Nvidia 6000 series Video processor has issues?

[winterlude]

I was planning on picking up an ATI 9550 with 256 RAM. I don't play games much and am more into encoding, decoding mpeg etc. Also, the card's pretty affordable.

After reading the reviews on Nvidia's 6000 series, I'm thinking now about getting a 6600 (seems to be more bang for the buck than the 6200). I'm impressed by the programable video processor. However, I've been reading hearsay on different forums that the video processor (driver issues?) isn't working properly, and that people have to buy Nvidia's DVD decoder etc.

I've got an Athlon 1800+ system and don't plan on upgrading til things get better settled with all the tech changes going on and MS gets the 64 bit XP out.

Anyway, anybody out there with a 6000 series and tried the decode /encode features? Particularly if the card can decode Xvid?

Thanks in advance

 

[drpootums]

yes, it has issues...it doesnt work...

They say there will be a driver out to fix that on the 20th though

 

[gotsmack]

I think it was just with the 6800 series and only for hidef mpeg-4 and hi def WMA hardware assist.

these features didn't exist before so it should not be a problem for you now. The 6600 series should be fine since it has been revised.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Software-only DVD decoding worked fine with even 500 MHz P3's, so broken hardware acceleration for this doesn't seem like something to care about. (Yes I realize it was supposed to accelerate higher-resolution and higher-compression video, but your CPU is a little faster than 500 MHz isn't it?)

There is nothing wrong with the 3D / gaming acceleration, so don' worry, be happy.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, with only a XP1800+, you would be severely CPU-limited in most current games even if you added a 6800. Btw, the models with the alleged defective PVP were the AGP 6800, the 6200, 6600, and PCI-E 6800 are supposedly working.

If you want hardware-accelerated decoding for various video formats, I would look into a recent-generation Sigma Designs RealMagic card. They used to be mostly DVD-decoding only, but their more recent models can also do hardware-accellerated MPEG-4/Divx decoding too, I think.

 

[batmanuel]

The real issue is with WMV HD, which just turns into a slideshow without hardware acceleration if you are running a sub-2GHz Athlon and trying to watch 1080p video. The with the video processor not supported in the drivers yet, all of the work is offloaded to the CPU in the 6000 series. The late model Radeon cards, on the other hand, have working WMV acceleration so they can make life easier if you have a slower CPU.

It is kind of a moot point right now, though, because there isn't a lot of WMV HD video out there besides the demos at the WMV HD website. The HD video that has actually made it onto some DVD releases (like the HD version of the movie on disk 2 of the T2 Extreme edition) is in the 720p format which is much less of a resource hog.

 

[winterlude]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Well, with only a XP1800+, you would be severely CPU-limited in most current games even if you added a 6800.

You're probably right. Since I'd be getting an AGP card, getting future use out of the card is limitted too. I was thinking about playing HalfLife2. Even though it (HL2) scales well with DX7, my vid card is ancient. My CPU should be good enough though (I hope). It seems that ATI cards run the game better, but a 6600 will be a lot faster than a 9550 (half the price, no wonder.) I will have to see how much the 6200's cost when they come out.

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Software-only DVD decoding worked fine with even 500 MHz P3's, so broken hardware acceleration for this doesn't seem like something to care about. (Yes I realize it was supposed to accelerate higher-resolution and higher-compression video, but your CPU is a little faster than 500 MHz isn't it?)

I agree. My old Celeron 450 can almost play DVD's. It's the encoding on my current system that would help me out. Some of the DV transfers and encodes to Mpeg2 take all day. If a vid card could help with that, great.

The ATI 9550, according to specs at ATI, has decode/encode for Mpeg1/2/4. The 9600 doesn't. The only other ATI card I can recall that has this spec is the x800 (could be wrong here. I didn't double check) which, like the Nvidia line, claims that their video processor is programable. I'm wondering if the 9550 has the same vid processor? Not likely since it would take away some of the bragging rights from a new high end part, but still, I find the descrepancies on the ATI specs interesting.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
The late model Radeon cards, on the other hand, have working WMV acceleration so they can make life easier if you have a slower CPU.

I digress; I have an X800 Pro, and it doesn't matter if I check the WMV Acceleration box off or on, it tries to eat about 80% of my A64 3400+ playing Step Into Liquid. I don't consider ATI's stuff to be working any better than Nvidia's at this point.

As for the 9550 MPEG 1/2/4 thing, it's really just MPEG 1/2. ATI has had some sort of deal going on with Divx to enable some odd feature in the official Divx Player, but it's just trying to use VideoSoap to post-process the video, none of the decoding is done by the GPU.

 

[winterlude]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: batmanuel
The late model Radeon cards, on the other hand, have working WMV acceleration so they can make life easier if you have a slower CPU.

I digress; I have an X800 Pro, and it doesn't matter if I check the WMV Acceleration box off or on, it tries to eat about 80% of my A64 3400+ playing Step Into Liquid. I don't consider ATI's stuff to be working any better than Nvidia's at this point.

As for the 9550 MPEG 1/2/4 thing, it's really just MPEG 1/2. ATI has had some sort of deal going on with Divx to enable some odd feature in the official Divx Player, but it's just trying to use VideoSoap to post-process the video, none of the decoding is done by the GPU.

Maybe so, but if that's the case, how can they get away with stating the following about the videoshader in their 9550:

# VIDEOSHADER? (9550)

# Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
# FULLSTREAM? video de-blocking technology for Real, DivX, and WMV9 formats
# VIDEOSOAP? noise removal filtering for captured video
# MPEG1/2/4 decode and encode acceleration

* DXVA Support
* Hardware Motion Compensation, iDCT, DCT and color space conversion

# All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
# YPrPb component output for direct drive of HDTV displays?
# Adaptive Per-Pixel De-Interlacing and Frame Rate Conversion (temporal filtering)

For the 9600Xt, they have the following specs for videoshader

# VIDEOSHADER? (9600)

* Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video
* FULLSTREAM? video de-blocking technology
* Noise removal filtering for captured video

# MPEG-2 decoding with motion compensation, iDCT and color space conversion
# All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
# YPrPb component output*
# Adaptive de-interlacing and frame rate conversion
# Dual integrated display controllers
# Dual integrated 10-bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
# Integrated 165 MHz TMDS transmitter (DVI 1.0 compliant)
# Integrated TV Output support up to 1024x768 resolution
# Optimized for Pentium® 4 SSE2 and AMD Athlon? 3Dnow!
# PC 2002 compliant

No mention of encoding. I don't want to buy the wrong card just because of a typo.

I've sent an email to ATI to see if they can clear up the question.

 

[biostud]

go to the video section, there's a huge thread about it.

 

[Dug]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
The real issue is with WMV HD, which just turns into a slideshow without hardware acceleration if you are running a sub-2GHz Athlon and trying to watch 1080p video. The with the video processor not supported in the drivers yet, all of the work is offloaded to the CPU in the 6000 series. The late model Radeon cards, on the other hand, have working WMV acceleration so they can make life easier if you have a slower CPU.

It is kind of a moot point right now, though, because there isn't a lot of WMV HD video out there besides the demos at the WMV HD website. The HD video that has actually made it onto some DVD releases (like the HD version of the movie on disk 2 of the T2 Extreme edition) is in the 720p format which is much less of a resource hog.

Actually the library is growing. There's 17 available right now, and a lot more in the pipeline.

List of full WMV HD titles

 

[otispunkmeyer]

im sure its just the 6800 that has the problems.....nvidia fixed the video processor on the sly when making the 6600/6200

 

[Acanthus]

It is fully functional on the 6200 and 6600 series GPUs you are considering.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: winterlude

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: batmanuel
The late model Radeon cards, on the other hand, have working WMV acceleration so they can make life easier if you have a slower CPU.

I digress; I have an X800 Pro, and it doesn't matter if I check the WMV Acceleration box off or on, it tries to eat about 80% of my A64 3400+ playing Step Into Liquid. I don't consider ATI's stuff to be working any better than Nvidia's at this point.

As for the 9550 MPEG 1/2/4 thing, it's really just MPEG 1/2. ATI has had some sort of deal going on with Divx to enable some odd feature in the official Divx Player, but it's just trying to use VideoSoap to post-process the video, none of the decoding is done by the GPU.

Maybe so, but if that's the case, how can they get away with stating the following about the videoshader in their 9550:

# VIDEOSHADER? (9550)

# Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
# FULLSTREAM? video de-blocking technology for Real, DivX, and WMV9 formats
# VIDEOSOAP? noise removal filtering for captured video
# MPEG1/2/4 decode and encode acceleration

* DXVA Support
* Hardware Motion Compensation, iDCT, DCT and color space conversion

# All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
# YPrPb component output for direct drive of HDTV displays?
# Adaptive Per-Pixel De-Interlacing and Frame Rate Conversion (temporal filtering)

For the 9600Xt, they have the following specs for videoshader

# VIDEOSHADER? (9600)

* Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video
* FULLSTREAM? video de-blocking technology
* Noise removal filtering for captured video

# MPEG-2 decoding with motion compensation, iDCT and color space conversion
# All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
# YPrPb component output*
# Adaptive de-interlacing and frame rate conversion
# Dual integrated display controllers
# Dual integrated 10-bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
# Integrated 165 MHz TMDS transmitter (DVI 1.0 compliant)
# Integrated TV Output support up to 1024x768 resolution
# Optimized for Pentium® 4 SSE2 and AMD Athlon? 3Dnow!
# PC 2002 compliant

No mention of encoding. I don't want to buy the wrong card just because of a typo.

I've sent an email to ATI to see if they can clear up the question.

How they can get away with it? I don't know. But the 9550 is an RV3xx card, it can't do anything more than any other 3xx card(9500+) can, and those don't include encode acceleration or meaninful MPEG4/WMV decode acceleration.