ATI or NVIDIA motherboard with IGP (1 Viewer)

carmenm

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April 15, 2008
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Hi everyone,

I am soon gonna build a new HTPC. I have been getting infos on the web for quite sometimes now. Until now there was no real other choice than ATI Motherboard. Now There are the new NVIDIA 9400 motherboard. And so i need to make a choice.

So i am here to get advice. I need to know what is the best choice.
My concerns are :

- Dealing with overscan. Currently i have a NVIDIA 8800GT and i cant deal with overscan. Is it easier with the ati 780g?

- the way windows and the IGP deals with dual screen and projector. My setup is and will still be a dual screen : my primary screen is an LCD screen and my secondary screen is my onkyo amplifier which output on my projector. The problem with NVIDIA is that everytime i restart my computer i have to shut down my amplifier, start my computer and then turn on my amplifier. And most of the time, my dual view config is lost and i have to set it back. Does anyone knows if there s a solution for that? Is it better with 780g? I think my brother lost the resolution on his projector at each reboot( 780g)

- MP : I need to be sure MP run smoothly (i dont use TV right now). Currently beeing under NVIDIA i have no problem at all. Are there some real problems with ATI?

- HD decoding: I would need to keep my HTPC very cool with low CPU usage. What do you think is the best? 9400IGP or 780G?

- Gaming: i am thinking of doing some gaming on it. Is the 9400 IGP better than the 780g for that? I might even had a 9800 card to take advantage of the Hybrid SLi. What do you think about it?

I know it s a lot of questions but i think it could be useful to other people.

Thanks
 

rtv

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  • April 7, 2005
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    My HTPC has an Nvidia 8200 IGP which I quickly dropped for an ATI 3450 replacement due to various driver issues.
    My 2nd rig with 780G chipset isn't any better though. However it's stable in general despite the "flickering MP GUI" with DXVA and Vista.

    Just keep in mind - when going 780G you definitely should get a phenom along with it as many important chipset features (regarding deinterlacing, etc) are disabled with the AMD X2 CPUs.
     

    carmenm

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    I am not sure i want to use DXVA epscially because i dont want vista.

    What about dealing with overscan for you rtv ? Do you have multiple monitors?

    Do someone deals with multi monitors on NVIDIA, i would love to have feedbacks
     

    rtv

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    While the "overview" is nice it was only a momentary snapshot. Looking at the last two or three catalyst releases much has changed regarding unavailable displays (especially via HDMI) and DXVA.

    Sorry, I can't help you with your multiple display question. The best advice I can generally give and which all team members share is: Use the same resolution for all connected devices. Everything else might cause trouble - no matter which manufacturer...
     

    tourettes

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    Sorry, I can't help you with your multiple display question. The best advice I can generally give and which all team members share is: Use the same resolution for all connected devices. Everything else might cause trouble - no matter which manufacturer...

    And remember that with clone mode there has been driver issues with both Nvidia and ATI that are disabling the 2nd output (actually they were disabling clone mode itself) when resuming from S3/S4 and no devices are turned. Not 100% sure if its still the case, but it was happening for over a year with both manufacturer drivers.

    Also Nvidia's driver readme has been telling for a long time that clone or dual modes arent recommend for MCE use (so most likely the same issues are expected for MP also).

    Only real good solution for clone mode is to buy a DVI/HDMI splitter so that you will have only one output used in the video card (unfortunately HDMI splitter costs more than the VGA card itself :)).

    If you are planning to use Vista, I would recommend Nvidia, just because that flickering issue with ATI doesnt seem to be cured anytime soon (if ever as no one is currently actively working on it).
     

    carmenm

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    April 15, 2008
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    I am in dual screen mode. But yeah i have different resolutions on my two screen. That might be a problem. BUt right now by biggest problem is related to my motherboard which fails if my onkyo is on during startup. So i was wondering if people had the same kind of setup with ati motherboard. I know using an amplifier direclty connected to the video output might be tricky, i am not sure the videocard or motherboard can really know if anything is connected.

    As for Vista, i dont want to use it at all, so i wont have any flickering problem.
     

    frenzy

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    I've had some hands on experience with a ati4670, a Geforce 9500GT and a Geforce 8400gs.
    1) I think right now overscan is better dealt with, through ati drivers.
    2) MP does work better with the nvidia drivers. Since I moved to the 4670 from the 9500GT I've had about 20 hours of tweaking to overcome some issues. However now it's pretty stable.
    3)About HD decoding and keeping your system cool. Buy a good cooler and you 'll be fine. CPUs were manufactured to be used and so were the rest of the components. Besides you're gaming. If you'll be using subtitles forget DXVA. If you 'll be downloading HD content forget DXVA in at least 30% of the cases. So better be prepared for full cpu decoding.
    4) Both IGPs will suck at gaming.

    Now from personal experience, I have to say that the picture is better with the ati card. Since 8.11 I don't have the atikmdag bug (maybe just me? I didn't check the forums). Both Nvidia cards worked out of the box with MP but with the ATI I had some problems that took some time to fix.
     

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