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While cards such as AMD's HD6990 and Nvidia's GTX590 get plenty of media attention, the lower cost discrete solutions are sometimes forgotten about. Considering the level of sales these cards generate, we felt it was worth looking at two very price effective mainstream boards, ideal for general gaming duties and media center use.
The VTX3D HD6670 Digital Streamer Edition costs around £100 in the UK, although if you have no need for the Digital streaming you can pick a similar board up from VTX3D for only £72 inc vat. This is an ideal choice for a media center which will be connected to a high definition television. The image quality is class leading and the power drain is minimal. The tiny demand for power means that the PCB emits very little heat and the fan can spin slowly, reducing potential noise emissions.
When it comes to gaming, the HD6670 will handle many Direct X 9 and Direct X 10 games at 1080p without Anti aliasing. Moving to more demanding Direct X 11 titles can cause a problem and resolutions would need lowered to 720p, with image quality reductions.
The VTX3D HD6770 is a much more powerful card and can power many titles at 1080p without running into problems. This is priced just under £100 in the UK and offers a good performance to price ratio. It does demand around double the power at the socket and generates a lot more heat and noise. If you are looking to build a media center but want more performance at higher resolutions then this makes a good shortlist product.
Both cards are well worth buying, although if noise is a concern then we would also look at some of the silent solutions, such as the Asus HD6670 which retails for only £68 inc vat.
Pros:
- Both cards can power DX9 and DX10 game engines at decent settings.
- Superb image quality for high definition media playback.
- Power efficient.
Cons:
- Competition is fierce in this sector.
Kitguru says: Two cards well worth shortlisting, especially for a low cost media center/gaming system for a living room or bedroom.
Them seem a decent make and if Amazon stock them, their warranty system is excellent regardless of the manufacturer. This is why I order from amazon all the time, no quibble returns if problems occur.
I would however look at a passive card for a media center, although many of these cards dont generate much noise at all. I read a thread where a guy disabled the fan on his card and underclocked it by 100mhz and it was fine! (6670)
6670 for a media center would be my first choice. I currently use an nvidia board but its old and about to die. might look at a passive 6670
Id go for a passive solution in this sector.
Hello,is there any option to watch TV via this card,i have VTX 6670 Digital Streamer,but which program is needed to watch tv via cable network etc,is that possible? 🙂