Graphics Cards what's so special? (1 Viewer)

[Rich78]

Just wanted to ask what is the benefits of higher end graphics cards when others are just as capable?

For example I have a cheap GeForce4200 I play HD @ 1280 x 720p @ 60hz.

The quality looks fantastic over DVI and the speed of the video is realtime.

What would be the benefit of an upgraded card?

Just wondered as there's lots of higher end cards out there but I can't see the justification.

For 3D graphics, it's obvious but not for HD Video......... to me anyway.

 

[Oculus]

For HD it isn't a question of better quality but instead offloading as much of the decoding as possible from the CPU.

There's an article over on Anandtech regarding PureVideo and HD playback (can't link since the site is down atm) that touches the subject of graphics card bandwidth required for smooth HD playback.

As the bitrates for HD content rise, playback acceleration will be essential. For now, if HD isn't a concern, upgrading isn't a pressing issue.

Future cards will undoubtly feature more hardware based HD acceleration features, so you're better off waiting to upgrade until you really need HD playback capabilities.

 

[samuel337]

Also keep in mind you won't get the funky Vista Aero Glass stuff with your gfx card - I've got a similar one and vista won't take it

Some games won't work well with it either.

But its mainly the DirectX stuff (i.e. games) that require a more powerful gfx card. When playing video files, if your gfx card can't do it usually your CPU can kick in and do the work, where as for games, your CPU often can't as the gfx card does specialised things that your CPU can't or does very slowly.

It is recommended (or maybe required...not sure) that you have a directX9 capable gfx card for use with MP as MP uses DirectX to draw its interface.

Sam

 

[gxtracker]

Yep. MediaPortal used VMR9 - which uses DirectX instead of overlays to output your video content. The benefit to this is that VMR9 actually displays your video on a 2 dimensional plane using the 3D renderer. this means that any effects or changes you want to perform to the video are actually carried out by your videocard, and not your CPU. Not only that, but that plane can be manipulated, transformed, moved, etc..

It allows for a lot more freedom and potential to developers, and at the same time offloads processing from the CPU and puts it in the hands of the videocard, which is designed solely to manipulate video.