Graphics Card/Onboard Graphics for Media Centre PC

[TheJay]

Hello there! This is correct. I do want to play these games and do not want any lag.

I do not want to buy a new TV, I have a flat screen upstairs, but I like CRT for the picture quality on TV and games consoles (N64, PS2, Wii).

So what card would you recommend?

Thank you for all your help.

 

[Layback Bear]

I use this site a lot for reviews on video any thing.
Guru of 3D: PC Hardware Reviews and tests

 

[biggles1000]

this card seems to say HDMI/s-video: Newegg.com - XFX HD-435X-ZAH2 Radeon HD 4350 1GB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Low Profile Ready Video Card
and this one also seems to be HDMI/s-video: Newegg.com - ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3G-FSL GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
from what I could see in the blurry nvidia card's picture, it had two dvi ports and what looked like an s-video port, but i'm afraid i'm unsure. also, the nvida's price tag made my mind melt
the first (ati) one looks like it has a circular shaped port on it, presumaably the s-video port. also, the first one seems to just have a heatsink without a noisy cheap fan. unfortunately, neither seem to support direct x 11

also, from what your timezone shows on your profile page, i'm guessing you are also not in the US. i'm afraid i've never ordered anything from newegg, so i am unsure whether they do international shipping. if they dont, you can probably find the same card on amazon or ebay.

 

[TheJay]

Hello! Option 1 looks good, apart from supporting DirectX 10.1 and not 11. Damn.. Any more?

 

[biggles1000]

i'll have another hunt. fingers crossed

 

[TheJay]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate all your help. It will be great when I can finally get it working as I wish.

 

[TheJay]

Whilst you are looking, I wonder if it is worth mentioning that it may not require s-video. I know that you can get dvi/vga to hdmi cables, so maybe you can get something similar which would split into something which could connect to the TV and work?

 

[biggles1000]

ok. could you please list all the connections that your television has? (or rather, all usable ones. eg if you have a scart socket taken up by a set top box, then don't list it unless you think you could use a scart splitter )

 

[TheJay]

I have 1 PCI Express x 1 slot free and 2 x PCI 2.2 slots free. Currently, the motherboard has onboard graphics via dvi and vga outputs.

CRT TV (Panasonic TX-28PL4 Quintrix). The TV has an S-VHS plug on the front, as well as RCA Audio/Video sockets (three jacks). On the rear, it has 1 spare scart input.

 

[biggles1000]

okay, thanks. i'll have a look

 

[TheJay]

Thank you so much

 

[TheJay]

Hello there, hope you have been enjoying the weekend! I don't suppose you have had a chance to find any suitable cards?

Sorry to be a burden, I'm just eager to get this computer up and running. I've been trying to find something suitable but to no avail.

 

[biggles1000]

Yes, nice long weekend
I have been looking, and haven't found anything quite as 'amazing' as you reasonably want, but I am still looking.
Thanks again for telling me the details for the connections, sorry I hadn't noticed them in your first post

 

[TheJay]

Hello once again. T'was a long weekend. Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you very much for your help, it is much appreciated.

 

[biggles1000]

from my research, I'm pretty sure the best graphics card for a CRT TV would be a s-video port on the card with an adapter for the television's port (the one from the video port from the RCA connectors)
this will only supply video though, do you have external audio?

 

[Layback Bear]

EMS XtremeRGB HDMI, DVI, VGA, RGB Video Capture, Display, Record or Stream over LAN/WAN - Hardware
Their should be some thing on that site to help.

 

[TheJay]

from my research, I'm pretty sure the best graphics card for a CRT TV would be a s-video port on the card with an adapter for the television's port (the one from the video port from the RCA connectors)
this will only supply video though, do you have external audio?

Hello. I have external audio, that will not be a problem! Just need the right card for video.

EMS XtremeRGB HDMI, DVI, VGA, RGB Video Capture, Display, Record or Stream over LAN/WAN - Hardware
Their should be some thing on that site to help.

Hello. Thank you for the link. I checked out the link but am unsure what exactly those cards are.

 

[biggles1000]

phew, that should simplify/narrow the hunting
should I hunt for just s-video cards then?

 

[TheJay]

Hello biggles. If you can find one which will fit the motherboard, provides s-video output and hdmi, and provides at least 1gb of ram, I think we will have won. Having said that, I have read reviews that it will be difficult to read text on tv from computer using this connection?

Thank you so much

 

[biggles1000]

yeah, as it's a crt tv with a rather old connection, being close to it will make it hard to read text. If you are far away (typical viewing distance) from the screen, video should be ok quality, and if text is magnified it should be fine to read. Imagine PS2 or original Xbox quality. Not bad, but not to crisp.