[ATI] Is ATI Radeon HD4200 better than HD3200? (1 Viewer)

cecolon

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  • April 20, 2006
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    Hi, I had a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, which has to be replaced. I have found different similar boards with different integrated graphic chips. Which chip is best for HTPC-use? I am mostly using it for playing videos on HDMI. HD acelleration is important.
     

    Spragleknas

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  • December 21, 2005
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    the HD4200 IGP is UVD2 - the HD3200 IGP is "only" UVD(1). Not sure if you'd ever notice the difference
    2nd generation: UVD 2
    In November 2007, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) approved additional requirements for Blu-
    ray Discs, known as profile 1.1. The main change was the introduction of dual stream playback
    requirement with picture-in-picture, also known as Bonus View feature on Blu-ray Discs. Adding
    decode of a second stream represents an additional challenge for the CPU, especially for
    movies encoded in H.264 format. As new Blu-ray titles started to be released with this feature
    since the beginning of 2008, it has become important to enable dual stream decode for smooth
    playback of Blu-ray Discs.

    With the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series, the UVD block has been redesigned to answer this new
    playback requirement. Second generation UVD 2 offloads the CPU from decoding two video
    streams; they will then be composited by the GPU’s stream processing units to generate a
    picture-in-picture image on the display (Figure 3). With UVD 2, three codecs are decoded by
    hardware: VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2
    Ref./further reading:
    http://ati.amd.com/technology/Avivo/pdf/ATI_Avivo_HD_tech_brief.pdf
    Unified Video Decoder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Comparison of AMD graphics processing units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     

    cecolon

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    Then I can assume that the HD4200 is at least as good as my old chip? :)
     

    kszabo

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    as far as I read about this topic there is really only 1 difference:
    - 2 streams of video can be accelerated at the same time by HD4xxx, the 3xxx series can only 1

    This means the HD4xxx can picture-in-picture. This feature is not supported by Mediaportal, so not important for us. The HD4200 performs otherwise totally same as a HD3200. AND PiP is theoretically possible with the HD3200, the second stream will be CPU-decoded. Just try 2 instances of MPC-HT the same time!

    So if you MUST replace, you can by a boards with HD4200, but if not, the upgrade to 4200 is a waste of money.
     

    cecolon

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    OK thanks! I must replace, because my old board is broken and no longer in production. I have found one that seems like the "next version" of my old one, with HD4200 and AMD785 instead of HD3200 and AMD780.
     

    kszabo

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    OK thanks! I must replace, because my old board is broken and no longer in production. I have found one that seems like the "next version" of my old one, with HD4200 and AMD785 instead of HD3200 and AMD780.

    I would buy a motherboard with 790 chipset, they can unlock X2 and X3 Phenom IIs to an X4! not a bad thing.... There are not too many µATX boards with 790 though. They have the HD3300 with higher GPU speed = more grafix performance. Paired with a Phenom II X2, unlocked to X4.... :)

    If you are on the "energy saving" hype, Athlon II X2 would be the choice (no unlocking more cores possible), and you don´t need the 790 chipset.

    maybe this: http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a455873.html
    or this: http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a408752.html

    A model with sideport memory is better (ca. +10% 3D performance), but the 128 MB sideport is way too unsufficient for 1080p/i DXVA decoding (it needs at least 256 MB), so no unburden of RAM of shared memory possible.

    If you watch 1080i material (mainly HDTV) you need a HT3 capable CPU for optimal deinterlacing if paired with onboard graphics.
     

    Spragleknas

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    The graphics core in the 785G is upgraded from the HD3200/3300 utilized in the 780G/790GX to the HD4200. The primary difference between the cores is that the HD4200 fully supports DX10.1, Unified Video Decoder 2.0 (UVD), hardware accelerated picture in picture capabilities, dynamic contrast, HQ video scaling, hardware accelerated video transcoding, and full Powerplay support. The graphics core still runs at 500MHz (in current form) and at least in our particular sample, we were able to reach 1057MHz without too much trouble.

    What does all this mean? For one, thanks to the HD4200, AMD finally offers multi-channel LPCM audio output plus additional hardware video accelerated functions
    AnandTech: Gigabyte's GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H - AMD's 785G is Here, Sort of...
     

    kszabo

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    as I see the biggest Pro for the HD4200 is the multi-channel LPCM over HDMI (which I do not use).

    The hardware-accelerated transcoding is a big flop to date according to my research in the internet (only few applications suppot it, they cost money, they do not work always and not stable and only for standard settings -> not what I need).
     

    pilehave

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    I would buy a motherboard with 790 chipset, they can unlock X2 and X3 Phenom IIs to an X4! not a bad thing.... There are not too many µATX boards with 790 though. They have the HD3300 with higher GPU speed = more grafix performance. Paired with a Phenom II X2, unlocked to X4.... :)

    Well, the unlocking of cores is a shot in the dark, not to mention that the unlocked cores may very well be unstable (AMD mostly lock bad cores and rebadge them as X2 or X3). So don't base your purchase on this feature - and buy an Athlon II X4 instead of Phenom. Then you have your quad-core, low TDP, 1080i capable CPU :)
     

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