Geforce 6800's video processor

[kallekill]

Is the video processor on the 6800 and 6600 cards actually good for something or is it just a gimmick to put on the feature list? The last I heard of it was that it is disabled in the drivers and that the 6800 was actually worse at decoding video than other modern video cards.

 

[Keysplayr]

What I'd like to know is where you heard it was "worse" from when it isn't even functional yet? How can something compare to something else when it hasn't even been enabled yet? Get the point?
No driver support is available for the vid codec. I have a 6800GT for my gaming and a pinnacle studio 1394 DV/AV card for my video encoding and capturing so I don't think I'm missing much because the 6800's codec is not working.

Nobody should jump the gun. Wait until drivers are released that support this feature and look for reviews and benchmarks. Then make your own decision instead of listening to here-say.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
What I'd like to know is where you heard it was "worse" from when it isn't even functional yet? How can something compare to something else when it hasn't even been enabled yet? Get the point?
No driver support is available for the vid codec. I have a 6800GT for my gaming and a pinnacle studio 1394 DV/AV card for my video encoding and capturing so I don't think I'm missing much because the 6800's codec is not working.

Nobody should jump the gun. Wait until drivers are released that support this feature and look for reviews and benchmarks. Then make your own decision instead of listening to here-say.

Jump the gun? I've had my card for months...more lke fall down and crawl slowly over the gun backwards
LOL.

He's probably refering to Tom's Video Acceleration Tests Link

NV needs to get the damn thing working. I'm missing the functionality of the PVP because its not working..end of story.

 

[kallekill]

Yes, I was referring to the Tom's Hardware article. He concluded that the drivers didn't support the video processor and that the Geforce 6800 without video accelerator support was worse than other cards at decoding video. This article was published on 14 April 2004 and there still isn't support for the video processor. I call that bad driver support.

One of the main reasons I was planning on buying a Geforce 6600 was the video processor, since I don't have the CPU power to decode High Definition Windows Media 9 content.

 

[Auric]

Well it's no excuse but ATI has not enabled WMV acceleration yet either. Or maybe it is an excuse if they are waiting on something from MS. But otherwise ATI has always had the best video. They also have DivX acceleration but unfortunately it is implemented in the DivX player rather than the decoder so is not available with better players like MPC.

 

[imported_mitch2891]

The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least but they don't make it work on my 6800GT.

Where are these drivers to make it work?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: mitch2891
The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least but they don't make it work on my 6800GT.

Where are these drivers to make it work?

I'd like to know this as well....how am I supposed to know if this video processor on my 6800GT even exists or does anything if we can't use it? :roll:

 

[rbV5]

The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least

What makes you say that the 6600 has the video processor working. Do any of the reviews show its performance, or are you talking about the pdf shots?

 

[sparkz]

Originally posted by: rbV5

The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least

What makes you say that the 6600 has the video processor working. Do any of the reviews show its performance, or are you talking about the pdf shots?

Here are the 68000 video encoder benchmarks http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...ce6600gt-theory_6.html

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: sparkz

Originally posted by: rbV5

The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least

What makes you say that the 6600 has the video processor working. Do any of the reviews show its performance, or are you talking about the pdf shots?

Here are the 68000 video encoder benchmarks http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...ce6600gt-theory_6.html

So the 65.76 drivers enable the onboard video processor on 6600/6800 cores then?
If so, they sure took their sweet time. But it looks like it is paying off.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: sparkz

Originally posted by: rbV5

The drivers are available from the 6600GT reviews on guru3D and they support the video processor on the 6600 at least

What makes you say that the 6600 has the video processor working. Do any of the reviews show its performance, or are you talking about the pdf shots?

Here are the 68000 video encoder benchmarks http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...ce6600gt-theory_6.html

Thanks, thats the first I've seen it working. Of course, thats not showing the encoder, but it is showing some pretty sweet MPEG1/2/4 HD decoding assit. I'll try it out on some of my HD transport streams when I install the driver.

Now, hopefully WMV decoding is just around the corner, while the MPEG assist is nice, all the cards handle HD decoding on the test rig except the 6800 anyway. I already have a hardware card that plays the HD transport streams back with no CPU use in my 6800 rig as well. The WMV decoding acceleration is the big deal IMO, nobodies rig handles HD WMV very well at 1080p, even stout rigs use most their CPU cycles to play it back smoothly.

As for the encoder itself, it appears that MPEG encoding requires support within the software itself, rather than being transparent like the decoding. Still the fact that NV finally has the chip supported is comforting...good deal!

 

[Auric]

Interesting but I would like to see a test on a P4 HT as it seems much better than A64.

See the ol' WMV HD thread
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...key=y&keyword1=WMV

 

[kallekill]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Now, hopefully WMV decoding is just around the corner, while the MPEG assist is nice, all the cards handle HD decoding on the test rig except the 6800 anyway.

Maybe WMV decoding is already enabled. I don't understand why they didn't test it in the xbitlabs.com review.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: kallekill

Originally posted by: rbV5

Now, hopefully WMV decoding is just around the corner, while the MPEG assist is nice, all the cards handle HD decoding on the test rig except the 6800 anyway.

Maybe WMV decoding is already enabled. I don't understand why they didn't test it in the xbitlabs.com review.

Maybe, I installed the 65.76 from Guru3d. CPU use is near 100% with WMV HD running the "Step into Liquid" 1080p file with plenty of dropped frames, and MPEG decoding is FUBUR. I'm not sure what the deal is, perhaps something went amiss in the install. I'm going to use drivercleaner and try again.

 

[bpt8056]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: kallekill

Originally posted by: rbV5

Now, hopefully WMV decoding is just around the corner, while the MPEG assist is nice, all the cards handle HD decoding on the test rig except the 6800 anyway.

Maybe WMV decoding is already enabled. I don't understand why they didn't test it in the xbitlabs.com review.

Maybe, I installed the 65.76 from Guru3d. CPU use is near 100% with WMV HD running the "Step into Liquid" 1080p file with plenty of dropped frames, and MPEG decoding is FUBUR. I'm not sure what the deal is, perhaps something went amiss in the install. I'm going to use drivercleaner and try again.

Bad news, click on the following link:
Hexus' analysis on the video processors in the NV40/NV45

 

[kallekill]

Seems to be working on the Geforce 6600 GT. Think I'm going to by me one of these when they come out.