Surprising DVD performance.

[bluemax]

You know... I sold off my Geforce DDR card for a partial trade of a Voodoo3 PCI and good cash. I was worried, though, that the DVD performance would suffer having lost any hardware acceleration.

I was shocked to find that DVD performance *IMPROVED* using the no-acceleration-here Voodoo3! I could bump it to maximum res 1280x1024x32 with no hiccups that the Geforce card choked on! :Q What a great lil' card to keep me going until the nForce boards come out!

Neat, eh?

 

[Angus]

as i know, v3 doesn't have any hardware dvd function, they use your cpu power for decoding mpeg2

and g2 does have some hardware dvd, in theory, g2 should bettter than v3 and free up more cpu power when playing dvd.

 

[randomlinh]

yet, for some reason, his setup is showing the exact opposite

 

[BFG10K]

yet, for some reason, his setup is showing the exact opposite

Bizarre. Bluemax, what detonators were you running? What DVD player were you using?

 

[bluemax]

ASUS DVD, and I wasn't using the stinky detonator drivers, I was using ELSA's own drivers which were just as fast but more compatible.

I'm quite happy with this lil' V3 until I replace this whole setup with an nForce.

 

[TheCorm]

If you have a fast enough processor, using total software dvd playback can sometimes be better than using the graphics cards hardware motion compensation alongside software decoding.

Corm

 

[Auric]

What you might be experiencing is the use of the substandard Geforce motion compensation making the Voodoo look good in comparision. As said, MC at best will simply maintain the quality while lowering CPU burden -taint gonna improve it, and if implemented poorly will decrease quality. Fact is, Voodoo is crap for video.

 

[bluemax]

May have 0% hardware assist, but the picture quality coming out of this DVD is GREAT! Better than that of the Geforce. You can't convince me 3dfx sucks for video, I'm afraid.
The 3500TV (VIVO) was very nice as well - worked beautifully.

 

[Rifter]

<< Fact is, Voodoo is crap for video >>



are you nuts? 3dfx cards are good for what they cost. I owned a v3 3000 until i got a radeon last week and the v3 was a great card. It has better 2d quality than my TNT did, better than %95 of the geforces (various, Mx's, GTS's, DDR's etc) I have seen. The 2d on my radeon is better, but not by much.

 

[BFG10K]

ASUS DVD,

Are you sure this player supports cards with hardware decoding? If it does, did you have the option selected?

I wasn't using the stinky detonator drivers, I was using ELSA's own drivers which were just as fast but more compatible

They're essentially the same. Heck, I was running Elsa's drivers at one stage and I don't even have one of their boards.

 

[Auric]

Rifter, yes I am nuts but that's beside the point. Voodoo is still crap for video. Again, you are comparing rotten apples to rotten oranges. Surely, the Radeon was a substantial improvement over both the Geforce and the Voodoo? If not either the monitor or your eyes are not up to par. Run VideoMark on 'em and the differences should be clear even in such a case.

 

[bluemax]

<< ASUS DVD,
Are you sure this player supports cards with hardware decoding? If it does, did you have the option selected? >>


It's basically WinDVD and it definately does. And I did check the acceleration box. I'd probably see the same performance if I turned it OFF, but I'll never know now that the card is gone.



<< >>I wasn't using the stinky detonator drivers, I was using ELSA's own drivers which
>>were just as fast but more compatible
They're essentially the same. Heck, I was running Elsa's drivers at one stage and I don't even have one of their boards. >>


I wouldn't doubt it, but there were a few games that didn't like the detonator drivers. Theme Hospital was one... my wife loves that game, the ELSA drivers work perfect and are 98% the same speed as the best det's so who cares? I'm not a big Geforce fan, but I'd definately buy ELSA again! I'm really hoping for that mATX nForce though.