HDDVD/BD decoding with X2 Brisbane

[rexian96]

Wanted to post the message here and not on DT.

I have been eying this bad boy, 8600GT, which is going to be available in 10 days. Can this, in a combo with an overclocked Brisbane 3600+, decode 1080p BD/HDDVD?

That 3600+ Brisbane at $65 is very tempting and I see it can be overclocked to 2.5GHz fairly easily. Anybody think it's possible? Thanks.

 

[thilanliyan]

I think the new ATI cards that are coming out will have hardware HD decoding...I'm not sure about the 8600 series.

 

[rexian96]

No h/w HD decoding ? I thought G8x decodes H264 and for HD just more horsepower needed. Do you mean 8600GT doesn't have the hp or it won't support 1080p resolution?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: rexian96
I have been eying this bad boy, 8600GT, which is going to be available in 10 days. Can this, in a combo with an overclocked Brisbane 3600+, decode 1080p BD/HDDVD?

This Anandtech article should tell you all you need to know.

 

[rexian96]

I read the article. But it didn't talk about AMD CPUs at all. From the article it seems a moderately overclocked (around 2.6GHz) E4300 can decode BD H264 without any GPU help. Since X2s are no C2D, so I am assuming @2.5GHz, Brisbane will still need some help. Am I right? If yes, then the question is, will 8600GT be able to help? I am asking about AMD because I plan to do some gaming, if HTPC was the only thing needed then an E4300 with moderate overclocking would be more economic choice IMO.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: rexian96
I read the article. But it didn't talk about AMD CPUs at all. From the article it seems a moderately overclocked (around 2.6GHz) E4300 can decode BD H264 without any GPU help. Since X2s are no C2D, so I am assuming @2.5GHz, Brisbane will still need some help. Am I right? If yes, then the question is, will 8600GT be able to help? I am asking about AMD because I plan to do some gaming, if HTPC was the only thing needed then an E4300 with moderate overclocking would be more economic choice IMO.

An X2 @ 2.6GHz is roughly equivalent to a stock E6400, which runs at 2.13GHz. On it's own it'll probably struggle, but I'm fairly certain the 8600 series will have HD acceleration to take some load off the CPU.

Just browsing the Anandtech charts, the E6400/8800GTX combo tops out at 86.7% CPU utilisation, however, the E6400/1950XTX combo hits 100% utilization which I assume is unacceptable and would lead to video stuttering.

It all comes down to the level of HD acceleration on the 8600 series cards, if it's anything like the 8800 series then an X2 @ 2.6GHz should be fine, if it's less powerful (which I doubt) then it'll be a bit touch and go...

The good news is that most Brisbane X2s can exceed 2.6GHz, 2.8 - 3GHz are not uncommon, and at such speeds it would come close to a stock E6600 which should be fine in all cases except unaccelerated playback.