new graphiccard, makes sense? (1 Viewer)

[Bosso]

FX5200 can use hardware to decode mpeg2 if you use nvidia pure video codec. Using that codec with the fx5200 card reduced CPU a lot on my setup. (from near 100% to about 25% on my 750MHz AMD).
Fx5200 are cheap and a lot of them are fanless. (passive cooling)
A good choice if you only watches video with it.
Picture quality on my asus card is good.

/Bosso

 

[fera]

So which model does have AviVo support? I havent found any addorfable yet.

 

[Tech Geek]

So which model does have AviVo support? I havent found any addorfable yet.

Addorfable? You mean affordable?

Ok, I think I just confused the issue so I'll answer your question and then try to explain what I was getting at.

All the new ATi GPUs have Avivo. X1300, X1600, X1800 and X1900.
However, the only AGP card is an X1600 that is $140. (all prices in US Dollars)
It's probably the fastest 3D AGP card but to be honest I wouldn't spend that much on an AGP card. AGP is pretty much dead end now.

A somewhat comparable NVidia card (Video playback wise) would be 6600 based and they aren't exactly giving those away either. The lowest priced 6600 was over $100 last I checked.

The 5200 (under $35 + shipping) won't have all the video features of a 6600 or X1600 but it would do the job. An ATi 9550 (under $50 + shipping) is also a good choice. It has a few more features than the 5200, faster 3D and you won't gain any more video features for under $100.

The bottom line... do you want to spend a lot of money on an old system or just enough to do what you need and save the extra money for a new system?

I wanted to upgrade my old system too... but I had a choice of cheap parts that wouldn't improve it or expensive parts that were almost more than building a new system... so I built a new one. I already had a DirectX 9 video card though so upgrading the old system didn't make sense.

In your case you don't have DirectX 9 and that really is a must to run MediaPortal properly (or at all with new versions) and you also have some inexpensive options for upgrades.

 

[Smirnuff]

First of all i would like to know whether changing from a GF 4 MX to an FX 5200 would make sense

The 5200 makes an excellent entry-level card for use with MP and you will see a decent improvement over your previous card.

 

[onkl]

The 5200 (under $35 + shipping) won't have all the video features of a 6600 or X1600 but it would do the job. An ATi 9550 (under $50 + shipping) is also a good choice. It has a few more features than the 5200, faster 3D and you won't gain any more video features for under $100.

Fully agree.
Do note that these cards are not suited for the newest games at high resolutions. That might be interesting, because gamers will sell these cards as "too old" second hand on e-bay.
You may look at cards like the Radeon 9600 or higher (you might want to avoid anything called SE) GeForce FX5200 and higher or maybe (probably to slow, but very cheap) a GeForce 4 Ti4400.
Should be able to get a reasonable card for 30-50 $/€ there.
Check the wiki at the MP frontpage for minimal demands.

 

[Commodore 64]

First of all i would like to know whether changing from a GF 4 MX to an FX 5200 would make sense

The 5200 makes an excellent entry-level card for use with MP and you will see a decent improvement over your previous card.

I would agree with this statement, however, if you can find a 6200, I would advise you to get that. I just picked up a MSI 6200 for $55 USD for my HTPC testing rig. The 6200 is a newer GPU that has hardware enhancements (using the Pure Video codecs)for Mpeg2 decoding and deinterlacing which the 5200 does not.


When you get to the point where you are going to be deinterlacing higher resolution stuff, like HDTV (1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720), then you would need something beefier like the ATi X1300 series and above or the nV 6600GT series and above (be careful with older 6800 series as many do not support PureVideo as well as the 6600GT due to something with the hardware revision being used).

 

[Tech Geek]

Just an FYI. I did find an X1300 based AGP card.
But the current one has 512MB so it's over $100. However, it does mean that we should see several AGP models with Avivo in the next few months and with any luck they won't be a lot more than a Radeon 550.
http://www.visiontek.com/X1300AGP512.html

 

[Tech Geek]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28159