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ati 9700 pro or nvidia 6800 for dvd and video playback

spdfreak

spdfreak

Senior member
I have 2 cards I can use for my HTPC right now- an older ATI 9700 and a nvidia 6800. Both agp cards. The question is if anyone has an opinion on which will be better for DVD, x264 playback and watching HDTV (HDTV Wonder) on a Westinghouse LVM47 1080p monitor. I know that in general some people prefer ATI for HTPC use to nvidia. Does anyone have personal experience with this? Is the 9700 video playback quality noticeably better than the 6800? Thanks.
 
I can't say about the 6800 bit I had a AiW 9700 pro 128MB and dvd movie quality was the best I've seen up to that time. From what I understand ATI had better IQ until the GeForce 8800-series so, now, they are about equal. For now, go with the 9700 pro. The 6800 will be faster in games, though, but you didn't mention that.🙂
 
Trying to remember....

For .264 playback and HDTV playback, I do not think the 9700 Pro was accelerated for these. I cannot be sure but I believe my 9800Pro was not.

As for the 6800, I think it was contested as to whether they worked or not.
 
The 6800 offered a very minimal amount of H.264 acceleration, it's barely better than nothing at all. Cards with full acceleration are a 2007 thing.
 
I will go with the 9700 for now since I won't be gaming on it at all- just HDTV and DVD. The cpu is a 3800X2 so it should be fine for decoding .264 stuff.

I've got an extra ECS 7050 nvidia MB and an E4500 that I will probably use for a new HTPC build. I'm thinking of using an ASUS 3450 vid card since it has all the video accel stuff and an HDMI port. Plus they are really cheap 20-30.00. The 3450 should be fine for a no gaming machine I assume but most people have no luck getting audio over HDMI. Any other suggestions?
 
Originally posted by: spdfreak
I will go with the 9700 for now since I won't be gaming on it at all- just HDTV and DVD. The cpu is a 3800X2 so it should be fine for decoding .264 stuff.

I've got an extra ECS 7050 nvidia MB and an E4500 that I will probably use for a new HTPC build. I'm thinking of using an ASUS 3450 vid card since it has all the video accel stuff and an HDMI port. Plus they are really cheap 20-30.00. The 3450 should be fine for a no gaming machine I assume but most people have no luck getting audio over HDMI. Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Audio over HDMI is easy on the 4800 series with Vista or XP SP3.

Perhaps the problems with the Audio over HDMI that occured around the 3450's time has been solved by the Microsoft patches etc. in Vista and XP SP3.

May not be the solution but may be a hint as to how to approach it.
 
Certain decoding features were disabled or non-working on the 6800 AGP parts (though I'm not sure R9700 would be any better since it was one generation older than 6800):

PureVideo Product Comparison

This would offer significantly better video decoding than either of them, particularly HD formats, and should be no worse if not slightly better for 3D gaming performance:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102756

If gaming performance is not important, you could even go with the cheaper Radeon 2400 PRO AGP, which also has more capable video decoding than either R9700 or GF6800.

I'm trying to steer you to a new purchase because .264 will be very CPU bound on any ATI card below X1600 Series. Even GF 7 Series, which are the end-of-the-road for NVIDIA AGP, will be very CPU bound.
 
6800 had Mpeg2 acceleration I believe

As for IQ False' statements were correct FOR games! Not exactly the same for movie playback as this is rarely covered
 
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Certain decoding features were disabled or non-working on the 6800 AGP parts (though I'm not sure R9700 would be any better since it was one generation older than 6800):

PureVideo Product Comparison

This would offer significantly better video decoding than either of them, particularly HD formats, and should be no worse if not slightly better for 3D gaming performance:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102756

If gaming performance is not important, you could even go with the cheaper Radeon 2400 PRO AGP, which also has more capable video decoding than either R9700 or GF6800.

I'm trying to steer you to a new purchase because .264 will be very CPU bound on any ATI card below X1600 Series. Even GF 7 Series, which are the end-of-the-road for NVIDIA AGP, will be very CPU bound.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but if I am going to buy a new card, it will be a pcie card for the E4500 system. The 3450's are soo cheap and have full decode for just about everything plus the HDMI port. Maybe they will come out with a cheap 4000 series card that is designed for HTPC so I can get audio over HDMI.
 
Good lord, that's cheap. Jump on it!

There will eventually be a 4450, but it probably won't provide any further benefits for you.
 
FYI, I tried both the 6800 and the 9700 and there is no noticeable difference in video playback quality. I tend to like the 9700 a little better because the default contrast and brightness seems more natural, but that is adjustable on both cards. Anyways, I am going to get one of the 3450's to put in the E4500 machine and then sell the 3800X2 939 stuff. But of course the 3450 is sold out again...
 
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