I need your honest and fair opinion -- which video card would you pick?

[montecarlo1987]

Hello. I have a question with a sincere honest answer or opinion. Looking to buy a new graphics/video card.

Okay, I found 2 graphics/video cads I like that are comparable in some ways.

Which one would you choose?

A. EVGA GeForce GT 440 1024MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card Video Card 01G-P3-1441-KR

B. XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 1 GB DDR5 DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card HD567XZNF3

The best two I could find for my needs that are similar in "some" ways, yet very different in others. Websites score them close with the Radeon slightly ahead. Both use *one* expansion slot -- becoming increasing difficult anymore to find one -- what I want! Major trade offs: 2 DVI ports -or- 1 DVI and DP port; DDR3 -or- DDR5.

I am planning to spend $100 max. on a graphics/video card. Looking for lower power consumption graphics/video card too.

Okay, my video graphics habit implications I know you're asking yourself...

A. I have Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (DirectX 11). I have 8 GB of RAM. My motherboard is the ASUS P5Q.
B. Basically, I am NOT a true blood gamer. To be honest, I rarely play games with the inherent downloaded Microsoft Games in Windows 7 at times. Bottom line: Not a gamer. I know this is very important in choice decisions.
C. I am using the DVI connection cable for an (1) older 19 inch Samsung SyncMaster 930B LCD Monitor. The DP port is the future over DVI.
D. I do much photo and video editing with the latest Corel and Adobe professional products plus other like-products. I watch online streaming videos too. I want the best resolution.
E. I use the "highest screen" resolution AT ALL TIMES (1280 x 1024). I never switch out to a lower resolution.

Please reply.

Thank you!

 

[dividebyzero]

Honestly, either card is fine for your intended purpose. Both cards are more than capable of attending to the demands photo and video editing (more a function of CPU/RAM), while streaming video is far from an intesive task.
Power usage is nominal for both cards (the main interest here is 2D and blu-ray playback).
Image quality largely depends on what your input source is going to be. For Youtube etc. for all intents and purposes there will be no discernable difference between either card. If you plan on watching amateur or poorly shot vidcam footage (usually the province of family movies or budget p0rn) then the colour correction facility of the AMD card could come in handy. The whole article is worth a read. Bear in mind that the principle differences between AMD and Nvidia cards in the HQV 2.0 test are the aforementioned colour correction, contrast enhancement (redundant if your monitor is set up correctly) and 2:2 pulldown (telecine) -which is no relevance whatsoever if you use a NTSC video standard (nor about 99% of PAL-SECAM regions).

Personally I'd be basing my decision on pricing (you aren't providing any link or information regarding location or purchase source so advising you on pricing is a waste of time), warranty and any extra goodies in the accessory bundle (unlikely in these card's category).

 

[winterwolf1223]

Idk but I tend to go for EVGA products they never failed on me so Geforce 440 GT!!!

 

[montecarlo1987]

Hello. Thanks for your replies.

These are the websites that are offering the two products I am looking at:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1297448322&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-Di...NG/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1297480203&sr=8-22

Pretty close in price.

I am looking for reliability and dependability as well.

Is GDDR5 really better than GDDR3?

Please reply.

Thanks!

 

[dividebyzero]

I am looking for reliability and dependability as well.

Both cards would be comparable

Is GDDR5 really better than GDDR3?

For your intended purpose, no.
I'm also wondering why you would choose the more expensive EVGA GT 440 over the MSI version (both cheaper, offering native HDMI 1.4a and probably better cooling) ?

 

[montecarlo1987]

Hello again.

The MSI version I see on Amazon.com is double stacked (Covers my PCI-E needed slot below.). I agree the cooling is pretty impressive. Also, it has a VGA port -- looking for DVI or better technology since in the future I plan to get a 2nd monitor and share my desktop.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-N440GT-MD...2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1297546355&sr=1-2

http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=130&prod_no=2102

Thanks!