Please help clear up some confusion about video hardware. I was amazed to see that it is now possible to run 4 graphics adapters in parallel, and each card can have 2 GPUs, on top of a 6 core/12 thread CPU (I can only imagine building a low noise linear PS for a machine like that)... And then I run across a $100 ASUS card that seems to do little more than provide an HDMI output with some decoding capabilities, and is considered very good. But videogames aside, what exactly is needed for the best video possible? I have tried to answer this by looking at what processing capabilities are given to the most expensive BD or DVD players, but I am no expert, and still dont have an anwer. If this has been covered elsewhere, a link would be much appreciated.
which ASUS card?
generally the ATI graphics cards have better video capabilities than any other graphics chip maker, the 5000 series can also bitstream bluray audio tracks without downsampling.
however, there are also dedicated home theatre soundcards (Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD, and Asus Xonar HDAV) that will passthrough the video (one or both may have the Silicon Image video Processor) while adding the full bluray audio stream to the HDMI out.
google their reviews!
I haven't used them but may get one eventually (leaning on getting the asus)
generally the ATI graphics cards have better video capabilities than any other graphics chip maker, the 5000 series can also bitstream bluray audio tracks without downsampling.
however, there are also dedicated home theatre soundcards (Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD, and Asus Xonar HDAV) that will passthrough the video (one or both may have the Silicon Image video Processor) while adding the full bluray audio stream to the HDMI out.
google their reviews!
I haven't used them but may get one eventually (leaning on getting the asus)
Thanks, that helps. It has been difficult to track down reviews that focus on video capabilities of ATI or nVidia hardware, as everyone wants to talk about video games and textures..
I guess I am refering to the same Asus cards as you, I simply assumed they were video cards insted of sound because they had an HDMI output. There were 2 models at Fry's, one for 100 and one for 150.
I guess I am refering to the same Asus cards as you, I simply assumed they were video cards insted of sound because they had an HDMI output. There were 2 models at Fry's, one for 100 and one for 150.
Thanks, I hope it's a depth equivalent to DIYaudio.com. For a little while this site started to develop some video forums, but no more, looks like.
What are the specifications of your computer?
What are your game playing habbits? If you want to play just about everything under the sun at decent speed, then I suggest no less than an ATI 5770.
The ati 5XXX series GPUs are capable of Hardware accelerated decoding and encoding. They include Hardware vector adaptive De-interlacing for video playback.
Those benefits aside. The card allows use of full HD audio bitstream through a protected audio path. Thus allowing you to get full HD audio from your Blue-Ray videos over HDMI.
There are a few other things you may not care about, like Eyefinity, which will allow you to use 3 monitors in portrait or landscape mode for a video wall type setup. The more expensive ATI cards will allow you to use up to 6 HDMI monitors for games, desktop, videos...ETC. A 12 output 4GPU card was announced today, but its still vapor ware as far as I'm concerned.
I have a ATI 5750 that I purchased a while ago for around $150 dollars at the time. From what I have seen I should have gotten the 5770 which was $20 more at the time. But I have no problems playing the games I have. Some of them include some very graphic intensive work loads. Just Cause 2 in particular, runs very well and looks awesome. I can't say I have tried games like Crysis, but this card does well in that game according to benchmarks. I'm just not interested in shooters that aren't Either the original UT or Team Fortress 2.
By the way. If you don't play TF2, you should.
My recommendation.
Newegg.com - ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
What are your game playing habbits? If you want to play just about everything under the sun at decent speed, then I suggest no less than an ATI 5770.
The ati 5XXX series GPUs are capable of Hardware accelerated decoding and encoding. They include Hardware vector adaptive De-interlacing for video playback.
Those benefits aside. The card allows use of full HD audio bitstream through a protected audio path. Thus allowing you to get full HD audio from your Blue-Ray videos over HDMI.
There are a few other things you may not care about, like Eyefinity, which will allow you to use 3 monitors in portrait or landscape mode for a video wall type setup. The more expensive ATI cards will allow you to use up to 6 HDMI monitors for games, desktop, videos...ETC. A 12 output 4GPU card was announced today, but its still vapor ware as far as I'm concerned.
I have a ATI 5750 that I purchased a while ago for around $150 dollars at the time. From what I have seen I should have gotten the 5770 which was $20 more at the time. But I have no problems playing the games I have. Some of them include some very graphic intensive work loads. Just Cause 2 in particular, runs very well and looks awesome. I can't say I have tried games like Crysis, but this card does well in that game according to benchmarks. I'm just not interested in shooters that aren't Either the original UT or Team Fortress 2.
By the way. If you don't play TF2, you should.
My recommendation.
Newegg.com - ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
I tend to run seperate PCs for various tasks, so this started out as an audio transport only, where the power is low enough to have passive cooling with no fans for all processors and GPUs (as fans are electrically noisy), and I would have many options to run either a pre-built low noise non-switching power supply, or build one.
But it is hard to ignore the fact that this machine should have video capabilities also, because it would be silly to keep 2 PCs in the living room. The most important thing here is video playback with its related processing and decoding. Unfortunately I have not played a video game in many years, and if I will need this capability, I will be ok with what the vidoe card provides, or else, resort to a dedicated rig.
So my hope is to find hardware that will rival some of the most expensive BD and DVD players, assuming I will customise the power supply, cooling, and the chasis. Thank you for your help!
The ATI Avivo set of features do look very promising, thanks for pointing me in that direction. But they seem to be same all the way down to the 54XX series (which look happy with a passive heatsink by the way). Do you think there will be a video performance tradeoff with the lower end GPUs (gaming aside)?
I doubt it, the key differentiator between the high/mid/low end is the shader count/clock, memory type, memory bus width and memory clocks.
I would say that should be fine. If you don't need the extra horsepower then I wouldn't pay for it. A lot of people are buying these for their HTPCs and report that they aren't terrible gaming cards either.
As previously posted, I would check out the AVS HTPC forum for setup tips.
As previously posted, I would check out the AVS HTPC forum for setup tips.
An add-in adapter is good to keep things running smoothly but not one that generates too much heat. I believe the picture quality for bluray and DVD are most affected by the software decoder and not so much the hardware.
A lot of the decoding is done in hardware, so though the software dictates how it's used, you definately want to look at the hardware specs. The lower end cards are mostly more than enough to decode bluray, and ALL are capable of DVD. But not all of them, esp. the older (mainly nVidia) ones sometimes lack hardware decode functions, meaning you either get stutter every now and then or the CPU is freaking out (and hence the cooler gets noisy).
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