Be Excellent To Each Other

This is one for Coffey I think...

A friend of mine wants a new graphics card, preferably cheap, with an HDMI port on the back so he can plug his PC into his HDMI TV (like what I do with mine)

This is as well as having a monitor on his desk.

Is HDMI the best way to go? Or should he just get a graphics card that can dual wield* two monitors?

Anyway.. anyone got any suggestions?

*You know what I mean.

I think most cards come with a DVI to HDMI converter. If not you could always get one of those alongside the card. I have.

Does he play games?
How much is "cheap"?

Buying a card with a HDMI out is going to be difficult. (EDIT. A cheap one).

You can either get a DVI-HDMI cable (which would come with a HDMI monitor) or a DVI-HDMI dongle and then use a HDMI cable.

Be warned though it's not all you dream of. I originally wanted to put my silver computer downstairs on my 42" plasma but was quickly reminded that plugging a PC into a TV still leaves an awful lot to be desired. The picture was too big for the screen (even though the Nvidia drivers detected the TV) and every time I resized it to fit properly it wouldn't stick and kept fucking itself up on a reboot.

It was also really fuzzy and ultimately turned out to be a wasted evening. I would have had to sit about a mile from the TV not to get a really nasty headache.

This was pretty recent too, so I doubt drivers have been sorted. Either way I have never, to this day ever seen a PC look good connected to a TV.

Thus, I would reccomend trying an ATI card over an Nvidia. You will need a Radeon HD series card as they support the correct resolutions ETC.

If it's purely for media then this would probably serve well.

http://videocardshop.co.uk/viewproduct. ... -435X-ZAH2

Both very good questions! He doesn't play games but I don't know how much cheap is. Perhaps he could tell us? I think he's just joined.

Actually I *may* have a dongle here. If and when he decides holler and if I can find it I'll chuck it in the post.

I did just join.
And you will be glad to know that this is my very first post, on any forum, ever.
I don't want to spend over £100.
I am not a big PC gamer but I do want the best for my money.

What CPU ram etc do you have? It would be pointless spending up to £100 on a card that your system will hold back.

Right very busy tonight... If you have more to spend and a decentish system to poke up its arse this would be a good choice.

http://videocardshop.co.uk/viewproduct. ... -485X-ZDFC

Cracking VFM too as it can pretty much run any game you throw at it on medium settings comfortably well.

System Spec:
3.2 GHZ Processer
1Gb RAM
And a funky top loading USB hub I have no need for.

Sounds like an old P4 system. I wouldn't go mad. Infact, I would double check you're PCIE too.

EDIT infact leave the Radeon 4850 well alone dude. Not only would your PSU probably be inadequate but you would also be lacking the needed PCIE power cable.

Sounds like it could at least be partly your TV at fault rather than the card, JC - my TV has 1:1 pixel mapping on all inputs and most also have a 'PC mode' that turns off processing. Lack of either will screw with the quality of a desktop picture (though be less of an issue for games and/or media playback). The "forgetting settings" thing sounds driver-ish though.

Just checked the specs as it goes... It's 720p or psuedo 1080 (basically it down scales to 720p). Asked around on a PC forum and apparently that is what wrecks it.

Yeah the settings was definintely the driver sadly as with enough fettling it wasn't *that* bad. But as soon as you closed the bloody applet it went right back to cack again

Ooh yeah, you definitely need native resolution for a desktop, which I don't think HDMI does. So a card that can output exactly HDMI in the best format for the telly is a must.

Er, I mean, I think proper-HDMI only does 720p, 1080i, 1080p - unlike DVI that will carry anything up to whatever both ends support and the cable bandwidth. If you see what I mean.

(Or get a 360)

I think as soon as it detects HDMI the resso on the drivers immediately set to 1920x1080. The TV then downscaled it and mashed it.

Mind you I can't complain. 42" Sammy plasma nearly two years ago on a special £480 from DABS. It still costs that now.

And aside from the PC thing it's a bloody lovely set tbh.

the card in my pc has vga, dvi and hdmi i will see what it is tomorrow.

Didn't you get one of those wee cheap beasties from OCUK Kovacs?

If so it's a 4850 Radeon. I know Mark and Pete got one, sure you did too?

Yes a Radeon HD4850

Hi nicademus!

First time in any forum?! And you chose this one!

(Are you a spam bot?)

Erm, I am still not sure which graphics card to get?
This problem is now more important than ever as my current graphics card just died.
I know I need an AGP card, but I was confused by some previous comments regarding buying a graphics card that is too powerful for my machine.
I want something decent for games and Photoshop work.
Any further assistance would be appreciated.

I haven't just been sat on my arse doing nothing, would this be suitable?
Anybody? [That knows stuff that I don't]
http://www.saverstore.com/product/20041644/Gigabyte-GV-R465D2-1GI-Radeon-HD-4650-1GB-DDR2-128bit-AGP-8X-VGADVI-IHDMI-Graphics-Card

If it's AGP you are after, something like this should be fine:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174678

I would have thought?

Games that will run well on AGP died when AGP did, about five years ago.

From what I can tell you only have about one choice and that's the one you have found. The 4650 Radeon.

Now is not a good time to build or buy a new PC due to ram prices being extortionate, but it would be the best plan in the long run.

Right.
Sorry to be turning into a pain in the neck.
It turns out, after a bit of research I also have 5 PCI slots.
How do I know if these are PCI express? And which is best? And does this change anything?

PCI =/= PCIe

PCI is nothing like PCI express. PCI express comes in two forms. Fully fledged PCIE 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 ports for video cards only and PCIE 1X for things like sound cards, wireless cards and so on.

I have knocked up a picture for you to make it a bit easier. This is a pic of my Asus Crosshair II board which sports 3x PCIE (two full 16x lanes and one 8x) that supports triple cards linked (only if they're Nvidia) Two regular PCI slots and a single PCIE 1X slot.

Green are the PCIE video card slots, yellow for the regular PCI slots and orange for the PCIE 1X slot.

Full speed 16X lanes are usually always blue. However, companies like Asus with their new ROG boards now use red, Gigabyte uses blue and EVGA also use red. White ones are usually 8x slots.

What would help push things in the right direction would be for you to remove all of the cards from your motherboard and get a pic. That way I will probably be able to ID the board down to the manufacturer and model and then we can go from there. Or you can throw it in the bin, depending on how old it is.

Also, given that I am a bit of a mind reader I would say your board looks like this from the description.

AGP slots are usually always brown, but companies like Asrock did use purple for a while. This was to show that they were 8X AGP and not the brown 4X AGP slots.

See pic.

PCI is actually a lot like PCI Express

Ah yes of course I forgot you can put PCI devices into a PCIE slot and vice versa.

(I am actually joking of course. Wouldn't want any one blowing up their motherboard).

'Not compatible' is not even remotely the same thing as 'nothing like'.

Telling some one who is not up to date on hardware that something is similar is a recipe for disaster.

In layman's terms the slots are nothing like each other and are not back to back compatible. It's quite easy for some one to get the wrong idea if you reply to him saying that they are similar right after he has told you he has 5 PCI slots. It's possible he could end up buying a PCIE card thinking it will work in a PCI slot.

If you want me to post lots of tech data on the slots and their architecture I can. However after years of experience working selling computer parts it's not a good idea to tell some one something is similar when it is only similar on a low level. Physically it is totally different and not back to back compatible. Which is what nicademus needs to know right now.

Oh, I have no objection to the advice you gave, I'm just being picky.

I found being picky in front of customers ended up with chargrilled PCs coming back

I'll never forget a situation I found myself in once...

I sold this guy a CDRW drive (one of the first with overburn tech, pretty penny too !) and said -

Just make sure to connect every cable up and you can't really go wrong.

Two days later he came back with a rather blackened crispy machine.. Upon closer inspection he had connected a two pin 12v line out of the PSU onto the slave jumper on the drive

It looks like from what you guys have been telling me and the bit of research I have done, it would be better to save my money and look for a new computer.
This one has done me proud but I think I have had it for 7 years.
I will be asking further questions when it is time for my upgrade.

Thanks for all the advice.

7 years? fuck me that's a record man, call Norris McM !

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't spend any more pennies on that thing.