lot of information on BluRay discs and the hard drive also has to be fast enough it was a major difference in the performance when I switched from a regular hard drive to a SSD.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=48&N=100007709%20600487565%20600423073%20600453362%20600298542%20600298540%20600486247%20600473874%20600489396%20600481061%20600473875%20600489223%20600364400%20600373033%20600095874%20600487564&IsNodeId=1&IsPowerSearch=1&cm_sp=Cat_Video-Cards-Devices_1-_-VisNav-_-Performance_2

[sandy]

PC is a bit over 3 yrs old with a pentium processor. Windows 7. Thanks for the advice.

[BradValk48237]

Sandy...

 What Video card does it have now....

 Might already be good enough.....

B

[cookiedough]

check around, last one I bought was thru amazon.com for around 100 bucks decent pricing years ago at that time top of the line,  but haven't check the past few years. 

I would think 100-120 bucks should find a good one for sure.  Your PC is probably not worth much more than 200 bucks so don't overdue it, but like you said,  you want it to work. 

Cannot hurt to call your PC mfg. as well talking to their tech support and they would give you good advice and even might be able to help you out finding one if not thru them, their suppliers.  Worth a phone call for sure before you buy anything since they have the internal specs on your PC already.  Some video cards may not be compatible with your PC even the more expensive ones.

[Robert]

PC is a bit over 3 yrs old with a pentium processor. Windows 7. Thanks for the advice.

Which possessor sorry, I3, I5, I7

My understanding is he needs a HDMI connector to hook it up to the tv. There are HDMI adapters from DVI that you can buy if the computer has a DVI connector on the back of the computer. But the quality of the picture may suffer slightly and the processor on the card will help take the load off the processor and board. Sometimes there may not be enough computing power on the computer so that buffering occurs.

[sandy]

Forgot to say it's an I5 processor. Calling HP tech support didn't occur to me. DUH!!! Thanks to all.

[big poppa pump]

DVI - HDMI will work without any issues and there will be no degradation of picture quality. The only difference between DVI and HDMI is that DVI is video only whereas HDMI is video+audio.