Upgrading from onboard 6150 to 8600GT.

[nikko1974]

Hi,

After picking up a very cheap HD3850 for $110 - I now have a surplus 8600GT - so am considering throwing it in my HTPC.

Until now its plodded along with its onboard 6150 - so how much will the 8600GT assist my HTPC?

At present I view the screen at 1280x720 - output is via the Asus HDTV header that came with the M2NPV-VM motherboard - and so is essentially component video! Will use this again - though via the breakout component video box that came with the card.

Alas on my HD Sony CRT (KVHR32M31) I think thats the best I can do - as I had tried higher resolutions before but it didn't work very well - very flicky!

Apart from freeing up system memory and CPU cycles - what are the other benefits of the 8600GT over the 6150?

I use FFDSHOW for all my video files and upscale via it - so just trying to suss out how to get the most from the 8600GT or if there's a huge benefit from it at all given my semi-limited display.

Thank in advance,

Nick

PS. The 8600GT is the Gigabyte Silent Pipe II - as a passive card how hot do they get in HTPC cases? I don't think I have a lot of airflow in my case around the GPU slot - all the fans are at the other end. Need for concern?

[arkay]

Heat shouldn't be an issue as long as it doesn't get so hot as to start displaying artifacts on screen. I'm certain the inside of my machine is pretty warm with 4 tuners, a fanless 8500 and fans on minimum but I don't really care. The rate we change hardware over these days is far faster than component death due to warm conditions.

Which brings me to my next point. I doubt you'll notice any difference with the 8600 vs the 6150. It'll just work same way it did. I've been though the 5, 6, 7, and 8 series cards and never saw any difference in CPU util or gfx quality.

Most of the difference is supposedly related to GPU assisted decoding. As far as I know this only works with Purevideo which none of us use as it's buggy as hell here. That and the fact that anything from a 5 series and up can manage HD on a Linux machine leads me to believe it's just marketing guff. The CPU does, always has and will continue to do most of the work unless you use purevideo.

Standard DXVA will work on all those cards the slowest of which is probably enough for your needs.

Supposedly you need an 8 series for Blu-ray which is why I bought one but Blu-ray plays fine with my 7600GS too. Go figure. Anything Nvidia can do marketing wise to get you to upgrade for apparent benefit they will.

Make sure to take some CPU readings before and after to see if you get any gains.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by arkay

The rate we change hardware over these days is far faster than component death due to warm conditions.

Philosophical. Do you refer to global warming or increasing consumerisation of our society?

[arkay]

Originally Posted by vlad

Philosophical. Do you refer to global warming or increasing consumerisation of our society?

The latter. Plus increasing heat inside our HTPC's

Global warming is a myth remember? Unless they're referring to the global effect of the increased output of heat in fanless HTPC's

Cheers,

Arkay.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by arkay

Unless they're referring to the global effect of the increased output of heat in fanless HTPC's

Just wait, they will do some expensive study and announce HTPC as a menace to all good and green

[nikko1974]

Hmmm interesting.....thanks for the great response Arkay!

Is a tricky one then......for I've always used PureVideo - did try PowerDVD very briefly but then went back to PV after a few minutes of playing around and not liking the PD console.

So perhaps thats a degree of my problem - as I've noticed that both Vlad and yourself, who's opinions I very much respect are using PowerDVD 7 decoders.

So that may well be worth a shot too while I'm chopping and changing everything again - surely the best way to ANGER the HTPC Gods!!!

Ah - thats a bummer that the smart money is on the 8600GT giving all but the same results as the 6150!

If there's no real difference I'll be hard pressed not to just keep it simple and flog the 8600GT instead.....bummer is only 3 mths old!

What you're saying also makes sense especially in the area of the CPU continuing to do MOST OF THE WORK..........I was trying to envisage last night HOW the 8600GT would help in this area - but could only see it assisting with MPEG2 decoding if you're running PV - but thats really not that CPU intensive!

All the really hard work.......x264, MKV and any high def stuff and upscaling via FFDSHOW - is done by the CPU and I cannot see how any program could offload that to the GPU????

This is a bit of a double whammy as my CPU is a tad gutless........AMD 3800 X2 ( I think its the EE version) but anyway - I have the upgrade bug biting and dunno if I can justify keeping it around much longer.

Oh well we'll see I guess penind these tests.....but I have to change something as I have been finding too much choppiness on HD FTA broadcasts so had to TURN OFF hardware acceleration via the PV console and thats made it smoother but the picture is nowhere near as crisp!

Even the wife has commented on it being soft and blurry......which says a lot as she normally loves to infuriate me by claiming everything looks the same! :-P

[arkay]

Actually from memory the PDVD codecs (at least newer ones) use Nvidia's purevideo.. I think

At any rate you've got the card so it won't hurt to do some testing before and after you install it. If you don't get any benefit then you can hock it and use the money on more HD space

Cheers,

Arkay.

[nikko1974]

Arkay - yes you're right - I thought I'd try PDVD 7.3 as you've got and well if there was any difference between it and PureVideo it was very little.

I'd say it was marginally better.

I really think most of my problems sit with the type of display I have - so when my video signal comes through I have to use the Nvidia option to RESIZE my desktop down to 1168x656 .......this combined with perhaps not using the best Nvidia drivers for the 6150.

I'm currently using 162.18

So many variables - very annoying.

FINAL OUTCOME:

After tweaking around for the best part of the day I found that the 8600GT wouldn't fit in my existing case anyway - was going to test it with the top off but couldn't be assed with all the hassle - as the connection if via component video and isn't as simple as just plugging in a DVI or HDMI cable.

Changed to the latest Nvidia drivers - 169.21 - all but exactly the same - am going to try running 1280x720 resolution - rather than the 'resized' 1168x656 that I was running as my desktop was too overscanned to navigate. Hopefully won't have too many dramas when I occassionally use the desktop!

As much as I'd LOVE to upgrade - I just can't see the point in doing so until I'm also going to do my display - as the two at present kinda compliment each other.... eg the best the HTPC can put out is 720p/1080i - and thats the same as the Sony can display.

Will prolly try to get another year-18mths from it and then flog it to a friend or breakup and use it as a backup system and go the full hog with a 1080p capable monster.

[arkay]

Just FYI I obviously haven't updated my specs but I just use the standard MCE decoder that comes with Vista now. Does everything I need it to do.

On the upside though I had a play myself today now that custom resolutions are back in the latest beta drivers and after 18 months I've finally got my 1:1 pixel ratio under Vista!! Yay!

Just hope the drivers are stable as the last ones caused me many an ehshell crash.

I've got a 1366x768 display but I'm ready for 1080p. Just can't see myself upgrading the tv for any reason anytime soon..

Can spend way too much on this hobby....

Cheers,

Arkay.

[vlad]

Originally Posted by arkay

On the upside though I had a play myself today now that custom resolutions are back in the latest beta drivers and after 18 months I've finally got my 1:1 pixel ratio under Vista!! Yay!

You are a patient one, aren't you?
Amazing that it took from the major manufacturer 18 months to get the functionality we had with MCE 2005.