Need some help on getting a video card

Well I want to get an HD tv for my games and so I can hook it up to my computer. Now you know when you hook up your computer to a TV the picture quality looks like shit, but using the computer monitor has a better picture quality. Well a friend said if I got a better video card it would make the picture quality of the HD TV (pc hooked to it) look better.

Now heres my question does it just make it look better or does would it make it so it would look like on a pc monitor. Also if I wanna do a dual display thing like have both my pc monitor and the HD TV hooked to the computer, is that possible? Last, what video card (or any other device or w/e) would be good?

The price I'm willing to pay is probably arround 400$ or even 500$, but if theres a cheap one that can do as good as a 500$ one would be better for me but w/e.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You don't need a new video card. The reason a TV looks so bad hooked up to a PC is because TVs are very low resolution interlaced screen. It doesn't help that you have to use S-Video output from your video card to the TV either.

HDTVs are much higher resolution thus simply hooking a PC up to a HDTV via DVI or even VGA (if you get a HDTV that has VGA inputs) pretty much any video card that can output at 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080p) will look just fine. You can check if you video card supports such resolutions under the Display Properties Settings Tab.

Also dual output is not a problem if you have a video card that has both a DVI (white connector) and VGA (blue connector.) You can hook up your HDTV via DVI and your monitor via VGA.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The video card I got can go up to 1280 x 1024 not higher than that, but 1280x720 is fine with me. I dont think my video card has a DVI connector. I guess I gotta get a new one. Thx for the info btw.

Double Post:
Well my video card only has one VGA thing. So I'd have to buy a new video card. Can some one tell me which ones are good to get?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

If you REALLY wanna do dual output, then you'll want to upgrade while you're at it. What do you have for a video card right now?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I have a Nvidia Gefore FX 5200 right now, it came along with my computer which I got back in mid 2003.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hmm... mid 2003 is pretty old-ish, so you'll probably be running an Athlon XP (assuming it's an AMD chip, if it's Intel I'd say around the 2.0-3.0 Ghz range).

Now, you have several different budgets with video cards.

You can go for a cheapie budget price (less than 100 dollars), like the card you have right now. These are the only range where you'll find PCI cards, but even those have been mostly phased out. You'll probably want to avoid these, but you CAN still find some old but still good cards. Here's one example: Radeon 9600PRO, Radeon 9600 XT

You then have the 100-200 dollar range. We're getting into gaming-quality cards here (the above can play games, but not the newest ones unless you turn the settings WAY down). These are mid-range cards, and they'll last you for a year or two, but you'll have to upgrade in a while. Examples: nVidia 6600 GT, 6800GS, X800GTO

Then you have the ones that are 250 and above that will OMGWTFBBQPWN any game you throw at it. Including multiple games. At once. With max settings. On multiple monitors. While whistling dixie. These are EXCLUSIVELY PCI-Express cards (with a few notable exceptions, but these don't get the same performance ), which you won't be able to install because 2003 still had AGP back then, so I won't bother.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Thx for the info murdercrow

I'm most likely going to get this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130220
I think it will be good for a little while until I get a job and really pimp out my computer. I thought I'd be able to pay more than 200$ but I got a sorround sound system today and I have to buy a new soundcard too, so I think the Geforce 6600GT will work out well for me, for now.

How ya doing, buddy?

The 6600GTs are great values.

The only concern I have is that you may not get anywhere near the increase in quality you are hoping for on the TV output. The card itself shouldn't make the quality any better looking than you already got from your current card (If you hooked up via VGA). And you haven't specified whether or not your HDTV even has an input for VGA and/or DVI.

So yeah, 6600GT is good. But may not satisfy your wishes to get good TV output. This usually depends a great deal on the TV, and the connection rather than the computer that's outputting to it.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I dont have an HDTV yet, I'm planning on getting one. I was thinking on getting a Sony one but since they cost so much, so I was thinking of getting a Samsung like this one http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do but this one doesn't have DVI so I'm confused how it would work out since Cetra said I could hook up the TV via DVI and the monitor via VGA. I doubt my monitor can be connected via DVI.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, it doesn't have DVI, but it does have HDMI. HDMI is essentially DVI but it carries audio as well, and it's got a bitrate that's a tad higher than DVI. You could do this to connect to both the HDTV and your current (assuming CRT) monitor:

VGA output -> CRT Monitor
DVI output -> DVI to HDMI cable -> HDMI input on Samsung LCD

You can get the DVI to HDMI cable on Monoprice.com for cheap if this is what you want to do.

There's nowhere I can't reach.