Comparison ATI / NVIDIA (in regard to HTPC) (1 Viewer)

[jcee]

I wanted to start a new thread on this, to give just a brief comparison between both cards in regard to HTPC usage. (Pros/Cons/traps).
I want to share my experience and invite others to give there hints/opinions.
(Comparing latest ATI/Nvidia cards with AVIVO/Purevideo)

I took me quite a while to find out these infos and I guess there are others around wondering which cards suit them best.
IF you think that something is a wrong statement, please correct..

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Nvidia:
PRO:
- Purevideo gives best video picture I have seen, crispier and sharper as ATI, more details especially when watching SD material.

- Lot of settings, like timing, costum resolution allows to really find a setting that perfectly match the display (TFT/LCD or Plasma) if you hook up a LCD/Plasma

CONS:
- DVI=>HDMI might not work in DOS! So you wont see any POST/BIOS screen. If windows does not start correctly, you might have to hook on a VGA monitor!!! *)

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ATI:
PROS:

- Works in DOS too!!!!

CONS:
- Only latest driver (Catalyst 6.7?) do allow costum resolution, but not as much settings (timing,etc..) possible compared to Nividia


- Video picture looks little bit washed, inferior compared to Nvidie Purevideo. Not much settings for AVIVO in control panel.

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General:
*) Actuall cards do ask the monitor that is hooked up what resolution and timings it does support. Many LCDs/Plasma for HDTV do not support PC-resolutions, so the gfx does not output a picture.
Modern Nvidia/ATI card work around by scaling the PC resolution internally to what the TV supports.
With ATI this works also in DOS when no driver is loaded. With Nvidia it relies on the driver to be loaded, therefore only working in Windows.

This technologie enables people to play computer games which come with resolutions not natively supported by the panel, as the display adapter works fine.

(FYI: I had on older card before (FX5200), it seems that these older cards just do not care about the supported modes of the panel. It did show DOS/BIOS, but other resolutions where just broken with flickering and noise)

 

[CHli]

Thanks for the very interesting informations. Any idea which models are"scaling-to-match-screen" compatible ? I've got an AGP FX5200 atm but planning to change for better quality. Does only high-end cards supports this features ?

 

[jcee]

What do you mean by "scaling-to-mathc-screen"?

Both cards (ATI/Nvidia) can be configured to do overscan compensation. That means you end up with a costum resolution of let say 1216x711, which just fits onto the display of your TV, so nothing is lost and there are no borders.

When you switch to a game or something that forces a certain resolution (like 640x480), the display adapter takes care of this and the picture appears fullscreen. (Where my FX5200 would just output 640x480) and my Plasma had difficulties displaying, ending up in some parts of the screen lost and some borders as well).

That works pretty nice on both cards as far as I have found out

 

[CHli]

Was speaking about that : "Modern Nvidia/ATI card work around by scaling the PC resolution internally to what the TV supports"