Advice sort, from gfx card guru's <non gaming pci express>

Building a new pc, need to move on from my abit bd7II and a northwood 2.4!!

I'm struggling to find may way through the wealth of information on this forum :)
In search of a decent dual output PCI express card, not interested in gaming fps ( I know I must be mad lol) ViVo would swing it between to similar cards, but its not a requirment.
Leaning more towards the ATI chipsets as im planning on using Vista, they currently seem to have better drivers from what I have read.


Components sat in their boxes waiting for the gfx card are :-
E6600
P5B D
4 GB 6400 ddr2 (4*1)
Vista Premium
Monitor is a 17" LCD, which as some point (when funds allow) be upgraded to a bigger one. So the higher the resolution the better.

Thanks for taking time to read this, and any advice is much appreciated.

Jay

Something like a 7600gt would be high on my list given the requirements you've specified. It will run aero at a high resolution with no problem, even over 2 monitors :)

8500gt?

What's your budget? I'd probably go with Ati as I personally find the image quality slightly better. For about &#163;50 you could get a passively cooled x1650 with 265mb memory.

Thanks for the replies. Anyone who favours the ATI ones fancy putting something into the pot?

Is there any advantage going for a 512Mb over a 256Mb card if im only watching video files, some of which maybe Transport Streams?

Are there any review sites that mention the ambient running temps of cards? Non of the ones ive found mention the temps unless they are much higher than the cards on test.

What is considered low temp for a card running a dual output?

Cheers

512MB on a gfx card is only necessary for running games at high resolutions.

Anything above 1280x1024 I would be tempted to go 512MB+, although some people would hold off until you hit 1600x1200/1920x1200

I'd have to say a 7600GT would probably surfice, could always look at the X1950 pro though (more of a gaming card really).

I'd say 8600GT, purely because of hardware HD decoding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Queelis

I'd say 8600GT, purely because of hardware HD decoding.

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Considering he wont be gaming the 8500GT gives the same benefit and is cheaper.

Ended up with the BFG 7950 512mb card in the end. There is just too much choice out there.

This was very helpfull with specs of nVidia chipset, hardwaresecrets.com/article/132

Opted for this one, due to the HDCP enabled dvi outputs, just waiting for my 226bw to arrive now :)

Thanks for those who replied.

With a card like that it would be a crime not to play at least some sort of high end game. At least run 3d mark or something and give the card a bit of a workout.

Crikey - a 7950 just to do surfing and such - does sound a tad much, but at least it gives you an option if you ever want to. I would have suggested the 8500GT too.

X1550 as, you are not into gaming.