Cheapest GPU that supports 4k @ 24hz or 60hz

[dylandylandylan]

Hey guys,

 

I've recently retired my old rig as my GPU died in the little thing

I'm currently using it as a media PC only, 

 

Now, my question is, what is the cheapest way to push 4k content to my TV? I would prefer 60hz, but 24hz would be fine for most of my content. My motherboard unfrortunately does not support the HDMI 1.4a standard, so I cannot use my CPU to push 4k, 

 

Best solution in terms of a dedicated graphics card at the lowest cost?

 

Thanks in advance fam 

[Zyndo]

what CPU and motherboard are you currently using? you may be able to buy a cheap motherboard that supports 4k, rather than a GPU. assuming your CPU isn't too outdated it should have no problem running a 4k Media PC.

[jhurst117]

r9 270 is pretty cheap and it supports 4k 60hz so do many of the r7 series all depends how cheap youre trying to go down to

[don_svetlio]

AMD APU is the best alternative. 7850K is a good option due to the Hawaii-based iGPU

[dylandylandylan]

2 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

what CPU and motherboard are you currently using? you may be able to buy a cheap motherboard that supports 4k, rather than a GPU. assuming your CPU isn't too outdated it should have no problem running a 4k Media PC.

I'm using a i5-3570k with the Asrock Z77 extreme 4. 

It could be a possibility, but for ease of use, at this present moment in time, I'd rather an add-on card than swapping out the motherboard.

[paddy-stone]

What sort of content do you want to push and from where? Is the content located on your PC or something like a NAS?

 

The reason I'm asking the above is, if you have the content on a NAS or something, then you could just get a little 4k Android box for about $50 to stream the content to, I have a few of these and they are excellent for that job.

I personally wouldn't drop a big amount of money just to stream content from my PC to the TV, if it was for gaming then I would, but then you'd be wanting at least 60Hz 4k I would say.

[Zyndo]

8 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

but then you'd be wanting at least 60Hz 4k I would say.

60 HZ 4k? well i'm glad you agree because thats exactly what the OP said he wanted

But yeah, I'm not familiar with super cheap GPU's. I know only of gaming GPU's (and even of those, I know only the more recent ones), and the cheapest of those start at over 100 bucks. You could probably pick up a used one like a 750ti for pretty cheap if you don't mind that, But I don't know enough about the low end VGA spectrum to really give you a solid answer to this.

[dylandylandylan]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

What sort of content do you want to push and from where? Is the content located on your PC or something like a NAS?

 

The reason I'm asking the above is, if you have the content on a NAS or something, then you could just get a little 4k Android box for about $50 to stream the content to, I have a few of these and they are excellent for that job.

I personally wouldn't drop a big amount of money just to stream content from my PC to the TV, if it was for gaming then I would, but then you'd be wanting at least 60Hz 4k I would say.

 

Majority of my content is either high-bitrate 1080p TV shows or UHD blu-ray.

 

I have a NAS, how do you find the bitrate of 4k content streaming from a centralized source? Not playing any games on this PC now, all it will be, is a media PC from here on out 

[paddy-stone]

11 minutes ago, dylandylandylan said:

 

Majority of my content is either high-bitrate 1080p TV shows or UHD blu-ray.

 

I have a NAS, how do you find the bitrate of 4k content streaming from a centralized source? Not playing any games on this PC now, all it will be, is a media PC from here on out 

I found this for you, don't know how handy it will be though as I don't bother with bitrates personally.. I use gigabit network all over the house and I doubt anything will ever come close to saturating that bandwidth even with 3 streams active  https://forum.silverjuke.net/viewtopic.php?t=213

 

BTW, it's only my taste, everyone is different of course, but I have found that a decent x265 encoded video is very useable compared to a full BD .ts file. My content is usually between 2GB and 6GB for 1080p content movies. I hope that helps you, my life is much easier using a NAS and streaming from there to any/all devices in the house, streaming via wifi to mobile devices is OK too, I don't use plex or anything as all my devices will play mp4/mkv and most of them will play x265 content too, so don't really need plex, if I ever find a file that won't play on my mobile device I just recode it anyway into x264, doesn't take that long most of the time.

I think an android box will suit you fine if you're only using the comp as an HTPC anyway, but if you don't like that idea then assuming you want HDMI as your output 1.4 will only be good for 30Hz @4k or you'd have to get HDMI 2.0 or use displayport for 60Hz. How much are you willing to spend on just viewing content?  I also have an nvidia shield TV that is excellent, but quite expensive at approx $150 or so and will display 4k 60Hz with ease, but at that price point you could grab a half decent GPU and use it for way more than just viewing content.