Best AGP solution for HTPC video

[Chosonman]

List them

Looking to watch 720p or 1080p video on a AMD64 Socket 754 system I'm reclaiming.

 

[spdfreak]

Even an old ati 9700 will output 1080p without problems. But, if you are going to get a blu ray drive, you should get a 2600XT or 3850. For regular HDTV though, almost any decent card from the past 3 years will work fine. I'm using a 9700, and a GF6800 in my 2 HDTV capable systems.

 

[Chosonman]

So you think if I grab my friend's ati 9800 pro that'll work? How do I rep you? Thanks

 

[TurtleCrusher]

If you can snag a x1650 from someone you be alot happier than with a 9700.

 

[mwmorph]

It depends on your cpu, it can certainly tax your processor into dropping frames. I remember I tried playing IMAX The Magic Of Flight in 1080P and it dropped frames left and right(fast moving scenes + 1080P processing on a 9800Pro and Amd 64 3200+).

With newer cards and the correct codecs, it should handle video decoding ,especially HD decoding in the formats they support much better. X1XXX cards had Avivo while HD2xxx and 3xxx had UVD/AvivoHD which was better at offloading the video almost completely from the processor. The 2900XT does not have UVD but uses it's shaders to do the same thing as UVD.

 

[ther00kie16]

It also depends on what media player you use. VLC is very efficient compared to zoom player and windows media player. I have a athlon xp 3200 with a 9800pro and couldn't play some HD content with zoom or wmp but VLC plays them easily and CPU load isn't even near 100% most of the time.
If you want to upgrade and don't need the power of a 3850 for gaming, look for a 2600 (ebay). Or if you dislike ebay, there's the 3650 for ~$90 at newegg and mwave. 3650 should perform identical to a 2600xt.

 

[BassBomb]

Get ati 3xxx series

1080p kills especially when not accelerated. With acceleration my P4 still jumps to 70% use with 7900GS

It is complicated to get codec's right... but once you do a 3xxx will perform much better than anything else out there

 

[Chosonman]

Thanks for the replies. One thing I noticed was I got better performance on my main media rig (AMD 4600 X2 w/ HD3850) using the CCCP codec package over the VLC player. Tried to play BBC Earth in 1080p and my system would just choke using the VLC player but once I changed to CCCP and used the Classic Media player it played fine.

As for my AGP solution, I'm still looking into it. I like the HD3850 I have and would love to get an AGP version but not for the current price of about $150-200. I might as well spend $50 to replace my MOBO with a PCI-e version and use a 7600GT I have lying around collecting dust. I saw a HD2600pro at Micro Center for $130 but couldn't get myself to get that either. Ideally I would like something that works well for 1080p for under $80.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
Thanks for the replies. One thing I noticed was I got better performance on my main media rig (AMD 4600 X2 w/ HD3850) using the CCCP codec package over the VLC player. Tried to play BBC Earth in 1080p and my system would just choke using the VLC player but once I changed to CCCP and used the Classic Media player it played fine.

As for my AGP solution, I'm still looking into it. I like the HD3850 I have and would love to get an AGP version but not for the current price of about $150-200. I might as well spend $50 to replace my MOBO with a PCI-e version and use a 7600GT I have lying around collecting dust. I saw a HD2600pro at Micro Center for $130 but couldn't get myself to get that either. Ideally I would like something that works well for 1080p for under $80.

Here's a 2600 Pro at your price point ....$79

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131081

 

[Chosonman]

Thanks for the link.

One last question,
It looks like I'm going to get a 6600GT for free. How well will that decode video? Would it be worth upgrading to something else?

 

[spdfreak]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
Thanks for the link.

One last question,
It looks like I'm going to get a 6600GT for free. How well will that decode video? Would it be worth upgrading to something else?

I'm using a 6800 agp in my HTPC (3800X2) and it outputs to a Westinghouse LVM47 over DVI at 1080p just fine. But all I'm watching is OTA HDTV and recorded HDTV- no blu ray. I think you will be OK with the 6600 or the 9800pro if you choose your player and codecs carefully. I had to experiment with mine but I ended up using MPC. I think it has the lowest overhead of most players. The only one my system really chokes on though is WMP 11. I think that the codecs that WMP 11 uses are not the best...

Oh Yeah... if all you are doing is watching video and not gaming at all, you can get a 2400pro and it will do all the HD hardware accelerated stuff. Very cheap- about 35.00 at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102734

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: spdfreak

Originally posted by: Chosonman
Thanks for the link.

One last question,
It looks like I'm going to get a 6600GT for free. How well will that decode video? Would it be worth upgrading to something else?

I'm using a 6800 agp in my HTPC (3800X2) and it outputs to a Westinghouse LVM47 over DVI at 1080p just fine. But all I'm watching is OTA HDTV and recorded HDTV- no blu ray. I think you will be OK with the 6600 or the 9800pro if you choose your player and codecs carefully. I had to experiment with mine but I ended up using MPC. I think it has the lowest overhead of most players. The only one my system really chokes on though is WMP 11. I think that the codecs that WMP 11 uses are not the best...

Oh Yeah... if all you are doing is watching video and not gaming at all, you can get a 2400pro and it will do all the HD hardware accelerated stuff. Very cheap- about 35.00 at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102734

Great info. Thanks