AnandTech Takes an In-depth Look at dGPU Performance
Even if you’re not in the market for the perfect discrete GPU for your HTPC, Ganesh’s break down of the low and mid-range cards available with passive cooling is an incredibly detailed writeup of the capabilities, and failings, of each option and a must read.
In this context, both AMD and NVIDIA have been serving the market with their low end GPUs. These GPUs are preferable for HTPC scenarios due to their low power consumption and ability to be passively cooled. Today, we will be taking a look at four GPUs for which passively cooled solutions exist in the market. From AMD’s side, we have the 6450 and 6570, while the GT 430 and GT 520 make up the numbers from the NVIDIA side.
Gaming benchmarks are not of much interest to the HTPC user interested in a passively cooled solution. Instead of focusing on that aspect, we will evaluate factors relevant to the AV experience. After taking a look at the paper specifications of the candidates, we will describe our evaluation testbed.
I would still say a better
I would still say a better bang for your buck is to buy a new system with a Sandy Bridge CPU like an i3-2100 for about $125.
If you’re building new and
If you’re building new and don’t care about madVR, I completely agree. For upgraders or those who want to use madVRs excellent VP SNB doesn’t have the enough GPU performance to handle it (hopefully something that is not true with IVB).
Great article. And kudos on
Great article. And kudos on the props at the end!