Czech Republic
Watch out, this one have fan! There are fanless version available too.
PCI-Express Low Profile Video Card (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jacton
- Start date
Watch out, this one have fan! There are fanless version available too.
Yes, this small fans make lot of noise...
I just got my Sapphire HD4550 passive low profile yesterday and started doing some tests with it in my "experimental" machine (Sempron64 2600+ i.e. 1.6GHz) before I put it in the HTPC. BTW, the card is definitely single-slot, unless you want to use both low-profile brackets to have both DVI and VGA.
I'd previously had an X1800GTO in that machine, which has some hardware offloading. I'd confirmed that the partial hardware offloading was working (much lower CPU usage on some 576p and 720p material, as well as DVD playback comparing software with DXVA).
Using the "1080p killa sampla" (Planet Earth flock of birds) the Sempron was unable to play back using the X1800GTO using the PowerDVD8 codec, despite the partial hardware offloading. CPU 100%, pauses, stuttering, etc. In fact, the T7100 in my laptop can't play back this file (software only) and it's a considerably faster CPU.
In comparison, with the HD4550 the entire thing played beautifully, no skips or jumps. CPU usage was between 15% and 30% (this was also with AC3 decoding on the CPU). I'm expecting that the E7300 in the HTPC will play it at no more than 10%.
Well, beautifully is maybe not quite right - it looks like that particular file isn't properly encoded with profile 4.1. The PDVD8 codec was able to play it, but had lots of blockiness and strange colours. Other files played properly, so I suspect it was just that file.
If you use your HTPC for some gaming as well this card will do OK - I haven't benchmarked it properly yet, but it appears to be faster than the X1800GTO. I was able to play Guild Wars on it at 1440x900 at 4xFSAA at 60FPS - pretty impressive for a passively-cooled, AU$100 video card.
I'd previously had an X1800GTO in that machine, which has some hardware offloading. I'd confirmed that the partial hardware offloading was working (much lower CPU usage on some 576p and 720p material, as well as DVD playback comparing software with DXVA).
Using the "1080p killa sampla" (Planet Earth flock of birds) the Sempron was unable to play back using the X1800GTO using the PowerDVD8 codec, despite the partial hardware offloading. CPU 100%, pauses, stuttering, etc. In fact, the T7100 in my laptop can't play back this file (software only) and it's a considerably faster CPU.
In comparison, with the HD4550 the entire thing played beautifully, no skips or jumps. CPU usage was between 15% and 30% (this was also with AC3 decoding on the CPU). I'm expecting that the E7300 in the HTPC will play it at no more than 10%.
Well, beautifully is maybe not quite right - it looks like that particular file isn't properly encoded with profile 4.1. The PDVD8 codec was able to play it, but had lots of blockiness and strange colours. Other files played properly, so I suspect it was just that file.
If you use your HTPC for some gaming as well this card will do OK - I haven't benchmarked it properly yet, but it appears to be faster than the X1800GTO. I was able to play Guild Wars on it at 1440x900 at 4xFSAA at 60FPS - pretty impressive for a passively-cooled, AU$100 video card.
Hello.
This "1080p killa sampla" (killer_sample.mkv - tons of birds) is not DXVA compatible video file, and it is decoded by CPU (not by GPU).
Yep - as I've since found out through closer inspection of it. Interestingly though, PDVD8 was playing it as DXVA (VMR9 input pin was definitely DXVA), but with massive artifacting. MPC-HC refuses to play it as DXVA.
I'm guessing the artifacting occurred because of too many reference frames - periodically the artifacts would disappear, and then start up again.
I'm guessing the artifacting occurred because of too many reference frames - periodically the artifacts would disappear, and then start up again.