Streaming some blu ray!

[Mr Bob]

I've always spent some pretty good money on my business computer when it comes to the video card, however, I haven't upgraded it in quite awhile.

Right now I'm running 2 nVidia 8600 GTS cards (4 outputs, not SLI).

With my motherboard, it runs both cards at x8 instead of x16. From the benchmarks I've seen, there's very little difference between x8 and x16 in REAL LIFE examples - gaming, movies, etc..

I have noticed though, that when I stream a 10GB blu ray movie, it often has some slight lag.

Am I at the point where my 8600 GTS cards just can't cut it anymore?

I'm running a Core i5 2500 processor w/ an Intel SSD 520 hard drive.

I've tried multiple video players, such as The KM Player, VLC, etc.. So it has to be related to the hardware.

Do I need to upgrade this card? Or is this still good enough for movie 1080P streaming. The lag I mention is not bad, it's really only me and a couple geek friends that can tell the difference.

 

[hokies83]

lol wow i had that same card many years ago was good for it's day

Im streaming movies with a GT 240 gpu on my HTPC.

 

[blackened23]

Have you checked your gpu clockspeeds? Usually when playing blu ray your cards will be clocked at the lowest possible speed, you can try enabling "prefer maximum performance" in your nvidia control panel which can help.

 

[Ferzerp]

Can you clarify what you mean by lag?

 

[Mr Bob]

" Can you clarify what you mean by lag? "
- Lag is probably not the best explanation actually. It's not "smooth" almost like the video card is so slow that by the time it sends a single frame to the projector, it was supposed to have sent two. So it's like what you would expect to see if you were only able to see every other frame.

" Im streaming movies with a GT 240 gpu on my HTPC. "
- Is there a way to maybe see what my FPS are during the output, and I can somehow compare those numbers to what you're getting with blu ray output?

"Have you checked your gpu clockspeeds?"
- Where would I see that at? I have the nvidia software installed, so I can pull up the options and see things like "This device supports HDCP"


Am I maybe at the point where I simply need to get another video card to be up to today's standards? It's going to be really expensive for me because I really use 4 monitors, one of which is an HDMI to a receiver which goes to the projector. So I need 3 DVI and 1 HDMI, but I'm ok using a DVI<->HDMI converter.

 

[ViRGE]

Am I maybe at the point where I simply need to get another video card to be up to today's standards? It's going to be really expensive for me because I really use 4 monitors, one of which is an HDMI to a receiver which goes to the projector. So I need 3 DVI and 1 HDMI, but I'm ok using a DVI<->HDMI converter.

The 8600GTS should be fine for Blu-Ray playback. However it's such a relatively slow card in general that it may be having trouble keeping up with high-bitrate H.264 decoding and driving multiple monitors at the same time.

" Im streaming movies with a GT 240 gpu on my HTPC. "
- Is there a way to maybe see what my FPS are during the output, and I can somehow compare those numbers to what you're getting with blu ray output?

Depends on the Blu-Ray software player you're using, but generally not. The easiest thing to do would be to grab a high bitrate H.264 sample and play it back using something like Media Player Classic Home Cinema, where you can easily watch the render statistics.

In any case if you do look into replacing your cards, you only need a single card. Both the GeForce 600 series and the Radeon 7000 series support at least 4 monitors per card. A 670 (or 660Ti) would have 2 DVI ports, an HDMI port, and a DisplayPort, the last of which you'd use an active DVI adapter to generate your 3rd DVI port.

 

[Mr Bob]

Oh wow, that 8600 GTS card is selling for $35 bucks on eBay. DDDAAAAAMMMMNNNNNN that is so cheap.

$400 bucks for the 600 series is quite a bit for someone that does no gaming anymore.

Is that really the best bang for the buck for quality blu ray output and multiple monitors?

 

[Ferzerp]

Buy a cheap Radeon if you're looking to upgrade and not game since nvidia doesn't have anything current in the low end.

 

[ViRGE]

Buy a cheap Radeon if you're looking to upgrade and not game since nvidia doesn't have anything current in the low end.

Agreed. A 7770 would be perfect if you can find one that has the right outputs (2 DVI/HDMI + at least 2 DisplayPort).

 

[toyota]

Oh wow, that 8600 GTS card is selling for $35 bucks on eBay. DDDAAAAAMMMMNNNNNN that is so cheap.

$400 bucks for the 600 series is quite a bit for someone that does no gaming anymore.

Is that really the best bang for the buck for quality blu ray output and multiple monitors?

an 8600gts is not even worth 35 bucks. I tried to sell my 8600gt for 39 bucks shipped back in 2008 and no one bit. yet people were buying older slower 6800 cards for even more.

lol wow i had that same card many years ago was good for it's day

Im streaming movies with a GT 240 gpu on my HTPC.

um the 8600gts was most certainly not good even in its day.