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1080p HDTV graphics card £80ish?

ssmacc

ssmacc

ssmacc

Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2007
Posts
2,872
Location
Macclesfield
Hello,

I’ve just bought a 46” LCD (my heart is still racing as I hate spending money!) I need a graphics card to fit in the media centre I’ve almost built:

XP SP2 / Vista Duel Boot
1.8 E6300 C2D
2GB Ram

Please note, I’m limited by a 300w power supply.

I suppose my choice comes down to a 2600 or a 8600? Silent would be nice although I’d settle for quite as the case has limited airflow.

I’ve already got a 8800GTS 640 in my main PC, so upgrading PSU and then getting an expensive card is not going to happen (see spending money comment earlier!) I’d like to spend £80ish but could go a little higher if the bang per buck is worth it…

I’d like to do as much gaming as I can on the machine but I’m aware a £80ish graphics card will be limiting and 1080p HDTV output is a must.

Thanks for any advice.
 
I run an MSI 8600GT in my HTPC. It is the silent heatpipe version (no fans) and it's more than capable of outputing HD video at 1080p. It can play games ok too and costs around £65 new.
 
I'd imagine using a GFX card in a HTPC would mean HDMI is desirable?
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Not really. DVI does the job, although I guess if you're using HD-DVD/Blu-Ray then should get a videocard with HDMI.

Sorry didn't notice about PSU. 300W is probably not enough.
 
ssmacc said:
I'd maybe think about OC'ing the CPU a bit, if you're planning on watching any HD media.
Click to expand...

Will my PC not decode HD content even with a dedicated graphics card? (i thought these did a lot of the work for the CPU?)

Cheers[/QUOTE]
 
Your CPU will be fine, I have 4200x2 at stock and that copes with 1080p H264 no problems. Although Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will use more CPU %
 
ssmacc said:
Will my PC not decode HD content even with a dedicated graphics card? (i thought these did a lot of the work for the CPU?)
Click to expand...

If you want to watch VC1 or H.264 encoded content (blu-rad/hd-dvd) with a 4400x2 you will need a 8500/8600 or 2400/2600 as only these will be able to run at 1080p at less that 100% cpu
 
As said you want a card with UVD (DXVA2) such as the 2400/2600 , 8500/8600 coupled with Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 to play back BluRay/HD-DVD. Dont try it with x264/mkv files as it just doesnt work (DXVA2) but your processor should be more than capable of playing back typical (~6mbit) x264/MKV type HD streams.
 
Are you 100% sure a 2ghz dual core won't playback H264? Mine does, although I don't have HD drive. Fine with content on the hard drive, easily under 100%
 
I say grab the OCuk 8500GT - has decent media capabilities including HDCP, pure view and other hardware acceleration, handles 1080p no hassle, doesn't take much power and is quiet running... (I have one in my media PC and have no regrets at all)

Aslong as you don't plan any gaming its a very capable card - if you want to do some gaming then it overclocks like mad and can handle some pretty high settings in games aslong as you keep the resolution to 1024x768 or below and keep the FSAA and AF off or on very low...
 
badbob said:
Are you 100% sure a 2ghz dual core won't playback H264? Mine does, although I don't have HD drive. Fine with content on the hard drive, easily under 100%
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Its not about the codec, its about the bitrate. BluRay/HD-DVD typically has a bitrate of 25mbps peaking between 40 - 50mbps. I can guarantee you that even a higher end cpu can have troubles decoding something like that smoothly. The reason you can playback the content on your HDD is most likely because it has a bitrate between 4 - 8mbps.
 
Think I’ll go for a 8600GT (silent) seems OK for games and great for HD playback…now onto the sound! (5.1 Amp so only need to output digital 5.1 stream – but that’s for a different post)
 
ubern00b said:
Its not about the codec, its about the bitrate. BluRay/HD-DVD typically has a bitrate of 25mbps peaking between 40 - 50mbps. I can guarantee you that even a higher end cpu can have troubles decoding something like that smoothly. The reason you can playback the content on your HDD is most likely because it has a bitrate between 4 - 8mbps.
Click to expand...

I have absolutly no problem (0 frame drops) playing back 1080p content encoded at an average 7MB/s (56MBit/s) on my projector using an E6600 @3.6gig and a 7950GX2... haven't tried it on my media PC (E6600 @ 3gig, 8500GT) tho...
 
Rroff said:
I have absolutly no problem (0 frame drops) playing back 1080p content encoded at an average 7MB/s (56MBit/s) on my projector using an E6600 @3.6gig and a 7950GX2... haven't tried it on my media PC (E6600 @ 3gig, 8500GT) tho...
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7MB/s?? You 100% sure its not 7000kbps? Would like to see the pin info on that stream!

Oh and what codec/player/rendering path is being used as well?

CPU % too?
 
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ubern00b said:
7MB/s?? You 100% sure its not 7000kbps? Would like to see the pin info on that stream!

Oh and what codec/player/rendering path is being used as well?

CPU % too?
Click to expand...

H.264 AVC codec using L4 (H10) with 1920x1080@30fps not sure off hand on the rendering path or CPU usage but IIRC it was using 45-48% CPU on one core and using the default hardware decoder path for the 7950GX2 (not sure if it was software or overlay/hardware but from CPU useage I'd guess it wasn't using software rendering).
 
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Bomag said:
If you want to watch VC1 or H.264 encoded content (blu-rad/hd-dvd) with a 4400x2 you will need a 8500/8600 or 2400/2600 as only these will be able to run at 1080p at less that 100% cpu
Click to expand...

My athlon 3500+ played 20Mb/s 1080p h.264 video back fine with no gpu acceleration using coreavc.
 
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