need video card advice for windows xp

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need video card advice for windows xp

Postby Arigatomina » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:17 am

Okay, I've tried reading up on this and haven't gotten anywhere.

I'm looking for a video card (if I even need one) that has a TV out option so I can hook my PC up to a high definition tv. My computer is a Windows XP Professional and it comes with a ProSavageDDR KM266 graphics card. Now, from what I've read you can use get a connector if you have a DVI card. I don't really know what a DVI card is, but when I looked at my ProSavage card (in the display settings) it does have a dark 'DVI' option - I'm assuming if something extra were connected to my computer that monitor picture would light up. But I don't think the card itself is the sort I'd use to connect to a television.

I'm really lost. I've read about all sorts of connectors and VGA converters (not really sure what those are either), but I think I'll have to actually get a different card. If I *do* need a new card, I'd rather have one that will get the best quality when hooked up to a high definition television. Any advice or recommendations would be sorely appreciated. ^_^; All Windows XP can tell me is that if I'd bought the 'Media Center' computer instead of Professional then I'd be set. That's no help.
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Postby klinky » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:56 am

DVI is usually a white port on your video card that is used to hook in to LCDs. DVI stands for Digital Video Interface. CRT monitors are analog devices and require the digital data from the video card to be converted to an analog signal that it can use. LCDs have a fixed grid array of pixels, which is very close to how video data is stored on the computer. No digital to analog conversion is needed for LCD displays. Infact it's bad to do a conversion. It's akin to encoding a divx file twice :P.

Here's a picture:
Image


From what I've read it looks like many HDTVs have DVI input ports on the back, so all you'd need is a DVI cable running from your computer to your TV. You might need to adjust video card settings once it's hooked up.

I've never done it, so I can't offer you much help.

DVI ports are optional and a rather recent addition to video cards. So your card might not have one, but the drivers might have been written to take advantage of one, if one was on your card. Check the back. If you do have a DVI port, but it doesn't allow you to change any settings, then you may want to update your drivers or actually try hooking something in to the port.

If you do not have a DVI port then you can purchase a new card that has one.

[url=http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-279&depa=0A]
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 7000 Video Card, 32MB DDR, 64-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 4X AGP -OEM $32.00[/url] @ NewEgg.

Good 2D, crappy 3D. But if all you need is to play videos then it'll work fine.
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Postby TaranT » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:57 am

It's not clear from your post, but I assume this hi-def TV has a DVI connector on the back of it (?). And if you had a DVI port on your PC, you could connect it to the TV.

On your PC's video card, there can be two types of connectors. A blue, 15-pin connector is the standard, decade-old VGA port for PC monitors using an analog signal. A white connector, about 1-inch long, having two sets of holes in rectangular groups, is a DVI - digital - connector.

The blue connector is slowly being replaced by the DVI connector, but is still in wide use even for flat panel TVs and monitors. In other words, an LCD TV or monitor can use either the blue or the white.

Before choosing a card, you need to decide if you want this hi-def TV to be the main PC monitor, or if you want it to be the secondary in addition to another monitor.

Here's some basic info on multiple displays:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/multidisplay/home.cfm

The Matrox G550 is an older and very reliable card that has some flexibility for multiple displays. It has a DVI port and a standard 15-pin port that can also be adapted to do a normal (non-DVI) television connection. It's cheap - about $100. But there are many other options these days. Which is one reason to figure out your desired configuration beforehand.

********

I Google'd ProSavageDDR KM266...looks like this is a motherboard chipset, not a graphics card as such; i.e. the graphics is built into the main circuits and cannot be unplugged - although it may be possible to disable it. You'll need to open the PC (or check the documentation) to find out if the PC has an AGP slot. Some graphics cards will support the more common PCI slot, but they're fewer in number. AGP is generally what is used.
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Postby klinky » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:04 am

HAha I beat you but you research the chipset you bastard... :x

But mine has a picture so I get more points!!$#



But from my research on the KM266 chipset, all the motherboards I saw had AGP as well as onboard video... So they must have known the ProSavage sucked as bad as it did ;D ha...
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Postby TaranT » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:10 am

I knew I was racing somebody for the first reply. :o

Good picture, though. I couldn't find one quickly, or I would have linked to one.

BTW, Ari, DVI cables are very expensive. I found a 6-foot at a discount place for $32 (!). And double-check the connector styles at both ends of a DVI cable. They're standardizing on one style now (I think), but last year there were at least two different types.
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Postby DaNuKa_SAN » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:47 am

OHOH!!

If u want power go with this little puppy man...
l337 craft my man...pure l337 kR4f7....

Image


now if ur on a tight budget this next one I highly recommend...outoess the other 9600 b4 by leaps and bounds which most ppl dont realise...im runnin Half Life 2 Beta on it at 1600*1200 no slow down! (except maybe at one explosion or two but still its understandble^^)
Image

they also both come with HL2 so that doesnt hurt either^^
heres how they sum up against the competition...

Image
Image
Image

the 9600 XT aint there but its in the same league as the 9700,better by a bit actually, ive run my own benchmarks.

look at that FPS on 1600*1200^^
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Postby DaNuKa_SAN » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:49 am

also they of course come with TV and DV out connectors...both cards...
Image
9800xt

an i have the 9600 so take my word for it^^
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Postby DaNuKa_SAN » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:51 am

awww...crap...noticed i put the the 9600xt core stats up twice...^^'

heres the 9800xts

Image
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Postby klinky » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:22 pm

:D No they really need to get an X800 @ $418 ;d
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Postby Joykiller » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:30 pm

Poor Ari is on a 56k (last I heard anyway), and you guys are tossing around every big gnarly relevent picture you can find:P
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Postby Arigatomina » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:30 pm

Ah, I can wait for some good pics to download, they're useful. ^_^

I don't think my graphics card has any 'output' like the ones you guys have shown - the closest it has is the blue monitor port and some odd ports next to the microphone input. One is a ->((*)) IN and the other a ((*))-> OUT - I took them to be more audio components since they don't say anything about video (and they're right next to the microphone input slot, and they're pastel blue and green, not really matching any color-coded pics I've seen online).

I haven't actually gotten the television yet, it's being shipped and should be here by Friday, so I'm hoping to run out and get a card this weekend. Looking at the cards recommended, I'd probably opt for one that has everything (like the last Radeon one).

But a question. o.o If I get a new video card, does that have to replace my ProSavage card, or can I have both and use the new one *just* for viewing on the TV? I haven't had any problems with my graphic card and I'd rather not reconfigure everything if I can have both and only use one when I want to.

Regardless, thanks for the information. ^_^ I did try reading about this, but you guys explain much better than formal 'buy this now' sites.
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Postby DaNuKa_SAN » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:54 pm

unless ur running linux...and are able to reprogram the kernel to run two graphic cards...

in a word...no...u cant have both graphic cards on at the same time sorry^^

so ur doomed to switch my friend

9800 XT!!!
w00t!^^
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Postby TaranT » Fri Jul 09, 2004 3:11 am

Arigatomyna wrote:Ah, I can wait for some good pics to download, they're useful. ^_^

I don't think my graphics card has any 'output' like the ones you guys have shown - the closest it has is the blue monitor port and some odd ports next to the microphone input. One is a ->((*)) IN and the other a ((*))-> OUT - I took them to be more audio components since they don't say anything about video (and they're right next to the microphone input slot, and they're pastel blue and green, not really matching any color-coded pics I've seen online).

Good guess: those 1/8" holes are for audio. The color coding can vary from PC to PC.

I haven't actually gotten the television yet, it's being shipped and should be here by Friday, so I'm hoping to run out and get a card this weekend. Looking at the cards recommended, I'd probably opt for one that has everything (like the last Radeon one).

But a question. o.o If I get a new video card, does that have to replace my ProSavage card, or can I have both and use the new one *just* for viewing on the TV? I haven't had any problems with my graphic card and I'd rather not reconfigure everything if I can have both and only use one when I want to.

If the ProSavageDDR designation is correct, then your PC has no video card. ProSavageDDR is the name of a chipset (i.e. a group of circuits) that includes among other things a graphics device. It's what they call integrated, or on-board graphics.

In order to add a new card, one of two things has to happen. You can turn off the onboard graphics by changing a setting in the system BIOS. Or the PC will automatically turn it off when it sees that there is a real graphics card in a slot. I've seen both options in different PCs. There is a third possibility that the onboard graphics can't be disabled and that the PC will not accept a new graphics card.

Which possibility exists depends on the maker of the PCs mainboard. Different mainboards can use the same ProSavageDDR chipset. You'll need to review the manual or check the BIOS menus (just ask if you don't know how to bring those up). I'm guessing you have a PC made by eMachine or HP/Compaq or similar. If you can tell us the name and model number, we can probably look it up on the Web. (Same for the TV model.)

As I mentioned above, you'll also need to know if the PC has an AGP slot. Without an AGP slot, your choice in video cards is limited. If you open up the case, there should be some white PCI slots and hopefully one brown slot. That's the AGP slot. This slot is made specifically for graphics cards and you'll find that all (?) of the newer, high-end cards are made for AGP. Some cards will work with the older PCI slots, but there are fewer of those.

Here's another issue:
Resolution is limited by the Digital TV used. While the PC is capable of outputting high resolutions, the HD-Ready set is often fixed to the high-definition TV standards of 480p or 1080i at mere 60Hz cycle (known as refresh rate on a PC). A proper signal must be generated from the PC to display an image, and not adhering to the signal frequency can damage your HDTV.
source
(NOTE: the transcoder they describe here is not needed for DVI, but: "Recently, DVI based HDTV displays have appeared on the market which may allow you to by-pass this article, but video timing issues as explained still apply.")


And more here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mce/getstarted/connecttv.mspx

The thing is, TV resolutions are not - as a rule - compatible with PC monitor resolutions. They are usually quite a bit less than what a PC is capable of generating. It only becomes a problem when you're using a PC connector like DVI or that blue VGA connector. And it's possible that one of the latest video cards will be designed to handle all of this easily.

If your PC has a normal TV output connector - like composite (yellow), s-video (yellow with several holes), or component (red-green-blue) - then it's not necessary to worry about resolutions.

If it all sounds complicated...well, it is. As much as I know about this stuff, I'd still have to do a lot of research before attempting something like this.
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Postby madmag9999 » Fri Jul 09, 2004 1:12 pm

if all you need the card for is getting signal out to your tv and moniter then just get the ATI 7000. if you will be gameing or something then get something along the lines of what danuka said but id suggest a cheeper version like this one. there is no persay reconfiguering when you swap vid cards or in your case put a card in and disable the onboard chip. all you do is turn of the comp put in the vid card, turn the comp on, go to the bios and disable the onboard card then hit save and exit. then when it restarts install the drivers and your done. id suggest you get omega drivers for it, u have to download them and its a 27mb file but they really give you better preformance/quality.
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Postby Arigatomina » Fri Jul 09, 2004 4:55 pm

TaranT wrote:Resolution is limited by the Digital TV used. While the PC is capable of outputting high resolutions, the HD-Ready set is often fixed to the high-definition TV standards of 480p or 1080i at mere 60Hz cycle (known as refresh rate on a PC).

Okay, I have the television now and it does have a composite video in section set at 480i/480p. It also has a VGA port and a DTV (not sure what this is >.>) but those are all in the same area so I think they're three types of connectors I could use depending on what card I get. I guess this means it doesn't have the DVI input. ^_^;;

If your PC has a normal TV output connector - like composite (yellow), s-video (yellow with several holes), or component (red-green-blue) - then it's not necessary to worry about resolutions.

Are there video cards that have component outputs? Or would getting something to convert from VGA out (on the video card) to component in (connecting to the TV) settle the resolution problem? I've seen converters like this for sale when I was searching the internet. I definitely don't want to hurt my television if using the VGA causes problems. :?

One thing, the television also has 4 S video input slots (and one output) - would the resolution be less of a problem if I got a card with S video out and connected it to one of the S video inputs on the television?

[And I think I'll let RadioShack install the card I get - I'm not competent to open up my computer and start messing with the inside. o.o ]
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