Ongoing Need 1080- h.264 capable intel cpu advice (1 Viewer)

[Kanon]

I'm looking for a video card to put in my P4 3.4GHZ media PC so I can play back 1080p files without dropping frames. At the moment I have a 6600 Turbo Cache with 128mb of RAM. I wasn't sure if the CPU was up to the job or not and I wasnt sure if off loading the work to the GPU would be enough but it sounds like it is.

Should I buy an ATI HD 2600XT with 256mb or 512mb or RAM? Does RAM make a difference?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,
K

 

[Mr Hipp]

Not really, 256 Mb should be enough, but you must have a decoder that supports hardware decoding (e.g. PowerDVD). ffdshow does not.

 

[Kanon]

This is where I dont quite understand codecs, decoders and what fddshow does exactly.
Correct me if I am wrong please but a decoder would be a fddshow or powerDVD. Mediaportal will use which ever one I choose in the config to display the media file. What I did notice was Fddshow running while playing an mkv file when fdd was set to sharpen which I use on my xvid's. Is there an explanation on decoders and and which to use for what?

Cheers,
K

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

http://users.vic.chariot.net.au/~mitreski/ download Gooses guide, or read post here