One has to wonder, given the fact that GPU hardware assistance is so vital in many cases, if nVidia and ATI / AMD will eventually try to use some form of SLI or Crossfire configurations to offload even more from the CPU. Its worth a shot from a marketing standpoint anyway. Even some of the fastest CPUs out there today will struggle without hardware assistance depending on how the disc is encoded so they really need all the help they can get.
Having said that though, a high-end typical gaming video card isn’t necessarily essential at lest not in the case of nVidia cards. This is according to an article on the subject here:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/print.php?cid=11&id=2161
nVidia video cards using PureVideo_HD actually depend more on GPU clock speed then on GPU class so a lower end 7600GT (560MHz typical core clock) is supposedly more effective with respect to hardware assistance then a slower clocked 7900GT (450MHz to 500GHz typical core clock). Class, meaning high end to low end within the given line, for example the 7000 series.
In any case, there should be no guessing about recommended and minimum system configurations at this point because all printed recommendations seem to use Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra specifications / recommendations verbatim. The problems, other then bugs, seem to stem from users second guessing or disregarding these recommendations. Regardless of the prowess of AnyDVD_HD, its probably best to buy a video card with functional HDCP support if you are buying a video card and don’t already have this support. The same is likely applicable to monitors. Video card drivers also should be kept up to date.
The first specs for PowerDVD Ultra that I read omitted the entry level Athlon 64 X2 3800+ altogether presumably because it wasn’t powerful enough for smooth performance with the way all HD DVD / BD movies are currently encoded. Now it seems that the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ has been grudgingly added into a minimum configuration category. VC-1 encoding seems to be less demanding and this is likely what they had in mind with the lower end Athlon 64 X2 3800+ part but current H.264 encoded titles may tax such a chip to quasi 100% even with hardware assist.
Its starting to look like an Intel Core 2 Duo + nVidia 7000 series (7600 preferably with HDCP support) is a cost effective, efficient combination.