Replace my GT430 with?? (1 Viewer)

TheBatfink

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  • June 11, 2007
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    I just found a HD7750 http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/...VI-I-HDMI-DisplayPort-PCI-E-Retail_43916.html which must be more powerful than a GT430, but I have a sneaky feeling my motherboard doesn't have PCI Express 3.0, only 2.0.. need to check that out.

    Is DXVA2 something I can set somewhere?

    The only things I can think of is either -
    - its something to do with how I use SPDIF for audio and HDMI for the video (but then why would it appear to go in and out of sync and not be a permanent delay)
    - I only have 2GB ram
    - I have something stupid set in my settings

    In the last couple of months I pulled out my 2ghz Core2Duo and put a 2.something Core2Quad in there so I'm not sure what else I can change now.

    I also thought that something was going on in either the MePo playback or LAV that was monitoring the sync and dropping frames if it goes out.. but I have no dropped frames?

    Thanks
     

    Lehmden

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  • December 17, 2010
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    Hi.
    - its something to do with how I use SPDIF for audio and HDMI for the video (but then why would it appear to go in and out of sync and not be a permanent delay)
    Same setup here, no problems. Intel C2D E2200, GT 430 HDMI @1080 to TV, SPDIF to AVR...

    - I only have 2GB ram
    This is enough. I have 6 GB build in but use 3 GB as RAM Disk so I'm using 3GB, what did not make a big difference.

    - I have something stupid set in my settings
    I believe this is the case. Maybe you have problems with your Timeshift Drive so there is the point to look at. As you did not have enough RAM you can't test RAM Disk for that, so you need to change Timeshift folder to another HDD for testing. If I were you I would buy another 4 GB of RAM and set up RAM Disk for Timeshifting rather than buy a new GFX card...

    I'm using drivers (would not work without;) ), did not exactly know which one (I think my sys specs are up to date there), but normal drivers from NVidia Website. They are a bit older as I never encountered any problems with. I've changed them time to time (if I think of and have time to do so), but never got any issues at all. All hacks on drivers (e.G. Quadro drivers) are leading to more problems than benefits, not my way. If you change to ATI you really will be in "Driver Hell" for sure, as AMD drivers are extremely buggy all the time... I had used ATI all my "HTPC- Live" and changed to NVidia GT430 1.5 years ago as I can't stand any longer the tons of driver issues AMD could not fix. Especially as if one bug was fixed, 10 new ones appear... Since my GT430 I did not get a single issue related to GFX and/or drivers at all. I think I will keep the GT430 until I need a new one for 4K...

    I'm using "normal" Win7 MS-Codec for H264 live TV with AC3 filter for Audio and LAVF as Splitter. Gives me best results. AC3 Codec is necessary due to the fact my AVR is way too old and has problems with 2.0 or 1.0 Audio via AC3. With AC3 Filter I can "upscale" all 1.0 and 2.0 Audio to 5.1 so my AVR can handle this properly.
     

    Owlsroost

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    I agree with the others that the GT430 should be fine (I run GT430 + C2D E4400 + 4GB ram (1GB used for ram disk) + analogue audio to AVR) - could this be a sound driver problem ?

    Tony
     
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    tourettes

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    Maybe you have problems with your Timeshift Drive so there is the point to look at. As you did not have enough RAM you can't test RAM Disk for that, so you need to change Timeshift folder to another HDD for testing. If I were you I would buy another 4 GB of RAM and set up RAM Disk for Timeshifting rather than buy a new GFX card...

    Every single HDD made in previous last ten years is fast enough for timeshifting a single channel. Also especialy when 1080p is ok then the timeshifting side is most likely ont to be causing the bottleneck.

    I'm using "normal" Win7 MS-Codec for H264 live TV with AC3 filter for Audio and LAVF as Splitter.

    You cannot change TsReader to any other splitter for recorded or live tv.
     

    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    Every single HDD made in previous last ten years is fast enough for timeshifting a single channel. Also especialy when 1080p is ok then the timeshifting side is most likely ont to be causing the bottleneck.
    Maybe, but on all systems I have set up (about 50 or so) it was simply impossible to get Timeshift working on the same HDD/SSD as Windows resides. Other physical drive is working, but Windows did too much "really important" :mad: stuff so timeshift stutters a lot... And for that RAM disk is the cheapest and fastest possibility. On timeshift you need to read and write at the same time. This will always need much more drive- speed than any playback only- action. The bitrate of 1080i HDTV material isn't really much lower than most of BluRay files. Scene MKV are mostly at lot lower bitrate also it's 1080p. So 1080p means nothing in this case. So you need to read and write a BluRay at the same time and if Windows do something at the same time also, it's too much at all. This is for a single HDTV stream. If you have two at the same time you need 4 times a BluRay plus Windows, and so on...

    You cannot change TsReader to any other splitter for recorded or live tv.
    I meant, I have LAVF installed and use it as a MKV, AVI,... Splitter but MS Codec for h264 Video. Sorry I did not make this clear enough. For Mpeg2 and other stuff I use LAVF as Video Codec but not for h264...
     
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    tourettes

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    Hi.
    Every single HDD made in previous last ten years is fast enough for timeshifting a single channel. Also especialy when 1080p is ok then the timeshifting side is most likely ont to be causing the bottleneck.
    Maybe, but on all systems I have set up (about 50 or so) it was simply impossible to get Timeshift working on the same HDD/SSD as Windows resides. Other physical drive is working, but Windows did too much "really important" :mad: stuff so timeshift stutters a lot... And for that RAM disk is the cheapest and fastest possibility. On timeshift you need to read and write at the same time. This will always need much more drive- speed than any playback only- action. The bitrate of 1080i HDTV material isn't really much lower than most of BluRay files. Scene MKV are mostly at lot lower bitrate also it's 1080p. So 1080p means nothing in this case. So you need to read and write a BluRay at the same time and if Windows do something at the same time also, it's too much at all. This is for a single HDTV stream. If you have two at the same time you need 4 times a BluRay plus Windows, and so on...

    1080p doesn't have anything to do with scene releases - it can be also DVB-S2 / DVB-S / DVB-C / DVB-T sourced where it has same bitrate characteristics as 1080i. 1080i alone wont indicate any higher bitrate than the 1080p would be - usually it is the opposite as interlacing has been initially developed to reduce the used bandwidth (on analog world it reduces the bandwidth 50%).

    Blu-ray has maximum / peak bitrate around 40Mbit/s, based on http://www.advantechwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/DVB-S2-theory.pdf DVB-S2 has around 21.5Mbit/s peak rate with 8Mhz bandwidth.

    OS itself will be limiting the read/write bandwidth requirements by caching the just written / hot data in the filesystem cache. This will effectively remove the simultaneous read & write operations to a simple write operations (unless all users would be having long timeshifting buffers - which wouldn't be possible with the RAM disk in any case as it would run out of the space as well).

    HDD (just picked up some random few years old review, smaller than 1 GB drives) - http://www.storagereview.com/hitachi_travelstar_7k500_review . Best matching speed test is the 2 MB random write (even thou our writes are quite much sequential unless the HDD is really fragmented & full). Slowes drive did have around 37MB/s write performance.

    From pure numbers it would be visible than you have no issues with ten simultaneous HD channels. As roughly 37 / (21.5 / 8) ~~ 13.7. To play safe you could divide the result with four and still have around 3 channels.
     

    TheBatfink

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    I have only 32bit Win 7 installed so any more ram wouldn't show up anyway would it so trying a ram disk may prove difficult.

    Regarding the HDD for timeshifting, it is seperate from windows OS but is an older drive and also likely to be a 'green' 5600rpm type. The motherboard and drive are also definately only SATA2. It is purely used for live recordings and timeshifting though (and the folders excluded in Microsoft Security Essentials). I don't have these issues with 720p and 1080p h264 .mkv's, it does only seem to be on the live TV.

    The drivers on the motherboard for SPDIF are either Windows Update or from Gigabyte, maybe it's something to look at, but thinking about now I'd assume it this would manifest in all media and not just live TV if this were the case.

    Having to decode the signal couldn't be having an effect could it? That's handled by software / plugin / usb card reader.

    Maybe its worth benchmarking my graphics card / system somehow and seeing if something shows up strange?! Whats a good tool for doing that these days?[DOUBLEPOST=1354632203][/DOUBLEPOST]
    I'm using drivers (would not work without;) ), did not exactly know which one (I think my sys specs are up to date there), but normal drivers from NVidia Website. They are a bit older as I never encountered any problems with. I've changed them time to time (if I think of and have time to do so), but never got any issues at all. All hacks on drivers (e.G. Quadro drivers) are leading to more problems than benefits, not my way. If you change to ATI you really will be in "Driver Hell" for sure, as AMD drivers are extremely buggy all the time... I had used ATI all my "HTPC- Live" and changed to NVidia GT430 1.5 years ago as I can't stand any longer the tons of driver issues AMD could not fix. Especially as if one bug was fixed, 10 new ones appear... Since my GT430 I did not get a single issue related to GFX and/or drivers at all. I think I will keep the GT430 until I need a new one for 4K...

    I noticed the other day Windows Update kindly decided to update my Card Drivers from the Quattro hack job ones to presumably the latest certified ones from Nvidia. Straight away this sync problem (audio ahead of video) manifested in both my live TV AND static .mkv media files. I put the Quattros back and my .mkv are fine again.

    I'm sure I'm not dreaming these sync issues!
     

    TheBatfink

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    Exactly which Asus GT430 have you got ?

    The reason I ask that this cut-down version - http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGT430DI1GD3MGLP/#specifications - only has 64-bit wide memory, so it will be slower than a proper GT430 (which should have 128-bit wide memory).

    Tony

    128bit, if the label on the box is correct anyway! http://uk.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGT430DI1GD3LP/#specifications

    Do you think its worth moving my timeshift folder to my SSD temporaily and making the timeshift time much smaller or wouldn't that simulate a more efficient HDD. I know SSDs aren't recommended for shifting, just wondered if it was only because it would wear them out fast.[DOUBLEPOST=1354638860][/DOUBLEPOST]Dunno if this means much but I just resummed my PC from sleep, closed MePo (it was running when it resumed) and had a look at the resource monitor in task manager, is it normal of mysql to be using so much CPU (see second image) when I would presume its not doing anything currently?

    EPG grabbing :)
     

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