On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:19:04 -0400, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 02:02:47 GMT, Chris
><ctstormhunter@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
>>>What kind of "improvement" are you looking for over the
>>>video you already had? As GT mentioned, there's nothing
>>>particularly demanding about TV-Out, nor your described
>>>tasks, so we'd need to know where the current video is
>>>falling short. Your present PSU could indeed be a
>>>limitation, if you were just itching to replace something
>>>that might be a good area to focus on.
>>
>>
>>Well, at this point in time I don't have any real issues with the
>>current video card. I primarily was looking for the tv-out option.
>
>I must have been confused about your prior post as something
>made me read it as saying your present card did have TV-Out
>but with the upgrade you also wanted TV-Out and some "other"
>benefit.
>
>One of the problems is your PSU may have been merely
>adequate for the system as-is, many of the more powerful
>video cards use a significant amount of power but even a
>lower end card is going to use more power than the
>integrated video does. Since TV-Out isn't demanding you
>should choose a current generation, lowest end card from ATI
>or nVidia, unless you need something in particular like HDMI
>output (I assumed you wanted S-Video out for TV or ???).
>
>
>>However, if I was going to go through the trouble of upgrading to
>>begin with, I'd hope to make an improvement over what I already had.
>
>Besides the TV-Out, you don't mention anything that would
>make any particular level of card an improvement except that
>by using a separate card instead of integrated video (any
>card at all, even low end or very old) you relieve the
>system from devoting a certain amount (128MB) and bandwidth
>of system memory to the video, so the rest of the system
>would gain a slight (might not be enough to notice in most
>uses outside of gaming) performance boost, but for
>windows/2D mode, there is nothing demanding enough of the
>video itself to see much benefit.
>
>
>>I certainly wouldn't want degraded performance!
>
>It would be hard to find a modern video card that degraded
>performance below that of the integrated video, but the
>thing is that for 2D uses, the power of modern video cards
>in processing is mostly wasted, their mostly going to have
>gains in 3D gaming besides the other issue you are facing,
>more features like TV-Out but even cheap cards support that
>now.
>
>
>>Also, if I ever do
>>plan on purchasing a new computer, I may very well sell this one on
>>E-bay. So, upgrading to a "better" video card may add a bit more
>>value to the system.
>
>I doubt it, you would get very little if any return on this
>upgrade when it comes time to sell a used and aged system.
>If it were a pretty new system and had a relatively high end
>video card you might get 1/3rd to 2/3rd of the value of that
>card back out at resale time but even this is doubtful at
>auction, for used parts past the current generation. Video
>cards just depreciate too much, especially what you're
>wanting which is one power miserly enough that it might run
>from your marginal 250W PSU.
>
>
>>But, I also don't want to spend a lot of money
>>to do so.
>
>If you don't want to spend much then how could it be worth
>much adding to resale value of the system even in a perfect
>world? Your requirements aren't hard to meet, you might
>look around for some sale or rebate offers at your favorite
>online vendors. I would avoid ebay for something like this
>unless you feel like taking the risks, as video cards can
>often be partially damaged then resold on ebay (unless
>clearly claimed as new in box still).
>
>
>>So, as GT mentioned, it would be great to find a cheap
>>decent video card on E-bay that would do the job and not cost and arm
>>and a leg.
>
>I don't understand why you are having trouble finding one.
>I suggest going to newegg.com and using their search
>parameters on the left hand side of the page in the video
>card category to choose AGP (I'm assuming your board
>supports 4X/8X with the following link, if not backtrack and
>choose 2X/4X),
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=&srchInDesc=
>
>That's 121 hits, you should probably avoid the old FX5xxx
>series (like FX5200, FX5500, etc) merely because they tended
>to use more power, run slightly hotter. If you end up having
>to replace the PSU to support a card, it will practically
>double the cost.
>
>
>Here's a Radeon 9250 if you only needed composite TV out,
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121525
>
>here's a Radeon 9550 with an attractive after-rebate price,
>supporting S-Video and Composite TV-Out and at $23 after
>rebate I can't feel it worthwhile to use ebay at all.
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102458
>the heatsink on the following might be "slightly" better,
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131049
>though with any of these passively cooled cards I recommend
>that you leave the adjacent motherboard slot empty and leave
>that empty slot's rear case bracket cover off, which will
>cause more passive airflow over the card.
>
>If your case cooling is very bad, you might think about
>getting a card with a fan but that will increase noise
>levels a bit, and these fans tend to have fairly short
>lives, it might be a maintenance issue to replace it every
>year or two.
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103162
>
>A reasonable alternative from nVidia might be one of their
>6200 series.
>
>If you're just itching to go with ebay instead, the best
>value would be something older. You just don't need a
>current generation card merely to support TV-Out, so long as
>you note the specs displayed with item listing you can
>discriminate them and the issue of it being slower at gaming
>won't matter since you make no mention of that being
>important. Too many cards over the years supported TV-Out
>to begin listing them all, it's not as though any one has
>enough merits you would ignore the others, since the whole
>point of a risk on ebay would seem to be trying for the
>cheapest thing possible, since as I linked above you can get
>brand new cards for under $30. One suggestion would be that
>in general if the card has a large heatsink with a fan, that
>means it's producing more heat during operation and as such,
>using more power from your PSU so again it could come closer
>or exceed capacity and you'd have to replace the PSU.

Hello Kony,

I just wanted to thank you for your extensive insight on this issue.
It was extremely helpful to me. To be honest with you, my knowledge
of video cards is rather low. While I've upgraded many components in
the past, I usually never touched the video, as I saw no reason to.
But, it's pretty obvious that with my system as is, I'm pretty limited
to the low end cards. But, since I'm not a gamer, that's no big deal.
It's hard to believe anyone would dish out $250.00 for a graphics
card. I didn't pay much more than that for my whole system. :)

Your links on Newegg were also helpful. I took at a look at all cards
you mentioned. I'll most likely go with the Radeon 9550 with the
rebate offer. That seems like the best deal.

Thanks again for the help!

Chris