How to choose the right video card?

I have a compaq presario S5020nx & looking for a video card to watch HD video on my LCD HDTV, witch card gives the best bang for the lowest buck?|||Well ... all you have are PCI slots. No AGP nor PCIe.

So what you need is a PCI card with an HDMI port. Something like these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis…|||An ATI HD 4350 has HDMI out and is more than enough to watch HD, and they cost less than $50.



I don't believe your computer has the capability of running with this card though, as well as other factors that are going to limit your experience such as a computer that is 7 years old (CPU, RAM, etc) if your computer matches the following link:



http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docum…|||There were 2 versions of that PC sold back in 2003.



The AMD Slot A version has an AGP slot available to add a graphics card, the Intel version only had PCI (not express) slots.



Personally, I think your cpu is going to struggle to play HD videos no matter what video card you put in. I'd pursue an entirely new computer before upgrading one of this vintage.



I suppose you could add a video card with an HDMI output if you wanted to try that:

PCI (for either) $90 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

AGP (for AMD only) $62 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…|||if all you want to do is watch movies, and not play video games, then pretty much any card will do, it just has to fit your motherboard, so I looked your motherboard up (here http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docum…



it only has pci slots, so you need a pci card, this is a low end card, only good for movies, not games, you can not get a gaming card for pci, only for pci-express which you don't have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



if you want hdmi out, without using an adapter, it will cost more, this one has hdmi

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…

this is the same card, but is open box, doesn't come with anything else besides the card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as…



price/performance is very poor for pci cards, if you want to play video games, you will need a new pc.