Very cheap 4k graphics card?

[Tippon]

Our TV just packed in, but thanks to Top cashback, we had some ‘free*’ money in the account. I bought a refurbished Toshiba as a replacement, and it’s 4K. I’m happy with the TV, but I didn’t realise that I’d need a decent graphics card for 4K,  even for bog standard 2d graphics. Pretty disappointing considering that basic graphics cards in the late 90’s could output 2048 * 2048.

Anyway… While a gaming card would be nice at some point in the future, can anyone recommend a cheap card that will let me watch 4K TV and films, and maybe run some low end games please? I’m thinking the Overlord games, and maybe some of the Lego games, or whatever else I can play with Alice on my lap and an Xbox 360 controller.

It’s not something particularly urgent, but it would be nice to be able to take advantage of the higher resolution 🙂

*I know it’s not actually free, but it’s money that I wouldn’t have otherwise had 🙂

[D-Dan]

I haven’t tested 4K, but my GTX1060 6GB handles QHD (2560×1440) without a problem and benches pretty well. Maybe worth a look.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[The VFM Addict]

ROFL……..Tippon wanted a ‘Very cheap 4k graphics card’ and you suggest a close on £300 GTX1060 6GB.  Heck if you think that such is ‘very cheap’, Dan, come on own up you are really Bill Gates, aren’t you?

If its just 4K TV that as Tippon says he wants then any Nvidia GT1030 like this will do the trick but even that costs about £85.    Lots of reviews of that card to read also there.

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[Ed P]

I must be missing something, when I read the specs for the 1030 the max resolution is only 1920×1200. I’m not sure that a ‘very cheap’ 4K card exists at the moment.

You need a card capable of doing HDMI 2.0 unless in the unlikely event your TV has Display port. (You will also need a relatively expensive HDMI 2.0 cable). The cheapest nVidia I could find was the P400 

There is probably an equivalent AMD but I have not looked very hard for a 4096×2160 resolution and HDMI 2.0.

[The VFM Addict]

Ed, the card I suggested is HDMI 2.0b.   Its only the DVI that max’s at 1920×1200.   Tippon was specific he didn’t mean a 4k gaming card, just TV output.    The GT1030 runs 4K TV fine.   See here.

For the record even the onboard graphics in Intel’s Kaby Lake processors will run H.264 4k playback no problem.   4k TV doesn’t take a lot of grunt its only gaming that does.

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During the Covid-19 Epidemic I will be wearing a mask and goggles while posting so that if I become infected I won't spread it to you.

[Tippon]

Thanks guys 🙂

Yeah, it’s mainly the video playback that I want, so I was hoping that there was something a bit cheaper out there that I’d missed. Everything seems to be geared towards gaming, and is priced as such. My main system should do it with the onboard graphics apparently, but I don’t really want to sacrifice that just for a prettier picture.

I think I’ll just leave it for now and upgrade when I actually need to. It’s not as if I’ve got a stack of 4K films yet anyway… 😀

[Ed P]

Tippon, the 4K label for TV is a much abused one. At the bare minimum it is just the resolution of 4096×2160, and many cheap 4K TVs will only do that. 4K only starts to come into its own when you add 10bit colour into the equation as that adds extra realism to the scene. Some TV manufacturers also add in a pseudo HDR correction that allows (say) a better definition of objects in an unlit night-time scene.

Tbh most of the stuff I view is just upscaled normal TV and 4K adds only a minor element, it is only in footie or similar that the extra definition of 4K comes into its own. Only a few films take full advantage of the extra definition and colour depth of 4K Ultra HD  – Life of Pi was one.

However, Ultra 4K does add extra enjoyment when it comes to 4K PC gaming.

[Dave Rice]

As Ed says, 4K is much abused. What is the TV model number? We may find more from the official specs.

[Tippon]

It’s the Toshiba 49u6863db. I got mine through the Richer Sounds clearance page, but the main link is here:

https://www.richersounds.com/tosh-49u6863.html

It’s a 3480 x 2160 D-LED panel with HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR. It upscales 1080p Amazon content really well, and most of my ripped films on the computer are improved too (the old 480p Willy Wonka was a stretch too far 🙂 ).

Following Ed’s idea, I may get an older Quadro from Ebay. There are a few K600s floating around for about £15 – £20, and Amazon have the Display Port to HDMI adaptors for about a fiver. It’s not exactly urgent though, so I may just wait until I’ve got a bit more spare cash. The idea of not getting everything out of my new toy bugs me though 😀

[Dave Rice]

Sounds like a plan. I’ve used those DP to HDMI adaptors on a load of refurb HPs for a project.

[Tippon]

I remembered this morning that I’ve got a retired Thinkcentre M81 in the spare room. I got it quite cheap a few years ago, but because it only has two SATA ports I discounted it as the media centre system, and eventually replaced it with a Fire Stick (I’ve got 4 drives in the combined media server / media centre). I had a look and it’s got a DisplayPort. From what I can tell it’s a 1.2 DisplayPort, so I’ve ordered one of the adaptors from Amazon. If it works, I can do some rearranging and use it as the media system and eventually upgrade it as needs be, whereas the current system is maxed out and starting to struggle. If not, I can still order a cheap Quadro and haven’t lost out.

The other advantage would be that it doesn’t need to run the media organisation software I use, so I could switch to a low powered Linux distro and just boot straight to Kodi, getting rid of some of the bloat.

[Dave Rice]

M81 is Sandy Bridge, sure it’ll be up to it?

I remember a post on the old forum from Keith (the poker mad dairy farmer) who’s friend who was having issues streaming HD and playing cards at the same time. After much mucking about we found it was the then new H264 codec maxing out the CPU in VLC. The “what are the chances I have a better hand” real time poker software that we thought would be the culprit hardly registered.

These days modern CPUs are optimised for these things and I know the cheap android Kodi boxes I was buying could do 4K streaming but other wise couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.

[Tippon]

The current box is a Phenom 9550, so it’s about the same age as far as I can remember. I can’t access the Thinkcentre at the minute, so can’t check anything, but I vaguely remember comparing the two when I first got it, and discounting it mainly because of the lack of SATA ports rather than anything else. I’m pretty sure that it uses DDR3 rather than 2, so is slightly newer, and can take more that the Phenom system’s max of 4GB. There’s also room to upgrade the CPU if one turns up cheaply on Ebay, where the Phenom is about as good as the other system can go.

Again though, it’s basically a free try at this point, so it’s either going to be a crutch until I get around to saving up and doing things properly, or it’s going to keep me busy for a few days and might give Ellen some peace and quiet 😀

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Don’t  know if you can still get a Radion RX480 but it works with an Intel 930

[Tippon]

Thanks WoF, but they still seem to be holding their price. If I’m going to spend £50+ I’ll hold on until I can get a more energy efficient new card instead, and claw back some savings through the electricity bill.

The DisplayPort adaptor turned up today, so once I’ve done the usual catch up with emails and forums I’ll try out the Thinkcentre and see how it goes. As Dave suggests, I won’t hold my breath, but I will have my fingers crossed 😀

[Dave Rice]

I’ve got a small pile of older Intel CPUs, I expect they’re all at the crappy end but you never know. I did have a couple of i5’s in but IIRC refurbed them all. Let me know what socket it is.

EDIT – Bingo, there’s an i5-2400

[Tippon]

Dave Rice wrote:

Bingo, there’s an i5-2400

Brilliant. Let me know what you want for it 🙂

I’m not having much luck with the DisplayPort yet, but the Thinkcentre’s quite a bit behind on the Windows updates. I’ve got it running through VNC now so that I can control it from my PC, and it’s slowly updating. Hopefully the updates will help.

 

[Dave Rice]

PM me your address, I don’t think its worth anything. Just had a look at some benchmarks and an Athlon 200GE is pretty much as quick. Still that shows it’s still capable of running modest modern workloads.

My DP to HDMI just worked. plugged it into the DP port on the PC and the monitors HDMI lead in the other. It was this one.

[Tippon]

Dave Rice wrote:

My DP to HDMI just worked. plugged it into the DP port on the PC and the monitors HDMI lead in the other. It was this one.

I’ve done something right for once – that’s the same one I bought ?

I’ll send you a PM now 🙂

[Tippon]

Well, that was a bit of a bust. It’s an Intel HD 2000 graphics chip, so can do 3840 x 2160, but at 24Hz, and only if you can change the timing standard to CVT-RB (whatever that is!). I got it going, but you could see it dropping frames on YouTube 4K samples. I tried a 1080p film, and that looked the same. It’s not the end of the world, but it would have been nice to get a simple ending.

For some reason the Intel graphics software wasn’t running last night, even with the old nvidia card removed, so I wasn’t getting any of the options from that. Sometimes the Intel graphics wasn’t even giving a display. If I’d thought about it properly, I would have uninstalled the nvidia drivers properly first, but I haven’t had to change graphics cards for years, and forgot…

As the existing media system is running 1080p perfectly well, and the TV is doing a great job of upscaling, I’ll probably hold off for a few months and get something half decent as a stepping stone towards the eventual system upgrade. It’s tempting to get something like a dedicated Kodi box, but I’ll need to upgrade the media centre relatively soon anyway, so the money’s probably better off going to that first.

Still tempted to get the Quadro as a quick fix though… 😀

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