Best Graphics Cards for 2016 - Media Experience

LAST UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 3, 2016

If you are a movie fan and your first priority is to watch movies in good quality through your HTPC then, there is no need for a fancy graphics card that cost you couple of hundreds.

My advice is to start with an integrated graphics card and add a discrete graphics card later if you feel that you will need one, for example for gaming.

Choosing the right video card that consumes less power can be difficult as most brands do not provide any power consumption indicator.

If you are interested in watching 4K content, there are currently very few graphics cards that support HDMI 2.0 at 60 Hz, HEVC/H.265, and HDCP 2.2 that is required to output Ultra HD video.

If you are not sure what the sentence above means, I would suggest checking out this 4K HTPC guide.

Here are the graphics cards that are great choices for your HTPC.

Recommended Graphics Cards for HTPCs

Tier	Recommendation	TDP	4K at 60Hz	Reviews	Price
Tier Budget	Recommendation GeForce GTX 750 TiGreat for light gaming GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card is an excellent choice for silent running HTPCs whilst offering strong performance at low price.	TDP 60 W	4K at 60Hz No	Reviews ★★★★★	Price Check Price
Tier Value	Recommendation GeForce GTX 1050 TiSweet spot EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti card is excellent choice for silent running HTPCs whilst offering strong performance.	TDP 75 W	4K at 60Hz Yes	Reviews ★★★★★	Price Check Price
Tier Performance	Recommendation GeForce GTX 1060Performance for games EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 delivers 80% more performance compared to the previous model with same power consumption.	TDP 120 W	4K at 60Hz Yes	Reviews ★★★★★	Price Check Price

Check the dimensions of the graphics card

If you are going to get a discrete graphics card for gaming, be sure to check the dimensions of the card and its Thermal Design Power carefully before purchasing.

For example, I bought a passive cooled graphics card, but it did not fit inside my case because it was slightly higher than regular cards due to its passive cooling solution.

Make sure your power supply is powerful enough

Also, make sure that the power supply you have chosen is powerful enough for the graphics card.

For example, I chose 450W SFX PSU for Geforce 750Ti graphics card, which was enough, but PSU’s cooling fans were a bit too noisy as it was running too close to its limits.

A low power GeForce 750Ti is good for casual gaming, but if you want to play the latest games with better graphics quality, I would recommend choosing GeForce GTX 1060 that I currently use in my gaming HTPC.

If you are planning to use your HTPC with 4K TV to watch ultra HD, you should ensure to get a graphics card with supports 4K video at 60Hz.

I’m using GeForce GTX 1060 with my 4K display and it works very nicely.