Video card suggestions for a non gamer

[wonderland130]

I need a silent video card with hdmi, dvi, and something that is relatively inexpensive. I will be doing light gaming at most (almost none if i am it will be old school) so i don't need a great gaming card but i do work with tons of photos (super high quality) and videos with my business and would need a card that can handle that. I will also have a dual 24 inch monitor setup so that will need to work as well. Any recommendations out there? thanks

Eric

[Dr. Jim Pomatter]

I need a silent video card with hdmi, dvi, and something that is relatively inexpensive. I will also have a dual 24 inch monitor setup so that will need to work as well. [...] but i do work with tons of photos (super high quality) and videos with my business and would need a card that can handle that.

You want an AMD/ATI card if you care about video quality. Their scaling and anti-aliasing is considered the best.

For two high-resolution monitors, you would want a card that is mid-range. I would suggest the AMD HD 5570, 6570, or 6670. They are all in the $60-100 range. The 6670 will be the fastest of these cards, but most designs will use an active, fan-based, cooler.

This PowerColor AX6670 1GBD5-H Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 is currently $95 ($75 after MIR).

The 5570 & 6570 cards are more likely to use passive cooling, as they run 20-30% slower.

The HIS H657H1G Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 is just $75.

This HIS H557HO1G Radeon HD 5570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 is only $60. The HD 5570 is not going to do as good a job at decoding video as the HD 6000 series cards.

I will be doing light gaming at most (almost none if i am it will be old school) so i don't need a great gaming card

Just like above, the cards that are best in descending order are: AMD HD 6670, AMD HD 6570, AMD HD 5570.

I have a passive HD 5570 in one of my computers, and it runs games well at 1280x720 or 1024x768. My main computer uses an AMD HD 5770 to run games at 1900x1080.

[CA_Steve]

An adder to the above - for Photoshop, any of the above cards will work...but I'd lean toward the GDDR5 cards and stay away from the DDR3 versions.

[wonderland130]

are there any gddr5 cards that are passive?

Thanks

[CA_Steve]

Looks like all of the 6450 and 6570 cards have degraded to DDR3
You'd have to bump up to the 6670 for GDDR5 and then I don't see any passive cards listed at Newegg. However, Sapphire has the Ultimate edition that is passive. Here's a review at Hardware Heaven. A little overkill for your needs..maybe. Don't know if it's available in the US, yet. A whole slew of passive cards were shown at Computex last month...again, need to check availability.

[Abula]

Maybe soon this card will be available, Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 6670 Review

[gorkypl]

Sapphire 5670 seems to be one of the most quiet active-cooled cards, and has plenty of power:
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2010/sapphire_r ... index9.php