Question about Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H and HDMI Output

[delussional77]

Hi everyone,

I am considering purchasing this mobo to go with my AMD 4800+ CPU. I plan on using the onboard HDMI output to a hi-def (1080p) Samsung LCD.

I will use the single PCI-E (x16) slot for my main video card (ASUS EN8500GT) to control my two computer monitors.

Will the onboard HDMI be able to smoothly playback hi-def content to my TV? Would you recommend a different mobo or a different video solution all together?

This board looks great because it is cheap and because the other solution for controlling my 3 monitors is to get a different mobo AND an addditional video card.

My main concern is with the playback, will it be fast/smooth enough or will it not work very well?

Thanks!

 

[OLpal]

I'm not sure it would be worth the effort or expense to put that video card on that board !!
http://www.tomshardware.com/ch...of-chaos-v1-6,581.html

LOOKS LIKE A VERY NICE BOARD, wish they would have put the E-Sata on this board also !!

You might want to check out Anands HTPC.

Ol'Pal

 

[Winterpool]

To the direct question (is the onboard video chip sufficient to smoothly play HD video), the short answer is yes -- even with a Sempron.

The more involved answer would note that it depends on the format (encoding) of the video. The standard H.264-encoded video you find on Hollywood's Blu-ray discs (and HD DVDs) can be decoded by graphics hardware, so the 780G chipset will take much of the load off your cpu. Videos encoded using other methods (eg XviD) likely won't be assisted by the video, so your cpu will end up doing all the work. An Athlon 4800+ (singlecore?) should be able to play many high-quality videos unassisted, I suspect, though full 1080 HD might be problematic if the video gets very busy. I'm not sure about the status of x264, just as I'm not really certain what x264 is in relation to the official H.264 spec.

Having three displays fed by two graphics chips does complicate matters somewhat, but what effects if any are beyond my experience or expertise. I suspect your telly output should be fine, since that's just onboard video -> tv via your HDMI.

 

[VirtualLarry]

From gigabyte's product page for this mobo:
"PCI-E 2.0 Graphics Interface
PCI-E 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 2.5 Gbit/s to 5 Gbit/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GB/s in each direction. PCI-E 2.0 also features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture."

x32 connector? What would such a thing look like? There aren't any x32 slots on the mobo that I can see, are there? I thought that they were PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots.


Btw, a friend of mine wants to build a computer, and watch HD movies on it. He was looking for low cost, and I thought that perhaps a 780G board with a decent X2 CPU might be the solution that he was looking for. Can anyone recommend a good processor to pair up with this mobo? Does this board have problems with 125W CPUs?

 

[OLpal]

As i said earlier you all might want to check out Anands Home Theatre project !!

http://www.anandtech.com/gadge...howdoc.aspx?i=3301&p=3

Seems so far this is 1 area where AMD has the edge on Intel, for awhile anyway !!

Ol'Pal Gary

@Virtual Larry
Btw, a friend of mine wants to build a computer, and watch HD movies on it. He was looking for low cost, and I thought that perhaps a 780G board with a decent X2 CPU might be the solution that he was looking for. Can anyone recommend a good processor to pair up with this mobo? Does this board have problems with 125W CPUs?