X300 X700 or X1300 (1 Viewer)

[Eeyore]

I'm part way through upgrading my HTPC and need a new video card. My old system was AGP and the new one is PCIe

I am a fan of ATI, so that is why i'm deciding between these chipsets....

My problem is I want the pc to be a quiet as possible, but still be able to play HDTV. So, I'm wondering if a passively cooled X300 will be good enough? they are quite cheap here in Australia (about $50)

But, I want the machine to be smooth and play HDTV without fault...so i'm thinking, maybe I should get a X700, they are about $110 here but I cannot find a passively cooled one...my problem is that the case I bought can only fit a low profile (half height) PCIe card...Does anyone know how loud the standard ATI fan is?

So, i'm now thinking...if i cant get a passively cooled X700, I may as well get a X1300 cause they have the same fan and board layout...and they are only about $15 more then the X700...

can anyone help me here? will the X300 be good enough for me? or should I go with the X700 or X1300 for speed...

This is the card i am leaning towards
http://www.powercolor.com/global/main_product_detail.asp?id=77

or here is the X1300 from the same supplier
http://www.powercolor.com/global/main_product_detail.asp?id=108

 

[Tech Geek]

I know you read my post on this subject... but I guess it has a way to go yet.

My problem is I want the pc to be a quiet as possible, but still be able to play HDTV. So, I'm wondering if a passively cooled X300 will be good enough? they are quite cheap here in Australia (about $50)

The X300 is similar to the 3D speed of my ATi 200 onboard video and it doesn't have the bandwidth for HDTV.

But, I want the machine to be smooth and play HDTV without fault...so i'm thinking, maybe I should get a X700, they are about $110 here but I cannot find a passively cooled one...my problem is that the case I bought can only fit a low profile (half height) PCIe card...Does anyone know how loud the standard ATI fan is?

X700 or X1300 cards should handle the bandwidth for HDTV if used with a sufficient clock speed.

The fan is variable speed on many of these cards and the question is how loud is it when used with HDTV content. If the fan doesn't want to run at idle you'll want to use a tool to turn it on for some cards as some people have had heat issues without it running.

FWIW I've seen X1600 cards for $69 US or $59.99 US after rebate which is about the same as an X1300. The X700 cards I've found are as expensive as X1300 and X1600 cards and the X1000 series has Avivo which is a big improvement. No point in not going with an X1000 series card.

The low profile card height could be the real challenge. It's also why I went with a large case. Check the specs for the cheap half height X1300 cards because it can support a 64bit RAM interface which WILL NOT SUPPORT 10GB/sec bandwidth for HDTV. All the low profile X1300 cards I found were listed as 64bit on Newegg.com but their info has been wrong before. Not sure about X700 cards because I couldn't find half heights from the places I normally order. I think they are being dropped because of the price of the X1000 series.

As for the PowerColor cards you linked... the 266Mhz RAM clock speed is NOT fast enough for HDTV even if it has 128bit RAM. Overclocking MAY work but you'd be in the same position I'm in. I won't know until I test it and I'm waiting for the ATi 650 based HDTV tuners before I make another attempt.

I think the magic MHz for 10GB/sec was 315 or 325 but I'd have to do the math again to be sure. You'll be happy to know that the difference between the high speed and low speed X1300 cards is just the RAM and I have overclocked mine up to 550 for the GPU and 418 for the RAM. That speed should be way more than fast enough and I'll probably use less for reliability. Factory was 450 GPU and 250 RAM. But mine is a Sapphire and it may use different RAM so YMMV.

You'd want ATiTool .25 beta 14 for overclocking an X1000 series card.

 

[Tech Geek]

Oh yeah, and the X1000 series supports shader model 3 which is also a plus if you play any games on it.
My X1300 works well for Half Life 2 even with the high dynamic range lighting which was dog slow with the on board graphics.

 

[Eeyore]

I know you read my post on this subject... but I guess it has a way to go yet.

I know, i'm sorry, but i want to get this right

So...i open to suggestions...how about a GeForce7300 series card??? like this one

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/listConfigurations.jspa?seriesId=134941&productId=134968

256BIT 256MB RAM @ 550MHz

 

[Tech Geek]

256BIT 256MB RAM @ 550MHz

That sounds overkill... but what form of deinterlacing are you using?

 

[Eeyore]

i dont know...

and mistake about...that card isnt 256bit

I found the bandwidth calculations

Bandwidth (in MB/s) = (Memory Frequency) * (Bytes of Memory)

So, the ATI X1300 is = 400 * 2 (for DDR) * 8 (64bits)
= 6.4GB/s

to make it 10GB/s the memory needs to go to 640MHz...which will kill it

 

[Eeyore]

and i'm happy, i just found this about the onboard video on my Dell

256-bit graphics core running at 400MHz

16*2*400=12.5GB/s from the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

I'm happy...no shopping for me...

 

[rtv]

The X300 is similar to the 3D speed of my ATi 200 onboard video and it doesn't have the bandwidth for HDTV.

Well, try another codec then - I can play 1080p with cyberlink's pdvd7 quite well here..

I'm happy...no shopping for me... Smile

Good - since even the passive cooled X1300 cards doesn't reach 10GB/sec at default speed..

 

[Tech Geek]

The X300 is similar to the 3D speed of my ATi 200 onboard video and it doesn't have the bandwidth for HDTV.

Well, try another codec then - I can play 1080p with cyberlink's pdvd7 quite well here..

Which do you have? The onboard video will have enough bandwidth. It actually has a LOT of bandwidth.
The X300 is usually a 64bit memory card and isn't even close.

I didn't have trouble playing anything. It was the live tv and recording that caused me problems and only with MediaPortal.

I'm happy...no shopping for me... Smile

Good - since even the passive cooled X1300 cards doesn't reach 10GB/sec at default speed..

Well... overclocking will easily pass that since the GPU is the same as on the PRO cards but how successfull that is will depend on how well cooled your case is.
The X1300 will require much less CPU for video playback and will have a better picture thanks to Avivo.

I would expect the next generation of onboard video to work well with HDTV but I'd treat the current onboard video as an unknown until it's actually been tested because it's going to depend on the CPU, motherboard and RAM you are using.

 

[Tech Geek]

i dont know...

and mistake about...that card isnt 256bit

I found the bandwidth calculations

Bandwidth (in MB/s) = (Memory Frequency) * (Bytes of Memory)

So, the ATI X1300 is = 400 * 2 (for DDR) * 8 (64bits)
= 6.4GB/s

to make it 10GB/s the memory needs to go to 640MHz...which will kill it

Just remember that not all ATi X1300's are 64 bit.
The actively cooled 128 bit models usually have pleanty of bandwidth at their default clock speed. My Sapphire is a 128 bit card but the standard clock is pretty low since it's passively cooled.