Cost Effective Graphics Card

[iftiq]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a graphics card (or two as it may turn out). Being mostly ignorant of such things I thought I'd turn here for help. What I need is a graphics card or some combination of graphics cards to run two 19' monitors at 1280x1024 and one HDTV with sound (via HDMI).

Most of the games I play are about 2-3 years old. And I don't play very often or need to have the most inspiringly realistic graphical experience when I do play. I do intend to use them to watch a lot of films though.

From my understanding the ATI Radeon cards have the ability to send sound over the HDMI cable. Any recommendations for which ATI Cards I should look at? I think I will need two as I am running three outputs. Should they be the same model card or different ones?

Appreciate any advice.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would look at getting an HD5670 or an HD5750:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512mb...-dl-dvi-i-hdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512mb...-dvi-i-hdmi-dp

You should be able to run three displays off one of these cards.

What are the specifications of your PC?? You will need a PCI-E slot for an HD5670 or an HD5750. I also assume you have a decent enough PSU.

You can get free postage off Scan too:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

[Pob255]

Actually I'm not sure you can do it with a single card.
eyefinity still requires a display port interface and more importantly what it does is treat 3 monitors as one single monitor which means you cannot mix resolutions on different monitors

For gaming performance a 5750 is very good for the cost, for dvd playback almost any card will be fine, hidef/bluray requires a little more grunt but not much.

The main thing will be figuring out how you want to work your setup.
And what you currently as the rest of your system as well before you can figure out what you need to add.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

In this review the HD5670 can three separate monitors:

http://www.overclock 3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/xfx_radeon_hd_5670_1gb_review/4

I assume this adaptor should be able to convert the Displayport connection to HDMI:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-...compatiable%29

[scaryjim]

Personally I'd get a HD5750, use the sapphire DP - DVI active displayport adapter (search for it on Scan or in threads on here, I've linked to it a couple of times - it's eyefinity certified) to run a DVI display and use the native HDMI to run the TV. You can set up eyefinity to use the monitors in a variety of layouts, so you could have the 2 19" monitors as one display (i.e. 2560x1024!, or 2048x1280 if your monitors will rotate into portrait mode!) and the TV as a separate display, or you could run all 3 independently (which I suspect is what you want to do).

[cigbunt]

For gaming performance a 5750 is very good for the cost, for dvd playback almost any card will be fine, hidef/bluray requires a little more grunt but not much.

add.

is it worth upgrading from a ati 4770 to a 5750?? i wanna boost my COD setup?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

is it worth upgrading from a ati 4770 to a 5750?? i wanna boost my COD setup?

The HD5750 will only be a slight performance increase.