Best Video card (AMD) for HTPC using 380watts PSU?
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:10 am
I currently got a midi-spec system below.
- Athlon X4-640 (3.0 GHz)
- MSI 890GX mobo (Radeon 4290 onboard GPU)
- 4 GB DDR3
- OCZ 120GB SSD
- Hitachi 2 TB HDD
- Antec fusion case with LCD
- 3 92mm Fans, DVDRW
- Seasonic 380 watts PSU (34 Amps combined on 12V rail)
What's the best video card I can get to be:
1. Don't tax my PSU
2. Cool and Quiet for HTPC
3. To bitstream HD Audio, play bluray, have good video quality
4. Can play some of the latest games at max-quality in 720P, and mid-quality in 1080P
5. Max GPU that doesn't make my CPU the bottleneck (not sure for instance of 6850 is too much for my CPU?)
I have narrowed things down to these AMD Radeon cards:
- 6670 (doesn't need extra power, but probably too weak)
- 5770 (108 watts, but not sure if enuf power?)
- 6790 (150 watts! probably too hot/much for PSU)
- 6850 (only 127 watts, even if it's stronger than 6790?!)
I really appreciate any recommendations, not just for the card, but also for the brand that has done a good quite/cool implementation of the chipset (I think Sapphire is best, but there are some deals around XFX and Diamond cards I've seen). The system is pretty quiet, and I don't hear anything at all as it's sitting in a home theatre enclosure, but that's with no video card and pretty much video cards always been my loudest component, although I don't think I can go passive as I am trying to get a higher end and hotter GPU!
Thanks!
- Athlon X4-640 (3.0 GHz)
- MSI 890GX mobo (Radeon 4290 onboard GPU)
- 4 GB DDR3
- OCZ 120GB SSD
- Hitachi 2 TB HDD
- Antec fusion case with LCD
- 3 92mm Fans, DVDRW
- Seasonic 380 watts PSU (34 Amps combined on 12V rail)
What's the best video card I can get to be:
1. Don't tax my PSU
2. Cool and Quiet for HTPC
3. To bitstream HD Audio, play bluray, have good video quality
4. Can play some of the latest games at max-quality in 720P, and mid-quality in 1080P
5. Max GPU that doesn't make my CPU the bottleneck (not sure for instance of 6850 is too much for my CPU?)
I have narrowed things down to these AMD Radeon cards:
- 6670 (doesn't need extra power, but probably too weak)
- 5770 (108 watts, but not sure if enuf power?)
- 6790 (150 watts! probably too hot/much for PSU)
- 6850 (only 127 watts, even if it's stronger than 6790?!)
I really appreciate any recommendations, not just for the card, but also for the brand that has done a good quite/cool implementation of the chipset (I think Sapphire is best, but there are some deals around XFX and Diamond cards I've seen). The system is pretty quiet, and I don't hear anything at all as it's sitting in a home theatre enclosure, but that's with no video card and pretty much video cards always been my loudest component, although I don't think I can go passive as I am trying to get a higher end and hotter GPU!
Thanks!