Choosing a graphic card with low power consumption/heat (1 Viewer)

[Timmay]

Does anybody have an idea about the power consumption levels of the following cards/chipsets:
- GForce 5200
- GForce MX440
- GForce MX4000
- Radeon 9200

I would assume that the MX440 being the oldest and "slowest" card it also consumes the least power.
Anyone?

- Tim

 

[murky123]

just use the radeon 9200 with passive cooling and you would be more than happy

 

[AllenConquest]

I would go with at least a Radeon 9550, it has support for DirectX 9.0 and you can still get passively cooled ones.

 

[noocyte]

I bought a Radeon9250 just the other day, but I should've gotten a 9550, for the DirectX9 support... So I'd agree with AllenConquest!

 

[vbap]

I am currently using a Gigabyte-branded 9250, with the fan removed, using DirectX 9.0c - no probs so far.

But the product specs say this card "Support Microsoft DirectX®9.0 compatibility and full DirectX®8.1 " - what's the difference? what am I "missing out" on?

http://www.giga-byte.com/VGA/Products/Products_ATIRADEON9250.htm#GV-R925128D

 

[noocyte]

It's not doing the DirectX9 stuff in hardware, but using a sw render I guess. But I've got no probs either, just that the 9550 card was only a few bucks more so...

 

[Timmay]

Why do you think hardware DirectX9 is important?

I don't know enough about DirectX or Media Portals usage of it but I thought the main differences between DX8 and 9 are in 3d-graphic related areas which are not used in MP (correct me if I'm wrong).

What are the advantages of using a DX9-hardware-compatible card instead of one only software-comp.? Right now I'm using a GeForce 4 and MP works fine (haven't tried tv-recording yet, though) - it's got an active (noisy) fan and my case has no room for a Zalman heatpipe.

 

[noocyte]

Not a big deal really, but since the difference was only like 15 USD or so I wish I'd gone for the DirectX9 model (9550).

Honestly I have no idea if that would influence the performance of MP at all. I guess it wouldn't, but others would be better able to answer that question.

 

[mPod]

What are the advantages of using a DX9-hardware-compatible card instead of one only software-comp.?

A DX9 card can do all the DX9 operations directly by its hardware. If it is just a DX8 card, and the driver is DX9 compatible, all these funtions will be performed by the software driver, which results in higher CPU usage. Media Portal is a DirectX 9 application and is heavily using DX9 stuff. That's not only 3D, you can do a search on Microsoft to get details.
Main purpose of DX9 in MP is the use of VMR9 to display video and graphics on top, for example. You can see the difference if you'd use overlay and the OSD with some shading, grading, etc. All other graphics stuff also takes advantage of DX9 hardware acceleration to lower CPU usage. It's not a must, but can be useful in HTPCs with lower CPUs to reduce heating etc.
These are the main reasons, AFAIK.

 

[noocyte]

See? I knew somebody knew far more than me about this topic!
Thnx mPod for the update!