[ATI] Post-processing necessity? (3 Viewers)

[disaster123]

AW: Re: AW: Post-processing necessity?

I'm also thinking about exchanging my HD5450 with a 6570. One main Question do i need GDDR5? Oder is DDR3 enough?

Bigger difference to memory bandwidth is most likely the bitwidth of the video RAM memory bus.

OK right ;-) But the main question would be - do we need it for HTPC? Sadly no test refers to the DDR3 version.

 

[disaster123]

AW: Post-processing necessity?

I now got my Saphire HD6570 and i've used the settings from tomshardware test. But hey this looks absolutly bad!!! With all these settings enabled most edges ae getting blocky... ;-(

So how could the ATI get so good HQV values with these settings?

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

I thought I would "take a step back from things" and re-assess my setup and longterm/ongoing issues:

Occasional Microstutters/"tearing on tear indiciators"
Occasional artifacts

I have a HD5670 which is of similar capability to your HD6570 (give or take). I run ATI 11.4 (11.5 didnt work for me) with the following settings (previously carried over from a HD5450, and before that a HD4290):

Video:
Basic Video Colour: Manual
Advanced Video Colour: Not set
Basic Video Quality: VA
Pulldown Detection: Enabled
Advanced Quality (edge): 10
Advanced Quality (denoise): 13
Advanced Quality (mosquito): 50
Advanced Quality (deblocking): 10
Enabled Dynamic contrast: Disabled
Enforce Smooth Playback: Enabled
Apply video settings to Internet Video: enabled

Games:
HD Antialiaising: Use App Setting
HD Filtering: Use App Setting
Teslation: AMD optimized
Catalyst AI Texture Filtering: Quality
Enable Surface Format Optimization: Enabled
Mipmap detail level: Quality
Wait for vsync: Off unless app specifies
Antialiasing mode: performance (multi sample AA)
OpenGL: disabled


I am on 1.2.0B (custom SVN for Sky EPG), and use Tony's 55x dshowhelper.

I view SD and HD (both 1080p and full 1080i), my render stats lines are flat and I get no dropped frames (maybe one every 10/15 mins).

But I have been suffering from microstutters/"tearing" (I am running EVR on W7) and occasionaly artifacts on fastmoving objects. You cant really see the microstutters, unless you have render stats displayed and you watch the tear line/indicators. Normally they are perfectly clear and parallel, but when I have the issue, they seem fuzzy (like interference on them). The artifacts are visible when they happen.

Anyway, I have tried switching Codecs but this didnt solve it - so I then thought its not Codec related, its probably ATI.

I then moved onto Post Pressing enhancements - I thought these were set fine (had altered them in a while), but I thought for a test I would turn off "enforce smooth playback". I thought this wouldnt make any difference as the card should be able to handle the enhancements.

Big mistake, with this turned off stutter/dropped frames all the time! So it appears my card can not handle VA on 1080i and all the enhancements turned on (contary to what some websites have posted).

To further test this, I have disabled all the enhancements (4 of them) and tried again (all other settings as above)

Guess what - perfect playback - not even the original microstutter/tearing issue or artifacts (based on initial tests)

At the moment I'm going to run with no PP enhancements and see how it goes. The picture looks good without them (alot of purists insist you shouldnt use them anyway - and watch the picture as its meant to be!)

I wonder what card you do need to run all the enhancements at 1080i??!!??

J.

ps - The settings under Game/3D affect video/TV playback - that website/report didnt state what the Games/3D settings were when they tested the PP enhancements??

Me again

I spoke to soon, my issue with the tear bars/indicators is back

I dont seem to have any artifacts though (although still early days), no dropped frames either (although I didnt before)

J.

 

[disaster123]

AW: Post-processing necessity?

> I wonder what card you do need to run all the enhancements at 1080i??!!??
Tomshardware says HD 6570 - i've buyed one alle enhancements working fine no stuttering or so but i've now deactivated all enhancements again. For me the picture gets more worth than better.

 

[mr viggo]

OK, been running my 6570 for a week or so now and my findings are similar to disasters. You can't expect to have a super picture quality just by enabling all the enhancements at their default value. Pink wallpapers behave like stroboscopes and faces look like they have a ton of make-up on them. Iow, the enhancement must be used with a bit of care. I found the skin tone thingy to be worthless (similar colours may flicker) and the de-block option just smears all the nice contrasts into a thick paint blob. But a slight improvement can be seen with a little bit of edge, de-noise and mosquito red. This is of course very subjective.

 

[disaster123]

AW: Post-processing necessity?

I think I've never seen such a bad test by tomshardware. I've just buyer the 6570 to test if you really have a better picture. But all these picture enhancements are useless. You only get a wrongs picture. So I'll stay at my hd5450 which can also do VA on 1080i when all the enhancements are off.

 

[jameson_uk]

One thing to say here is that there are more factors than just the card. Screen itself can make a massive difference too as well as codecs etc.

It is actually very difficult to get a 16 - 235 image out of a pc (which is what most tvs are expecting) which gives you washed out blacks, grey whites and off colours. Also most tvs are not calibrated very well and that can make a big difference with banding etc. Also some sets then apply their own enhancements (even when off) which can undo good processing.

Seems a bit odd that the HQV tests (which are subjective and also a little theoretical) do not seem to be playing out in real life.

 

[disaster123]

AW: Post-processing necessity?

jameson_uk
you're right. But think about dynamic contrast, noise reduction on hd material or fresh tone correction. It just messes up the picture and you will not have the picture which was intended by the producer and cutter. Normally they have selected these colors, this distortion which something in mind and you just change the movie to somthing which it isn't.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

You may also find some card manufacturers have tweaked the card firmware slightly.

I think at the end of it all, there wont be a standard set of settings. Everyone will need to try and see what works best on their setup.

It might even be that the manufacturers have tested their cards against the HQV samples, getting them to work ok, but not as much testing against the various types of content (different resolutions, different fps, different codec/compressions).

J.

 

[gibman]

u should consider the go green models from powercolor :
PowerColor Official Website - Graphics, Cases, Power Supply -- PowerColor Go! Green HD6570 1GB DDR3 (Dirt3 Edition)

it has lower idle watt + passive.

I think the PP settings do wonders on my bravia2 LCD TV.
just use the CCC split screen option while testing PP settings.
I find the noise reduction has too big an impact on picture Q. It doesn't handle motion awfully well.

the HD6xxx series has UVD 3 hardware.
"UVD3 includes support for DivX and Xvid via MPEG-4 Part 2 decoding and Blu-ray 3D via MVC.[6] along with 120Hz stereo 3D support[7]."

/gibman