Small and Quiet GPU for DXVA

[rumpleforeskin]

Any recommendations for a small quiet GPU to add to my HTPC.

Currently using an Intel G620 and the onboard GPU but this suffers a problem with macroblocking when using DXVA in XBMC

[assassin24]

Turn it off. Not needed or necessary.

[rumpleforeskin]

I have read many of your posts here and on a few other forums and appreciate your input as its quite clear your are knowledgeable about HTPC builds

Originally Posted by assassin24

Turn it off. Not needed or necessary.

This is true for 95% of my collection but the G620 is not powerful enough to playback some of my movies without dropping frames.

Anything upto about 25Mb/s is fine with software playback but once it starts getting near 30Mb/s it starts choke.

2 movies I watched recently needed me to turn DXVA on to get smooth playback.
Serpico and Memento - both of which have consistent bit rates above 25Mb/s and frequent spikes over 35Mb/s

So maybe I have a few options:
Live with it
Recode my movies that have a high bit rate to something the G620 can handle
Use DXVA with the G620 and suffer the macroblocking
Add a GPU
Upgrade the CPU
Setup XBMC to use MPC HC as an external player as DXVA functions correctly in MPC but lacks XMBCs user interface

[assassin24]

On a full HD Wall-e rip that I uses for testing I have no issues at all with my G620T. Have you tried different drivers? What's the CPU usage during these movies?

As you mention the DXVA is a XBMC issue and I wish they would fix it.

[rumpleforeskin]

yeah I tried a couple of different Intel drivers but the performance was near identical for all of them. I'm currently back on the 10/10/12 ones now as they don't give me any trouble detecting my TV resolution when coming out of sleep.

Wall-E is a great movie (big fan) and it plays fine on my G620 also, I just checked it with bitrate viewer and though it averages 23Mb/s it has very few peaks over 30Mb/s

Compared to serpico which averages at 33Mb/s and peaks at a few places above 40.

I realise this and memento are probably at the high bit rate extreme of my collection but I would be happier to have them playback well. Looking through my collection its probably closer to 99% that playback fine, I think I just had a bad run of luck watching 2 very high bit rate movies back to back.

Thanks for the suggestions

[Auric]

I'd go with external MPC-HC. Replacing the CPU would prolly be preferable to adding a GPU for a variety of reasons.

[myreal]

I have the same problem as you do with my g550 - I would also say 95% of 1080p files playback fine, but it is really annoying to get dropped frames on some files. I'm also planning either to live with it, or add passive 6450 to use it with dxva...

[Claudius-07]

If you must add a GPU, I can't think of a more practical choice than a gt 430 for XBMC. I currently have a passive one, From Zotac. It's small and of course silent. I play full Bluray rips, not encoded, using Makemkv, that means 25 to 50 gb rips over a GB Ethernet without issues and using dxva in xbmc. Bought it at ncix.com a long time ago. Asus makes one too, passively cooled I mean, no fan if you can't find Zotac. There are variations for low profile as well.

Edit: if I was in the market for a new GPU, say my current gt 430 died, I would actually move up to a GT 640. Just like the gt 430 does not require external power, supports all the bitsreaming audio we want and deserve, is way more powerful than the gt 430, run cool and quiet although I am not sure if there is a passively cooled one yet. Anyhow if you dont mind spending a few more $$ you cannot go wrong with the GT 640 or the 430 for a few bucks less.

[assassin24]

I have the ASUS GT 430 passive. Good card.