HTPC video card update

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acole1

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2005
1,543
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Right now I my HTPC specs are as follows:
P4 3.2
2GB DDR2 533
eVGA 7600GT CO

I use it to watch and record over the air HD TV, watch movies from cinemanow.com, and play games like COD2, FEAR, UT 2k4 at LAN parties.

Usually it's pretty smooth, but while watching TV or a movie, the CPU is usually maxed out at 50-60% (due to hyperthreading it's not 100%), and sometimes the it will chop or lag.

I may have found a buyer for my 7600GT at about $50, and I wasn't sure which video card would help my CPU utilization problem, and be good for gaming - an HD2600XT or an 8600GT.

It would be nice if it was silent, but due to SFF restrictions my 7600GT barely fits, so any new card would need to be no larger than it. According to the EVGA website, the height is 4.7" or 106mm, and the length is 8.98" or 228mm. With cooling solutions added to the some cards like this one, it looks like they might not fit, but I'll take another look at the case and see if the fins will work.

Does this seem like a worthwhile upgrade?

Your opinions and experiences both good and bad are welcome.

Thanks!
 
lopri

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
HD 3850 beats the crap out of both. You can get one from Best Buy for $160. You'll have to pay tax but at the same time you can easily find a 10% off coupon. Or wait till the upgraded versions of 2600 and 8600 series come out. But I doubt you'd save much and it'd be worthwhile. As a bonus, HD 3850 is quite capable for gaming as well. Unlike gaming, HD playback quality is superior on AMD GPUs than NV GPUs in my subjective testing. HD 3850 is no slouch for gaming, either. By all means it's a slightly cut-down version of 2900 XT, which was a flagship from AMD not too long ago. I play Crysis @1920x1200 with all settings at medium comfortably. (Except shadow @low)

For HD playback, the most demanding clip that I've seen (thus I use it for testing) is this one:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/bbc-nhk.html

Try it @1080p of course. Anything other than GPU acceleration has choked on this clip. With an HD 3850, CPU usage is normally 20~30% and playback is absolutely stutter-free.


 
ZoNtO

ZoNtO

Diamond Member
Sep 27, 2003
3,709
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www.rileylovendale.com
I second that ^^ I own the Visiontek HD3850 and I love the thing. They have UVD (similar to PureVideo2) so it offloads a lot of decoding to the GPU instead of your proc, also, it overclocks quite nicely. In my "HTPC" I have a Q6700 quad core passively cooled and the HD3850 @ 750/1050 overclocked and it pulls 11,100-ish on 3dmark06. All games run great at 1680x1050, PLUS the card is quiet! If you absolutely KNOW that you'll never game, wait for the 3600 series?
 
B

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
There's no question that the 3850 is superior to the 2600xt or 8600gt, but I would never spend that extra cash on the 3850 for a pure HTPC. There's just no advatange that I know of.

Both the 8600gt and the 2600xt will work fine. I'm partial to the ATI cards since the video quality on my own setup has been better with a 2600pro/xt than an 8500gt. Vista Media Center was also less stable on my Nvidia cards (although it's never as stable as XP). If you're on a severe budget, a 2400xt will also work but there are reviews out there that show slightly less video quality from the 2400 series.
 
error8

error8

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2007
3,204
0
76
I would also go for the 2600XT, it's better then the 8600 at video decoding (keeping your cpu load lower) and probably has a better picture quality (some say that) . The problem is that is so very bad for gameing, and you can't really consider this card as an upgrade from your 7600 GT . Some people suggested the 3850 which is by far better then all these, but is also more expensive. If you afford it , go for the this one, if you don't go for the 2600.
 
B

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
The 2900 is not a good choice for an HTPC due to it's high heat generation and issues with HD decoding/acceleration. I'm not sure if the current 'pro' generation has the same issues, but when the 2900's were first released, there were problems with its ability to process the HD/blu-ray decoding (i.e. it didn't take the load of the processor like the 2600 series).
 
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imported_Scoop

Senior member
Dec 10, 2007
773
0
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Updating 7600GT to 8600GT or 2600XT doesn't make any sense. 2600XT actually performs worse than 7600GT according to tomshardware charts and the 8600GT is just slightly better, not worth spending money on.
 
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heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
6,278
0
0
Originally posted by: Binky
The 2900 is not a good choice for an HTPC due to it's high heat generation and issues with HD decoding/acceleration. I'm not sure if the current 'pro' generation has the same issues, but when the 2900's were first released, there were problems with its ability to process the HD/blu-ray decoding (i.e. it didn't take the load of the processor like the 2600 series).
Click to expand...

The 2900 'pro' hardware acceleration/decoding is comparable to the 2600/2400's. Power/performance @ load is roughly similar to the old 8800gts 320mb (270w ??) - if not a better performer ...

Even with the ATI 'AA' ugliness .... :)
 
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