Is a cheap graphics card worth it?

[steve1954]

Hello all. This is my first post on the green button and i'm still new to using WMC. I have a HP dc7800 with a q9300 processor, q35 on board graphics with 4gb of ram running Windows 7. I installed a haupauge dual tuner and a asus (blackgold?) single tuner. I use it to record and watch ota tv as well as streaming from various sites online. Everything seems to work fine. The question I have is that the picture on the Tv, 40" Toshiba Flat panel, is better(sharper, brighter) direct from the ota antenna than on WMC. Would a cheap Video Card like a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5450 1GB be a noticeable improvement in picture quality? The current setup is good but if I can improve it cheaply I would like to. Thanks for sharing your expertise in advance.

[makryger]

While I can't comment on your specific setup, in general, I have found that modern on board graphics have been more than sufficient for HTPC purposes. Given that everything is digital nowadays, I doubt you would get better "picture quality" from discreet graphics. Now, sometimes people noticing stuttering or driver crashes or those who want 4K dual output 3D screens or other things that makes them seek alternative graphics cards, but if your setup is working fine, I wouldn't try to change it around.

[IownFIVEechos]

Those cards can be had for about 10 - 15 bucks after rebates usually. Not the worst investment to take some of the load off your PC. But I would look for anything related to 'scaling' in your settings and turn them on or off whatever they are now do the opposite and see if your quality improves. Sometimes the zoom (scaling) can make the picture 'blotchy'. Good luck and welcome aboard!

[richard1980]

I doubt you would get better "picture quality" from discreet graphics.

Discreet or not, the GPU definitely impacts PQ, specifically in the area of deinterlacing performance. I would definitely recommend reading the parts of reviews that focus on deinterlacing performance if the goal is to increase picture quality.

[DavidinCT]

A better card will help with PQ, is it leaps and bounds, maybe, depending on the video your playing back. It also will take overhead off the CPU, resulting in over all better performance when playing a HD video. You DONT need a GTX TITAN or anything. A mid line card would do fine.

I wanted to get 4K video (2160p) out of my Media Center system, I grabbed a GTX750 ($80-110), I can watch full high bit rate 4K videos with DTS-MASTER HD 7.1 audio with out a single stutter or drop in frames. This is on a Core2Quad processor that is almost 5 years old now.