MSI Radeon HD 6450 1GB DDR3 PCI Express Low Profile Ready Video Card (R6450-MD1GD3/LP) $15 after $25 rebate + Free Shipping

Quote from EazyRider562 : can i have two monitors with this card?

Yes. I have it and yes.

Arghhh ... to buy or to wait until Black Friday.

Quote from Kardon86 : The 6450 is underpowered for htpc if you are planning on using post processing. You are right to hold out for the 6570.

integrated graphics are fine for HTPC unless you're doing some kind of crazy gaming or anything beyond simple 1080P playback.

Quote from Kardon86 : The 6450 is underpowered for htpc if you are planning on using post processing. You are right to hold out for the 6570.

Thanks, I'll pass on it for the HTPC, but I think I'll pick one up as a backup or to use on that freebie ECS board I got. I'm thinking I should be able to piecemeal a cheap halfway decent kids computer by years end.

So do you have two video cards running? or just this one?

Quote from EazyRider562 : So do you have two video cards running? or just this one?

just one.

Unless anyone thinks a card like this will soon be free or nearly free after rebate, maybe I'll get this for my grandfathers desktop I built for him. He's almost deaf so fan noise isn't exactly a problem. I figure it's better than the video on the i3 530 he has, but I'm not sure if it matters for writing rants to politicians and writing unsolicited advice to his grandchildren and other relatives.

Quote from clinteastwood : Unless anyone thinks a card like this will soon be free or nearly free after rebate, maybe I'll get this for my grandfathers desktop I built for him. He's almost deaf so fan noise isn't exactly a problem. I figure it's better than the video on the i3 530 he has, but I'm not sure if it matters for writing rants to politicians and writing unsolicited advice to his grandchildren and other relatives.

Honestly, he'll be fine with integrated graphics.

He won't notice the difference. I don't even notice the difference (realistically).

The only reason I bought this card for an HTPC b/c one, I wanted to see if the experience would be any different and two, I needed a dual video output. I really haven't noticed much of a difference.

Quote from Hawk2007 : integrated graphics are fine for HTPC unless you're doing some kind of crazy gaming or anything beyond simple 1080P playback.

I never said it wasn't fine for simple playback with no enhancements. What I was saying if you want to run post processing to clean the video then it can have issues.

Nice deal, but this would've been a really hot deal if it was the GDDR5 version. I have a 4550 in my HTPC. Not sure if going to this 6450 would be a worthwhile upgrade. I don't game on my HTPC, mainly TV, and YT, which works fine, even at 1080p.

For anyone else who's contemplating a similar upgrade, here's the GPU Review comparison [gpureview.com] of them. I know doubling the memory will help from my 512 MB version.

I'm slowly piecing together a HTPC. All I have so far is the motherboard. I don't know what CPU I'll end up with. If I don't have to worry about video decoding, I'll probably go low end.

Quote from Hawk2007 : Yes. But honestly, I used the same board for my HTPC and bought this same card. I really haven't noticed much in terms of onboard versus this discrete card. I was using a Celeron and the only reason I bought the card was so that I could output to dual monitors.

Thanks for the reply. I forgot which processor I used but it seemed as though my system couldn't run hi-def stuff and it seemed to lag pretty bad. That's why I thought a discrete card such as this would help. I don't know if it's maybe because of the limits of my processor. I remember buying a decent one though. I actually built it for my father so I'll have to go back home to check later on. Thanks for the info though!

would it be better to have two video cards running? if i already have one in my lenovo.

Quote from jtnxgq : I'm not very computer savy here guys. Can anyone tell me if this works with the ECS H61H2-M2(1.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard? Will this be able to run 720/1080p hi-def blu-rays? TIA

I have the same motherboard with you and this card should work flawlessly. Your integrated graphics should handle 1080p ok - but, personally I find the Intel and Nvidia drivers to be extremely buggy and am forced to use ATI. Not a bad thing, ATI stuff is great - but I am trying to lower the power bill and unfortunately the Intel Integrated HD 3000 on my chip is not the solution. Very bad.

But if you want a smoother experience and are running two screens you may not want the 6450 - it uses 64bit memory and would work great for a single 1080p monitor, but if you run two monitors it may not be as smooth as a the equivalent chip with 128bit memory. (Or, 64bit memory that's twice as fast - like GDDR5)

Surprisingly, the 6450 can be paired with GDDR5 but the price is probably similar to a faster gpu with 128bit GDDR3.. which would be the better investment since you get two bonuses.