Video Card for 40" LCD HDTV - PC Forums

aznarcher · 11-11-2009, 02:46 PM

Hi everyone! Does anyone know what would be the best (affordable and effective) graphics card that will be able to support a large LCD HDTV?

I've looked around for reasonable graphics cards (without HDMI) and found that the GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 was a great deal.

If there are any graphics cards that have HDMI that you would recommend with a large monitor, let me know!

Also, is there a difference between DVI and HDMI? I know that you can buy a converter, but will there be a substantial quality difference (rather than buying a graphics card with HDMI)? Oh, and I also heard that HDMI comes with audio, so that would be one less wire I would need to worry about.

Let me know your thoughts! Thanks ahead of time!

KryptoRoxx · 11-12-2009, 02:30 AM

Honestly what are you going to be doing on the 40"?? If you are going to be gaming on it then you need some serious power but if you're just watching movies than an ATI 4670 for about 50 bucks would do the trick as well. If you want to game with the tv then you would probably want something around the ATI 4890 or the top of the line from ATI with a 5870 or 5890.....those are pretty expensive but they should run any game on a 40" imo. Anyone else have ideas on this?

aussiek2000 · 11-12-2009, 05:42 AM

I don't think the size really matters. It would be no different than running on a 1080p resolution 21.5" monitor. I have played cod4 on a 60" with my 9300m.

Sprint · 11-12-2009, 06:50 AM

max res DVI/DisplayPort/HDMI can transport is 1920x1200 so without somehow dual cabling it your stuck to that res.

HDMI can transport audio yes. Just make sure the GPU you buy support it.

CalebSchmerge · 11-12-2009, 11:00 AM

The size doesn't matter, but you better watch the TV you buy. My HDTV doesn't have options to treat the input as 1:1, so I get tons of overscan, and horrible picture over HDMI. nVidia control panel won't run if I am hooked up to that TV. ATI built in graphics on the motherboard is marginally better, but I regret not knowing about this before I bought.

aznarcher · 11-12-2009, 04:13 PM

Oh ok, thanks everyone!

So, the DVI should do the job? I just need to buy a converter for HDMI if the HDTV itself does not come with a DVI port?

I guess all I need to worry about is my monitor being able to adjust to the 1920x1200 resolution and having the right ports.

Let's say I do want to play a relatively intensive game (COD4), I guess I would need a decent (no HDMI port) graphics card (a video card that could run COD4 on any normal system) and then convert the ouput to HDMI to run at 1920x1200 resolution??

Thanks for all your input!

kirtar · 11-12-2009, 09:53 PM

Wait, when you say monitor do you mean the tv? Because a HDTV will be 1920x1080 (hence 1080p/1080i). That is of course, unless your TV is weird.

Also, I thought that Displayport and HDMI are capable of transmitting way over WUXGA/1080p (meaning like 2560x1600 or whatever)

Vogelbung · 11-15-2009, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aznarcher

Oh ok, thanks everyone!

So, the DVI should do the job? I just need to buy a converter for HDMI if the HDTV itself does not come with a DVI port?

I guess all I need to worry about is my monitor being able to adjust to the 1920x1200 resolution and having the right ports.

Let's say I do want to play a relatively intensive game (COD4), I guess I would need a decent (no HDMI port) graphics card (a video card that could run COD4 on any normal system) and then convert the ouput to HDMI to run at 1920x1200 resolution??

Thanks for all your input!

All you'd need is a simple DVI -> HDMI plug. Some cards even ship with them.

Personally I run my games in 1920 x 1200 using Dell 2707WFP's and it took two GTX295's to run everything reasonably smoothly to my satisfaction with near-current games, and two GTX280's as a baseline to get things as I mostly like it - so it would depend on what sort of titles you plan on playing, and how much detail you want.