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power dvd question

That depends, James. The new 8800 GT has been working incredibly well for me. It has the VP2 processor in it and it seems to handle much more hardware wise than the older cards.
If you see more than 5% CPU load, the ATI card obviously does more on the board and less in the driver.
I am confident that an old P4 machine would easily play HD DVDs with an ATI card. Can't test it, as there is no AGP version of the 2600...
BTW, the ATI 2900 series needs more CPU power to decode HD video. Strange, but true...
 
An 8800GT includes all of the video processing units of the 8600GTS, but more gaming performance. In all honesty, it's a poor choice for a pure HTPC, simply due to the increased power requirements, and the fact it's going to be louder than an 8600GTS. The problem, right now, is that the 8600GTSes are stupidly expensive for their now-overshadowed gaming performance, but I'd expect their prices to fall here shortly.

If you're looking for a gaming card that happens to have the full suite of hardware video processing, the 8800GT is great. But for an HTPC, it's overkill; look to the 2600 series, or the 8600GTS.

Edit: FWIW, I'm using an 8600GTS in my HTPC rig, one of the passively cooled ones, and it does a great job as well. The decoding hardware is the same as the 8800GT line, which is in turn better than the 8800GTS and 8800GTX's hardware decoding.
 
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If you see more than 5% CPU load, the ATI card obviously does more on the board and less in the driver.
I am confident that an old P4 machine would easily play HD DVDs with an ATI card. Can't test it, as there is no AGP version of the 2600...
BTW, the ATI 2900 series needs more CPU power to decode HD video. Strange, but true...

Interesting. Well, for me the 8800 GT is doing VERY well. :)
 
An 8800GT includes all of the video processing units of the 8600GTS, but more gaming performance. In all honesty, it's a poor choice for a pure HTPC, simply due to the increased power requirements, and the fact it's going to be louder than an 8600GTS. The problem, right now, is that the 8600GTSes are stupidly expensive for their now-overshadowed gaming performance, but I'd expect their prices to fall here shortly.

If you're looking for a gaming card that happens to have the full suite of hardware video processing, the 8800GT is great. But for an HTPC, it's overkill; look to the 2600 series, or the 8600GTS.
I agree. For a HTPC the 2600 is the perfect choice (well, it has some weird problems, but that's another topic), and you can pick the cheapest CPU you can find....
 
An 8800GT includes all of the video processing units of the 8600GTS, but more gaming performance. In all honesty, it's a poor choice for a pure HTPC, simply due to the increased power requirements, and the fact it's going to be louder than an 8600GTS. The problem, right now, is that the 8600GTSes are stupidly expensive for their now-overshadowed gaming performance, but I'd expect their prices to fall here shortly.

If you're looking for a gaming card that happens to have the full suite of hardware video processing, the 8800GT is great. But for an HTPC, it's overkill; look to the 2600 series, or the 8600GTS.

I completely disagree with a lot of what you say here. I guarantee you've not seen an 8800 GT in action because to say that it's louder is pure nonsense. I have a silent PC case and in fact the 8800 GT after initial start up is *SILENT*. My wife's laptop makes more noise. Power consumption is ridiculously low because it's using the .65nm process. It also runs cooler, as a result. IMO it's the PERFECT card for HTPC. It might be overkill due to the raw processing power, yes, but, it certainly isn't for noise or power consumption.
 
I agree. For a HTPC the 2600 is the perfect choice (well, it has some weird problems, but that's another topic), and you can pick the cheapest CPU you can find....

To each their own. :) If the 2600 works for you that's excellent. Like I said, I'm completely happy with the nVidia card. And as a bonus my HTPC can serve as a gaming rig in addition to my consoles. UT3 demo at 1920x1080 res is pretty impressive for a silent PC. :)
 
Interesting. Well, for me the 8800 GT is doing VERY well. :)
It certainly does, but as hotdog453 already said, it isn't a wise choice for a (dedicated) HTPC, and especially if someone has a system with an older / weak CPU.
 
It certainly does, but as hotdog453 already said, it isn't a wise choice for a (dedicated) HTPC, and especially if someone has a system with an older / weak CPU.

Got to agree, I bought the 2600XT to replace my 8600GTS and i'm far happier with it in particular the colours and picture quality.

As stated there are a few issues but I applied the registry tweaks using the script kindly provided by exdeus over on AVS which can be found here

http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/
 
If you see more than 5% CPU load, the ATI card obviously does more on the board and less in the driver.
I am confident that an old P4 machine would easily play HD DVDs with an ATI card.
Would and does! :agree:
See below

Can't test it, as there is no AGP version of the 2600...
Yes, there is: the MSI RX2600PRO-T2D256Z/D2.

I have such a card in my HTPC.

My config:
CPU: P4 3.2GHz HyperThreading (Northwood)
Motherboard: ASUS P4P800 DeLuxe
RAM: 1.5GB
GPU: ATI H 2600Pro

This configuration can handle HD DVD without any problem (CPU peaks at 35%).

With BD, it peaks at 50% (with PowerDVD 3199a), provided that I don't use a Dolby TrueHD soudtrack.

With a DTHD soundtrack, CPU goes up to 95%.

And when using PowerDVD 3104, peaks drop respectively to 30% and 50%.
These value do not vary much with or without AnyDVD in the loop, indicating some serious problem in the last versions of PowerDVD, independantly of the new protections issues.

Somebody suggested (on another forum) that this could be related only to the AGP socket. Therefore if someone can check on a PCI-E card, it would help me to further debug the problem.

BTW, the ATI 2900 series needs more CPU power to decode HD video. Strange, but true...
The 2900 doesn't have the Avivo Engine, that you find in the 2400/2600, and therefore is totaly unable to provide any hardware acceleration.
 
well guys you have been really helpfull , but i have problem ,i have just got this card Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 DVI TVO HDCP PCI-E , well i havent got it yet but i have paid for it and just awaiting delivery, do you think if i just get better cpu chip, blu ray will run better ,or do you think i should stick with the e6400 , and get a better craphics card .
 
well guys you have been really helpfull , but i have problem ,i have just got this card Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 DVI TVO HDCP PCI-E , well i havent got it yet but i have paid for it and just awaiting delivery, do you think if i just get better cpu chip, blu ray will run better ,or do you think i should stick with the e6400 , and get a better craphics card .

My advise: return the card, get a 2600pro or xt. 256MB RAM should be enough (more doesn't hurt).
 
well guys you have been really helpfull , but i have problem ,i have just got this card Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 DVI TVO HDCP PCI-E , well i havent got it yet but i have paid for it and just awaiting delivery, do you think if i just get better cpu chip, blu ray will run better ,or do you think i should stick with the e6400 , and get a better craphics card .
I have an X1950XTX 512mb card sitting in a box ... I just couldn't get any hardware acceleration with it
 
I agree with these guys...return it and get a better card. The cpu is irrelevant when you have a decent video card.
 
but i have problem ,i have just got this card Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 DVI TVO HDCP PCI-E , well i havent got it yet but i have paid for it and just awaiting delivery, do you think if i just get better cpu chip, blu ray will run better ,or do you think i should stick with the e6400 , and get a better craphics card .

Any 2600 will be good for HD/Blu
The sapphire 1950 is for games (not HD/Blu)
 
I have an X1950XTX 512mb card sitting in a box ... I just couldn't get any hardware acceleration with it
X1950 does not provide ANY hardware acceleration!!!

I think the following should be put in a sticky somewhere, to avoid repeating it every 10 posts! ;)
HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR GRAPHIC CARD:

1°) The only ATI graphic cards that do provide full hardware acceleration with PowerDVD in HD video, are the following:

2400
2600
3850 (*)
3870 (*)

(*) New models, soon to be available

2°) If you choose nVidia:

All 8x00 cards are OK, except 8800 GTS and 8800 GTX/Ultra (the newer 8800 GT is OK).

3°) With CPUs that are not too powerfull, prefer ATI cards, as nVidia cards do not offer full acceleration with VC-1 (only with AVC).

If there was to be only one for an HTPC (NOT a game PC), I would recommend the ATI 2600 (Pro or XT, it doesn't matter), it is the best buy for your money! ;)
 
Good post, frg. I think that's quite valid advice. The older 8800 cards only use the VP1 chipset so they definitely do not make a useful HTPC card.
 
thanks everyone for the great advice , i wish i had come here before i ordered the x1950, but i have just ordered the ati 2600 , i will let you know how i get on with it , i think in hindsight it would have been cheaper for me to buy a standalone blu ray player this is what i have spent so far , prices in english pounds.

pioneer bd rom drive £106.00
MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ/D3 ATI PCI Express Graphics Card" £92.83
powerdvd £67.00
and 6 blu ray movies to start off with, £68
total £335.83
and in $around $670
oh i forgot the x1950 craphics card was £69.99, but i will be asking for a refund on that , after all that, i hope i can play mpeg4 blu rays :)
 
You shouldn't have any problems with any Blu-ray's at all with that machine. As for stand alones, the PS3 is great for that, but, my parents just bought an entire home theater upgrade yesterday and got one of the Sony stand alone players. My personal opinion is that it sucks. And it was almost 500 USD. It's PAINFULLY slow to turn on and load. (Note: Before James gives me a hard time about letting my parents buy Blu-ray, I was told after the fact when they were trying to hook everything up and needed assistence. :)) I think an HTPC is definitely the way to go. Besides, you can easily add an HD DVD drive now. ;)
 
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