Help - Last Minute Christmas Present

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pyale

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Alright, so I want to buy my son a new video card (one with a TV tuner) so that he can hook it up to the bigscreen he's bringing with him when he moves out next month. This post might be a little long but I'll structure it as best I can.

His PC: He's got a Dell Dimension 4600 3 GhZ Pentium 4 with 1 GB ram and his current video card is a GeForce Fx5200 128mb (PCI).

His TV: Hitachi 51f510.

The targeted video card: For 199 canadian, I can get the ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 pro 128mb.

Alright, so now that you guys have the details, I'll move on to my questions.

1. How much better is the 9800 pro when compared to the Fx5200 in terms of gaming?

2. What level is the 9800 pro at right now compared to other cards? Value-wise? Graphically, mostly.

3. If I get the AIW concept properly, basically, all he has to do is connect the provided wires from the 9800 to the back of his TV in one of the many slots and he can basically watch on the TV instead of on the monitor... and play his games on it too.

4. The provided wiring is only 6 feet long so how much would the same wiring cost if we're talking about 10-20 feet, per say.

5. Does the TV being widescreen make any difference?

6. How is the overall picture quality for those of you who have used similar products or the same ones? If he wants to watch a TV show he downloaded in HD, will it show up in HD on the TV screen? Because personally, I don't know whether or not it's the cable providers fault, but that Hitachi doesn't earn many points on its standard definition PQ, but the HD quality rivals almost any TV I've seen so far.

Thanks for any amount of help.
 
pyale said:
1. How much better is the 9800 pro when compared to the Fx5200 in terms of gaming?
the 9800 is roughly 4 times as good

pyale said:
2. What level is the 9800 pro at right now compared to other cards? Value-wise? Graphically, mostly.
value wise, it's a great card to get.
the top card on the market is about 4 times as good as the 9800 Pro however (but costs about US$750, so it aint cheap)


pyale said:
3. If I get the AIW concept properly, basically, all he has to do is connect the provided wires from the 9800 to the back of his TV in one of the many slots and he can basically watch on the TV instead of on the monitor... and play his games on it too.
yes, you should be able to connect any TV to this card.


pyale said:
4. The provided wiring is only 6 feet long so how much would the same wiring cost if we're talking about 10-20 feet, per say.
well, it depends where you shop.


pyale said:
5. Does the TV being widescreen make any difference?
being widescreen should alter what resolutions you use, but it won't change picture quality.

pyale said:
6. How is the overall picture quality for those of you who have used similar products or the same ones? If he wants to watch a TV show he downloaded in HD, will it show up in HD on the TV screen? Because personally, I don't know whether or not it's the cable providers fault, but that Hitachi doesn't earn many points on its standard definition PQ, but the HD quality rivals almost any TV I've seen so far.
not quite sure what you're asking...
 
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