[NVIDIA] New silent card - Nvidia or ATI??? (1 Viewer)

[nfox]

EDIT: or maybe a 4670 Silent like this? Elite Bastards

I recently purchased the 4650 version of that model of card. I bought the 4650 not the 4670 mainly cos of price, but I was also concerned about heat/power consumption in my poorly ventilated Silverstone LC17 case with only a 300W psu. It fits nicely in the case, although I had to remove the "stiffening bar" that runs down the middle of the case from front to back as it was over the only PCI-e x16 slot on my mobo, and when left in place it just fouled the top of the cards heatsink.

IMO, which card to get really depends on what you're gonna be doing with your htpc. If you're not thinking of any gaming use, the 4550 will be fine and will cope very happily with any HD resolution for video files, TV, etc. On the other hand, if you want to play games at 1280x720 (as I do - GH3 ftw!!!) then the 4650 is good, if you're gonna play games at 1920x1080 then you'll definitely need the 4670. Hope that helps with your decision.

 

[sinin]

Do the ATI cards have issues with Blu-ray 24fps playback? I have read that the support for this is better under the Nvidia cards. And that the Radeon cards have some issues.

In my set-up I am using a Yamaha DSP-AX863 AV receiver with both HDMI and SPDIF input that is capable of True HD decoding, although I only have 5.1 surround. Obviously I want the AV receiver to do the decoding so I just want the audio to pass though to the amp. If 5.1 is all that can be passed via SPDIF, then that isn't to much of a worry, but wil the PC actually downsample a TrueHD track on the Blu-Ray disc, for example, if the audio is sent via SPDIF?

Ideally I would love perfect 24fps support and full pass though of all audio to the Amp.

I have been looking at some more powerful cards (as I also want my HTPC to cope with games) such as the 4870 or 4890, although I have seen the fanless 4850 or the 4770. On the Nvida side i have been looking at the 275.

I have also been toying with the idea of water cooling these system, but I don't know enough about this as yet.

 

[kiwijunglist]

My ATI has no issues with 24fps 1080P mkv files, I don't have a bluray drive.
4670 will prob be too slow for proper gaming at 1920x1080
You can get pretty silent HTPC without the major hassle of water cooling and remember that water cooling still requries fans for the radiator.

 

[sinin]

My ATI has no issues with 24fps 1080P mkv files, I don't have a bluray drive.

MKV files are generally highly compressed version of such formats with relatively low bit rates compared with an actual BluRay disc. The only way this will be answered is if someone actually has a BluRay drive. Ideally, I would like to know the differences between NVidia and ATI is this area.

 

[kiwijunglist]

lots of reviews of ATI DXVA bluray on the internet, just google.

 

[Owlsroost]

I'd also take a look at Guide to Building a HD HTPC - Page 85 - AVS Forum - and then search Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum for 24Hz video card info.

Tony

 

[sinin]

I'd also take a look at Guide to Building a HD HTPC - Page 85 - AVS Forum - and then search Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum for 24Hz video card info.

Tony

The guide was one of my concerns! It seem to suggest that 24fps is only "supported" on the Radeon cards, yet the Nvida cards are "excellent".

Hmm, the more you digg, the deeper you realise the pit is!!!

No matter what card you go for, it looks as though neither sound or audio can be passed in full resolution! Current version of windows only support a maximum of 24bit colour depth, so deep colour is not supported. It looks as though Windows 7 will support colour depths of 30 and 48bits, but typically not 36bits which is the highest colour depth of my Pioneer.

In addition, although the Radeon cards support multi-channel LPCM pass through via HDMI, the sound is actually downsampled on protected mediums. From what I understand then, Blu-ray and HD Audio disk will not be passed in true high resolution but rather a maximum "48 kHz and no more than 16 bits". Apparently there are stand alone audio cards that can transport True HD audio, but it means that audio benefits of the Radeon cards seems not apparent.

I haven't come across anything on 24fps Radeon support, but the above took my interest.....

 

[crazyfool]

From my experience ATI cannot do 24p period. I've tried 3 different cards and a 780G motherboard and it seems ati has no problems decoding the video and no problems passing the sound, just not in sync. Nvidia is currently the best option for 24p playback atm. Also if you want untouched true hd audio then you need the Asus Xonar card i think the model is HAV or something.

 

[pixie]

which dedicated GPU with onboard NVIDIA 8200?

I'm looking for an additional GPU, I now have integrated Nvidia 8200 (256 MB shared RAM) which is just a little weak for CUDA support in 1080p or TV recording.
Which Nvidia card would you recommend? It should be Hybrid SLI and CUDA compatible.
Is 9500 GT OK, or something higher?

Current specs: MBO Asus M3N78-VM (integrated Nvidia 8200), 4 GB DDR2 RAM, Athlon x2 4850e, running Vista ultimate 64bit and MP 1.0.2.0.
Thx!

 

[Owlsroost]

A 9500GT works fine for me de-interlacing 1440 x 1080i to a 1080p display (but I don't use CUDA).

There is a new nVidia card on the way - the GT220 - which looks like it might replace the 9500GT eventually - see http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gt_220_us.html (only an OEM product at present, but doubtless retail versions will appear in due course).

Tony