Ok... here goes.
The NVidia chipset supports shader model 3. If you want to play games this may be an advantage. However, if you want to do that you are far better off with a card. My $65 refurb Sapphire Radeon X1300 just turned in a 3D benchmark over 3x what onboard video will do after I put heatsinks on the RAM chips on the back side of the board. But the 6100/6150/200 chipsets are fast enough you shouldn't see a difference in MediaPortal.
Neither of my ATi systems use the ATi south bridge so they don't suffer USB performance issues. BTW, most people won't notice a huge difference anyway. They use the ULI M1573 southbridge and have onboard Hi-def audio. I consider that an advantage for a HTPC. The newer audio requires less CPU and provides better quality sound.
Both chipsets overclock well but you may have to resort to using clockgen to do it if the bios doesn't support it. My Tul (200P based ATX board with no graphics) and my friend's 6100 based system both have the same RAM, a 2600+ 754 CPU and are both overclocked to 3300+ levels. Neither had bios overclocking but my Jetway does.
3D Benchmarks seem to favor my ATi Jetway with sideport video RAM by over 600 '03 3D marks vs the 6100 in my tests but it has a 939 CPU so part of that comes from it. The 6150 should be a little closer but from the benchmarks I've seen it would require overclocking to the max to reach the same level as the Jetway. I haven't benched my friend's new 754 version of the Jetway board without sideport video RAM yet. He hasn't purchased a hard drive yet... later this week perhaps.
To confuse matters worse, VIA has a DirectX 9 chipset with shader model 3 that has probably already hit the OEM market. I'd expect some boards to be out next quarter. It should also work well with MediaPortal.
All these chips support hardware video playback but I'm really not sure which is better since they are stripped down versions of what's on the graphics cards. I wouldn't count on this generation working for HDTV playback but I may be wrong. So far H264 support is limited to the latest graphics cards from ATi and NVidia but they have talked like they may extend it to older models. Since this is currently done with the GPU instead of dedicated hardware it is possible we'll see support for the onboard video... but with the limited number of pipelines I wouldn't expect much. As it is H264 playback resolution is limited on lower end graphics cards so an integrated GPU isn't ever going to handle more than lo-res H264 video in this generation. Possibly not even for a couple chipset generations unless they add dedicated hardware.
Really, the video probably won't be the deciding factor. I would say other features like Hi-def audio, TV outputs, SATA ports, PCI/PCIx slot arrangment (important if your case uses riser boards) will make more of a difference. Price may be a bigger factor.
I think the 6100 based ASRock was on sale and why I suggested my friend buy it for his girlfriend over a cheaper DX8 based VIA board. Less than $10 difference... why not get the better graphics?
I suggested the the Jetway 754 board for his personal machine because he's a music freak and it has hi-def audio. SVideo output was also a factor.
I bought my 939 Jetway for $50 as a refurb after building a machine based on that board model for a friend and another one for work.
My Tul was on sale and I think it still sells for $45 new. I just purchased a refurbished one today for $30 from Newegg.com. I have no idea where that's going yet but I couldn't pass up the deal.
The NVidia chipset supports shader model 3. If you want to play games this may be an advantage. However, if you want to do that you are far better off with a card. My $65 refurb Sapphire Radeon X1300 just turned in a 3D benchmark over 3x what onboard video will do after I put heatsinks on the RAM chips on the back side of the board. But the 6100/6150/200 chipsets are fast enough you shouldn't see a difference in MediaPortal.
Neither of my ATi systems use the ATi south bridge so they don't suffer USB performance issues. BTW, most people won't notice a huge difference anyway. They use the ULI M1573 southbridge and have onboard Hi-def audio. I consider that an advantage for a HTPC. The newer audio requires less CPU and provides better quality sound.
Both chipsets overclock well but you may have to resort to using clockgen to do it if the bios doesn't support it. My Tul (200P based ATX board with no graphics) and my friend's 6100 based system both have the same RAM, a 2600+ 754 CPU and are both overclocked to 3300+ levels. Neither had bios overclocking but my Jetway does.
3D Benchmarks seem to favor my ATi Jetway with sideport video RAM by over 600 '03 3D marks vs the 6100 in my tests but it has a 939 CPU so part of that comes from it. The 6150 should be a little closer but from the benchmarks I've seen it would require overclocking to the max to reach the same level as the Jetway. I haven't benched my friend's new 754 version of the Jetway board without sideport video RAM yet. He hasn't purchased a hard drive yet... later this week perhaps.
To confuse matters worse, VIA has a DirectX 9 chipset with shader model 3 that has probably already hit the OEM market. I'd expect some boards to be out next quarter. It should also work well with MediaPortal.
All these chips support hardware video playback but I'm really not sure which is better since they are stripped down versions of what's on the graphics cards. I wouldn't count on this generation working for HDTV playback but I may be wrong. So far H264 support is limited to the latest graphics cards from ATi and NVidia but they have talked like they may extend it to older models. Since this is currently done with the GPU instead of dedicated hardware it is possible we'll see support for the onboard video... but with the limited number of pipelines I wouldn't expect much. As it is H264 playback resolution is limited on lower end graphics cards so an integrated GPU isn't ever going to handle more than lo-res H264 video in this generation. Possibly not even for a couple chipset generations unless they add dedicated hardware.
Really, the video probably won't be the deciding factor. I would say other features like Hi-def audio, TV outputs, SATA ports, PCI/PCIx slot arrangment (important if your case uses riser boards) will make more of a difference. Price may be a bigger factor.
I think the 6100 based ASRock was on sale and why I suggested my friend buy it for his girlfriend over a cheaper DX8 based VIA board. Less than $10 difference... why not get the better graphics?
I suggested the the Jetway 754 board for his personal machine because he's a music freak and it has hi-def audio. SVideo output was also a factor.
I bought my 939 Jetway for $50 as a refurb after building a machine based on that board model for a friend and another one for work.
My Tul was on sale and I think it still sells for $45 new. I just purchased a refurbished one today for $30 from Newegg.com. I have no idea where that's going yet but I couldn't pass up the deal.
Germany