Lets go back in time; help me choose a video card

[delussional77]

Okay heres my situation. I currently have a Pentium 4 system with 512Mb of RAM on an AGP mobo, but it bogs down just slightly when playing my .mkv encoded 720p movies onto my TV. Instead of replacing the whole system with a better mobo/cpu/ram I'd like to try getting a better video card.

Currently the card is a GeForce 420MX or something like that. Doesn't even have a DVI port, just a single VGA. I'm hoping it is my bottleneck and the reason for my inability to play hd content smoothly. I have tried every software solution known to HD playblack and nothing has solved the problem.

Because I don't know if a new AGP video card will work I'm limiting my budget to a max of $60-70 bucks. I'd be purchasing from newegg and have found 3 cards that have good potential. I don't play games so I have never paid much attention to video cards and certainly have no idea what a decent AGP card is as my current desktop is PCI. I plan on using the DVI out on the video card to my HDMI 720p HDTV.

So the cards I have found are the following:
ATI Radeon 9550
EVGA GeForce FX5500
PNY GeForce 6200

Although on the PNY 6200 it says it's for 64bit and the version of XP installed on the HTPC is definitly 32bit, I don't know if that will make a difference. The EVGA looks like the best compromise in terms of price, features, and positive reviews on newegg.

I'd like AnandTech's feedback though. Thanks alot, you guys rock!

 

[IlllI]

the 9500 or the 6200. fanless > fan

oh and that 64bit refers to how the video card memory interacts with the video card gpu. generally the higher the bandwidth the better (for games anyway). theres 128bit, 256 etc. so it has nothing to do with your operating system, so theres nothing to worry about

 

[Modular]

You need to get a 6600gt from eBay or some etailer that's selling them for cheap. Then pick up the PureVideo decoders off of the nVidia site (just get the cheapest one, it's 19.99). The cards that you are looking at are not ideal for HD content.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

Look at the list of AGP cards on this chart and what they support. The 6600gt is the best for the price.

 

[delussional77]

damn, i keep getting told different things. They don't even make a 6600GT AGP that I can find in my price range. Do you really think that upgrading to one of the cards that I mentioned will have no effect? I was told that most of HD decoding is done via the processor, so how much impact does the video card even have?

I only ask this because my HD playback is just slightly glitchy, it plays but definitly drops frames. It's not horribly noticeable but enough to drive me insane. I was really hoping that picking up a new video card, within my budget, would make a difference! Any input?

 

[IlllI]

well if you can deal with a rebate then Text

 

[delussional77]

Well I could deal with the rebate. Is there any promise though that this card will fix my playback problem. Is there a possibility that one of the cards I listed would fix it?

 

[Modular]

What is the speed of your P4? Is this an OEM computer (Dell, Compaq, HP etc)?

If this is a home built system the best thing for you to try would be overclocking your CPU. If that doesn't make a difference then it will most likely be the video card that is causing the dropped frames.

 

[Auric]

MKV is a container so is irrelevant. The important things are the codecs. The most pop encoder is x264 which sadly produces files which cannot be accelerated by decoders -in contrast to standard AVC implementations used for broadcast and commerical discs.

So no viddy card will help and therefore the only hardware option is a peppier CPU. My P3000 @ 3600 certainly has no trouble with software-only decoding of the usual bitrate 720 schtuff. I have not tried it at 3000. What CPU and decoder are you using? 'nutha option is to use a software decoder which allows for non-standard disabling of in-loop deblocking such as ffdshow (ffmpeg/libavcodec) or CoreAVC, thereby potentially reducing the quality which may be an acceptable interim solution.

DxVA (7600GT + CyberLink) is required for 1080 schtuff but again, would not help with those x264 recodes. If you do want DxVA then the best low-cost card at the mo' is the 7300GT (128-bit), at least until the X2400 is available.

 

[delussional77]

Modular, the computer is an OEM (HP 762n Specs)

Would that specs be okay for 720p playback (not looking for 1080p).

I promise I have tried every software solution presented and nothing was able to reduce the problem. The frame drops are very slight and I don't want to have to upgrade every component just to fix it.

Thanks for the post Auric, I don't understand much of it, but I appreciate the response. I'm going to make sure I have tried all those options you have listed.

 

[Auric]

2.26GHz? Well, if the drops are slight then try the lower quality options as said, especially with CoreAVC as it is pretty quick for software-only. Otherwise look into replacing the CPU. A quick goggle reveals P4 up to 3GHz and Celeron D up to 3.2GHz are available for 533MHz FSB but would depend upon the support of the mobo (especially the latter).

In lieu of that, or additionally, a cheap Radeon card even sans acceleration may even make up the slight difference as they have lower CPU utilization (and superior quality).

Don't bother with Nvidia's PureVideo decoder packages as they are irrelevant.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out.

 

[delussional77]

Auric, I am really bad at picking out new CPU's. I would hate to purchase one without knowing if my mobo would support it. Would you (or anyone) mind helping me find a better CPU that would work?

 

[Auric]

Despite a mobo's specs, there could potentially be a "falsely imposed" upgrade limit just because the manufacturer couldn't be arsed to release BIOS updates with the necessary microcode for later model CPU's. So, you should really check with HP. It's common for manufacturers of systems and mobos to provide a CPU support list. In lieu of that check their support forum.

 

[delussional77]

As you can tell this is why I'm trying to go the simple route of a cheap vid card and see if that solves my problems. Rather than take my chance with an older CPU architecture on a mobo that may not support it. This way if the video card doesn't help then I'll just sell it for a loss and upgrade the whole system. I'd rather not do that but I'll take my chances at this point. Thanks for the help.

 

[Modular]

Auric: Good call on the encoding..I didn't catch that.

Delussional: You might be surprised to see that the older p4's are going for cheaper than a video card upgrade. It seems as though it's a socket 478 CPU. This is a Newegg search for Intel Socket 478's. As you can see, you could get a Prescott at 3GHZ in that box as long as the MOBO and BIOS support it. I'd email HP and see what they can tell you about supported CPU's. There's still hope!

 

[delussional77]

Thanks modular, I went ahead and shot them an e-mail and we'll see what they have to say.

 

[delussional77]

well I spoke with HP support and they said that the maximum supported CPU is only 2.53GHz. They couldn't explain why this limit was imposed. There is no BIOS update available. If the video card doesn't work I may try to upgrade but it seems like only a small jump in speed.

 

[delussional77]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu...en&product=83461&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

that is the mobo data sheet that HP gave me....not much info really