AGP Card Upgrade (1 Viewer)

[mike__25]

I am looking to upgrade the video card in my PC which doubles as our Mediaportal HTPC linked to our TV via S-Video.

Currently I am running a ATI Radeon 9600/X1050 series which is a few years old now but is generally suitable for SD TV and download DIVX etc although it seems to struggle a bit with HDTV and 720p MKV files. HD stuff tends to play for a bit but CPU usage goes through the roof and then it stutters too much to be watchable.

The PC is an old AMD Athlon XP 2600 with 2GB ram and 8x AGP slot on motherboard which I know needs to be replaced but I am hoping to find a card that will take enough load off the CPU and allow me to watch HDTV and downloaded 720p content.

I have been doing some research and it seems that my options are;

Nvidia Geforce 7600GS
ATI HD3650 Radeon

Can anyone confirm if either of these options would be suitable to keep the old beast running for another 12 months until I can upgrade the whole system or are there any other cards that would do the job for me.

 

[Der_Bub]

Have a look at my System

HD-DVD & BlueRay do fine!

Also it's downclocked most of the time automaticly by about 15 % (low temperature --> low noise).

 

[mike__25]

Excellent thanks for the information. Someone else advised me the ATI 3650 would be the best option for my system for 720p downloaded content and HDTV. Will have to check that out and compare specs to your card.

 

[Taipan]

Someone else advised me the ATI 3650 would be the best option for my system for 720p downloaded content and HDTV.

I think it all depends on the format of the 720p download content.

I have a HD3650 in a similar system to yours and it plays up to 1080p MPEG2 fine. But it struggles with 720p WMV - even though the HD3650 has WMV hardware acceleration, the CPU still gets close to 100%. In fact, I suspect that the WMV hardware acceleration in the HD3650 is making no improvement at all.

I replaced an ATI 9550 with the HD 3650, expecting to solve the 720p WMV stutters, but it made no difference ... it seems that the CPU is the limiting factor ...

I have another dual-core PC running MediaPortal and it also has a HD3650, and plays 720p WMV content perfectly.

So, like me, you might need to upgrade your CPU, too ....

 

[mike__25]

I was worried that the CPU may still be a limitation. I was thinking of upgrading the CPU as well as the motherboard still allows a faster CPU

Does anyone know if just replacing the CPU requires a re-install on Windows XP? I have the system well setup so if I can avoid a reinstall that would be a bonus.

 

[phertiker]

I was worried that the CPU may still be a limitation. I was thinking of upgrading the CPU as well as the motherboard still allows a faster CPU

Does anyone know if just replacing the CPU requires a re-install on Windows XP? I have the system well setup so if I can avoid a reinstall that would be a bonus.

It won't. If you were changing the CPU such that you needed a new motherboard then you'd probably have to do a repair install, but just the CPU will be fine.

 

[Der_Bub]

Excellent thanks for the information. Someone else advised me the ATI 3650 would be the best option for my system for 720p downloaded content and HDTV. Will have to check that out and compare specs to your card.

I have to say, that I still use the (old) 8.4 drivers! With any new one (8.12 too!) I have problems with HD-DVDs!

But don't know if it's a driver or PowerDVD Problem...