[nikko1974]

Hi,

After picking up a very cheap HD3850 for $110 - I now have a surplus 8600GT - so am considering throwing it in my HTPC.

Until now its plodded along with its onboard 6150 - so how much will the 8600GT assist my HTPC?

At present I view the screen at 1280x720 - output is via the Asus HDTV header that came with the M2NPV-VM motherboard - and so is essentially component video! Will use this again - though via the breakout component video box that came with the card.

Alas on my HD Sony CRT (KVHR32M31) I think thats the best I can do - as I had tried higher resolutions before but it didn't work very well - very flicky!

Apart from freeing up system memory and CPU cycles - what are the other benefits of the 8600GT over the 6150?

I use FFDSHOW for all my video files and upscale via it - so just trying to suss out how to get the most from the 8600GT or if there's a huge benefit from it at all given my semi-limited display.

Thank in advance,

Nick

PS. The 8600GT is the Gigabyte Silent Pipe II - as a passive card how hot do they get in HTPC cases? I don't think I have a lot of airflow in my case around the GPU slot - all the fans are at the other end. Need for concern?