HTPC Dual Monitor Graphics Card upgrade advice

slave1

Folks,

Have my HTPC quite a while now, everything is grand, quad core/gold card/4gigRAM/on board sound and a GT8600 512k GPU. Kodi Isengard. All feeding into a PJ and soon to be 65" 4k TV. Motherboard has PCI-E 2.0 X16

My desire is to upgrade the graphics card and it's so long since I built a PC I'm out of touch. From memory the current graphics card is not PCI-E and the PCI-E slot is taken up (might free it up if required/possible).

I would like a NVIDIA card that will improve on the current, passive cooling would be good and also the ability to deliver two separate programs to two separate monitors simultaneously e.g. Kodi to TV and perhaps SkySports4 via Internet Explorer to a smaller ~24" monitor (would not need sound to smaller monitor)

Thanks in advance...

Digital Solitude

I'm pretty sure nVidias 4k supported cards start at like the GTX 650, AMD might have smaller ones.

What's currently occupying your PCIE slot? You'll probably need it

slave1

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I'm pretty sure nVidias 4k supported cards start at like the GTX 650, AMD might have smaller ones.

What's currently occupying your PCIE slot? You'll probably need it

Can't remember what's in the PCIE slot, could be the Gold card, have 7 hard drives in her and on a top shelf so hesitant to take it down, weighs a ton. Intel man so will have a gander at some 650's

Digital Solitude

You can use an Intel chip with an AMD card you know?

I'll have a look and see the base cards for 4k watching anyways, I may be thinking of something more complex

slave1

Sorry, too quick typing, had issues with AMD cards in the past so sticking to NVIDA which have never let me down.
The 650 appears to be PCIE 3.0 and I'm at PCIE 2.0 so that's a no no, don't want my TV upgrade costs to start ballooning .

Digital Solitude

You can use a PCIE 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot, but it won't run at it's max potential. Probably won't be an issue with the likes of a 650.

http://gopro.com/support/articles/minimum-system-requirements-for-4k-editing-and-playback

GTX 650 or AMD HD7000 upwards according to that. Quick google says that the 650 is perfect for 4k so you should be grand with it, just make sure your card has DisplayPort

slave1

Drifting into general queries now...

The card would need to allow different refresh rates e.g. the main TV would need to be 24 and the monitor I think would be limited to 60Hz.
And how exactly would I go about having Kodi on HDMI output and Internet Explorer on the DVI output, may seem like a silly question but its just something I've never thought about or carried out before.

Tks for the posts to date...

Digital Solitude

Kodi is just as a program in Windows isn't it?

slave1

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Kodi is just as a program in Windows isn't it?

Yep, this is the main use of my HTPC but I use it for my Sky PC account as well so toying with the idea of putting in a smaller monitor to have sports on at the same time as when watching something on Kodi

Digital Solitude

You can launch IE, and drag it over to the second display no bother, I assume that Kodi is immediately full screen?

There won't be a problem there, same story as using two monitors as normal with Windows, 650 should be okay to push 4k and 1080p videos at the same time I would think

slave1

Horsed down the HTPC, existing card is in the 2.0 slot so would be a case of simple direct switch I take it, that make's things easier

slave1

Went with a GTX750 from Amazon in the end as they had it at a great price £80.

Found this comparison page very handy so posting it here in case others upgrading their Graphics...

http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=884&gid2=13&compare=geforce-gtx-750-vs-geforce-8600-gts-512mb

slave1

Digital Solitude wrote: »

You can launch IE, and drag it over to the second display no bother, I assume that Kodi is immediately full screen?

There won't be a problem there, same story as using two monitors as normal with Windows, 650 should be okay to push 4k and 1080p videos at the same time I would think

Hey, graphics card arrived and installed etc, how exactly can I get the two different programs on the two different screens, fluting around and nothing coming up on web searches

Digital Solitude

Is windows displaying on both monitors?

Right click on your homescreen and click Screen Resolution, and make sure it has the screens in the right order and the right heights, and that the bottom box says "Extended Desktop"

slave1

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Is windows displaying on both monitors?

Right click on your homescreen and click Screen Resolution, and make sure it has the screens in the right order and the right heights, and that the bottom box says "Extended Desktop"

Sound, then show windows side by side and drag IE to the smaller monitor and have Kodi in the main monitor, that works
Is there an easier way by any chance?

Digital Solitude

Yeah did that work?

I think IE will auto launch in the second monitor next time, but other than that, not that I know of.

slave1

Well finally all the bits and pieces came together yesterday, 24" LG monitor and 65" Samsung 4k TV along with the GTX750.
Gutted than when playing a large Blu Ray rip on the TV (1080p/24hz) at the same time as watching Sky Sports on the monitor (1080p/60hz) there was judder on the TV and SS froze.....
Any advice? W7 64bit, quad core CPU

Lu Tze

slave1 wrote: »

Well finally all the bits and pieces came together yesterday, 24" LG monitor and 65" Samsung 4k TV along with the GTX750.
Gutted than when playing a large Blu Ray rip on the TV (1080p/24hz) at the same time as watching Sky Sports on the monitor (1080p/60hz) there was judder on the TV and SS froze.....
Any advice? W7 64bit, quad core CPU

Do you have hardware acceleration enabled on your video playing software? Will take some of the load off the CPU and put it on the GPU. Might help

slave1

Lu Tze wrote: »

Do you have hardware acceleration enabled on your video playing software? Will take some of the load off the CPU and put it on the GPU. Might help

Pretty sure Kodi has hardware acceleration enabled, not sure if possible to do so on IE? Will check when home though...

slave1

slave1 wrote: »

Well finally all the bits and pieces came together yesterday, 24" LG monitor and 65" Samsung 4k TV along with the GTX750.
Gutted than when playing a large Blu Ray rip on the TV (1080p/24hz) at the same time as watching Sky Sports on the monitor (1080p/60hz) there was judder on the TV and SS froze.....
Any advice? W7 64bit, quad core CPU

Well, as I could not solve this issue I upgraded to an i5-2500k CPU and same issue, anyone out there attempting the same or further advise?