whats the best low profile graphics card money can buy?!

[colincliff]

well not too much money....... I'm looking for a graphics card for a low profile pc to add a bit of gaming options to my life. It is a HTPC so fanless would be a bonus.

I dont know much about current spec graphics cards. Are either of these good options?

NVIDIA Fanless 8500GT 256MB DDR2 PCI-E *HDMI*
or
ATI Fanless HD2400PRO 256MB DDR2 PCI-E DirectX10

Elighten me please!

[staffsMike]

For gaming neither is good but the 8500 is better.

For an HTPC i would have the ATi as it supports HD, and has HDMI

[colincliff]

For gaming neither is good but the 8500 is better.

do you mean that modern games would be pretty much unplayable, or that i just wouldnt be able to run all the bells and whistles?

[MadduckUK]

do you mean that modern games would be pretty much unplayable, or that i just wouldnt be able to run all the bells and whistles?

Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H PCSTATS Review - Test Specs, Videocard Benchmarks: 3DMark05

like so :/

[cptwhite_uk]

The X1950Pro is typically a single slot design. That's a lot of performance compared to these and considered a reasonably good performer. You should be looking at about £70 for a 256Mb version. It has HDCP support:

OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Here's the cheapest I can see after a quick search. Ebuyer is about £82, Scan is about £94 (512Mb version)

[toolsong]

The X1950Pro is typically a single slot design.

Single slot is not low profile

[staffsMike]

You'll be able to play modern games around 1280 x 1024 low - med graphics i'd imagine.

I must confess i've got an 8500gt and never even tried to play a game on it lol

But my 8400gs mobile in my laptop runs a lot of games really quite nicely at 1280 x 800 so i'm sure it can do a half decent job as will the ATi probably. Don't high have expectations of it and it wont dissapoint you lol

[cptwhite_uk]

Single slot is not low profile

You learn something everyday!

[this_is_gav]

I'm on the lookout for an HD2400Pro which includes a low-profile bracket too, and of all those I've looked at, none advertise one as included, either on the site selling it or on the manufacturers site. You'd think it would be quite a selling point given the booming HTPC market...

[colincliff]

from what i have seen you genreally have to buy a seperate bracket kit. XFX do a bracket kit.