ksn380

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2009
14
0
18,510
Hey folks,

Was hoping I could get some advice on a video card upgrade. I have a triple monitor setup (3 x Acer G235Habd). I recently upgraded my video card to a Jaton Video-PX309-QUAD Radeon HD 3450 (Item #: N82E16814139055).

Upon installing the card I 1st downloaded and installed the most current driver from Jaton's website. I don't game much but do watch a lot of HD videos. The 1st thing I noticed was that my Windows Experience Index dropped from 5.5 to 3.3 (previously had two X1650XT running). The 2nd thing I noticed was that whenever I played an HD video via VLC Player, windows aero would shutdown. I sometimes received a notification in the task bar that I was running out of video memory. Also the video playback was very jittery.

I called Jaton and they said that this card was more so designed for business/office applications and that I should look into upgrading the PX309.

I went with the Jaton because of the QUAD DVI outputs for simplicity. What tempted me to go this route was because of the plethora of connections available in today's cards (displayports, hdmi, dvi, vga, etc). Have to purchase so many adapters and so forth. It kinda steered me to the simplicity of quad dvi.

With my setup, three DVIs go to the triple monitors and the 4th goes to a L/R projector (home theater). I don't game much but wouldn't mind playing some games once I have the ability, especially with eyefinity. I mostly multi-task workwise and watch HD movies on the projector.

Which video cards would you guys/gals suggest. Trying to stay under $150. Here are a few that I've been considering from NewEgg:

SAPPHIRE Flex 100328FLEX Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Item#: N82E16814102938 - $124.99 - $104.99 AFTER REBATE

I like this 'cause it's 3 DVI out of the box and includes adapters. I'd probably need to purchase a displayport to DVI adapter for the 4th output.

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XFX HD-679X-ZRFC Radeon HD 6790 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Item#: N82E16814150564 - $129.99 - $109.99 AFTER REBATE
No adapters included.

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HIS IceQ X Turbo H679QNT1G2M Radeon HD 6790 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity - Item#: N82E16814161371 - $149.99 - $124.99 AFTER REBATE

Would definitely have to purchase adapters (1 HDMI to DVI, 1 Mini DP to DVI). I also like that this comes with DIRT3.

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What would you guys suggest if this were your system?



Thanks for your help in advance ...



KSN


System Specs

VGA: JATON VIDEO-PX309-QUAD Radeon HD 3450 4 DVI outputs 512MB
Monitor: 3 x Acer G235HAbd 23'' WideScreen LCD monitor
MB: P5K3 Deluxe Wifi-AP
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Browser:Most Google Chrome
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
Sound: Auzen X-Mystique 7.1 Gold
Memory: OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 8GB
PSU: APEVIA ATX-AS680W-BL 680W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply
HD: SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" (3)