Choosing a graphic card with low power consumption/heat (1 Viewer)

Timmay

Portal Member
March 13, 2005
10
0
Does anybody have an idea about the power consumption levels of the following cards/chipsets:
- GForce 5200
- GForce MX440
- GForce MX4000
- Radeon 9200

I would assume that the MX440 being the oldest and "slowest" card it also consumes the least power.
Anyone?

- Tim
 

Timmay

Portal Member
March 13, 2005
10
0
Why do you think hardware DirectX9 is important?

I don't know enough about DirectX or Media Portals usage of it but I thought the main differences between DX8 and 9 are in 3d-graphic related areas which are not used in MP (correct me if I'm wrong).

What are the advantages of using a DX9-hardware-compatible card instead of one only software-comp.? Right now I'm using a GeForce 4 and MP works fine (haven't tried tv-recording yet, though) - it's got an active (noisy) fan and my case has no room for a Zalman heatpipe.
 

noocyte

Portal Member
December 9, 2004
18
0
Sandnes, Norway
Not a big deal really, but since the difference was only like 15 USD or so I wish I'd gone for the DirectX9 model (9550).

Honestly I have no idea if that would influence the performance of MP at all. I guess it wouldn't, but others would be better able to answer that question. :)
 

mPod

Portal Pro
January 26, 2005
2,084
3
Berlin
Home Country
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Timmay said:
What are the advantages of using a DX9-hardware-compatible card instead of one only software-comp.?
A DX9 card can do all the DX9 operations directly by its hardware. If it is just a DX8 card, and the driver is DX9 compatible, all these funtions will be performed by the software driver, which results in higher CPU usage. Media Portal is a DirectX 9 application and is heavily using DX9 stuff. That's not only 3D, you can do a search on Microsoft to get details.
Main purpose of DX9 in MP is the use of VMR9 to display video and graphics on top, for example. You can see the difference if you'd use overlay and the OSD with some shading, grading, etc. All other graphics stuff also takes advantage of DX9 hardware acceleration to lower CPU usage. It's not a must, but can be useful in HTPCs with lower CPUs to reduce heating etc.
These are the main reasons, AFAIK.
 

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