Video card for entry level HTCP - smooth 4K video/movies playback

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Psyside

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Apr 2, 2009
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Hi, looking for the best video card for 4K videos on my HTCP.

CPU - G2020 Onboard card....

Ram - 8GB


When i play 4K videos, on youtube or any 4K videos, its totally lagging. So i need to get the best card for the money, budget is around 120$/100euros....

I need to know which card would offer the best support for H265/H264, and other popular codecs for smooth video playback, although youtube now runs in HTML5 which afaik is not hardware accelerated (or i'm wrong?) i will be mostly using MPHC as a player to watch 4K content taken with my Note 4 which records 4K videos @~50mbps H264 - AAC ~ 256.

Also keep in mind, i don't have 4K monitor yet, i just want to watch downscaled videos on my 1200p monitor, they look much better compared to the 1080p ones anyway, and i will be getting 4K monitor in near future anyway.

So in short most "advanced" card for downscaling/decoding (best and most variety of codecs support) on youtube and 4K movies/clips video card? thanks!
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
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This one is going to be pretty simple. The only thing remotely in your price range with a current generation decoder capable of playing back 4Kp60 content is the GTX 750 series. Either the GTX 750 or GTX 750 Ti would be fine for this task.

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Note that no current PC video card has full HEVC (H.265) decode capabilities. Though NVIDIA's 2014 cards (GTX 750 & GTX 900) do offer a hybrid approach that at least offloads some of the work.

Also keep in mind that the only PC video card with HDMI 2.0 support is the GTX 900 series. So if you want to do better than 4Kp30 on a TV, you wouldn't be able to do that with the GTX 750.

although youtube now runs in HTML5 which afaik is not hardware accelerated (or i'm wrong?)
Click to expand...
HTML5 video decoding is hardware accelerated in most browsers.
 
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Psyside

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Apr 2, 2009
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Hi, thanks for the great answer!

How about Youtube VP9 codec? what cards does support it? would an 7750 be enough as well? i don't really need 60 fps 4K for now.....i just need something to hold me off until i get 4K 60hz monitor...
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
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Psyside said:
How about Youtube VP9 codec? what cards does support it?
Click to expand...
Nothing out there currently supports it. Which is fine, because YouTube will just use H.264 anyhow.

would an 7750 be enough as well? i don't really need 60 fps 4K for now.....i just need something to hold me off until i get 4K 60hz monitor...
Click to expand...
No, it would not be fine.:( GCN 1.0 cards cannot properly decode 4K video in hardware at all.

From AnandTech's GCN 1.2 (Radeon R9 285) article:

With this newest generation of UVD, AMD is finally catching up to NVIDIA and Intel in H.264 decode capabilities. New to UVD is full support for 4K H.264 video, up to level 5.2 (4Kp60). AMD had previously intended to support 4K up to level 5.1 (4Kp30) on the previous version of UVD, but that never panned out and AMD ultimately disabled that feature. So as of GCN 1.2 hardware decoding of 4K is finally up and working, meaning AMD GPU equipped systems will no longer have to fall back to relatively expensive software decoding for 4K H.264 video.
Click to expand...
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
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Psyside said:
So no card from would cut it? 7790 maybe? and no card from Nvidia other then the GTX750 right?
Click to expand...
4kP30: For NVIDIA, anything Kepler or better (so GTX 650+). For AMD, Radeon R9 285.

4kP60: For NVIDIA, GTX 750 series or GTX 900 series. For AMD, Radeon R9 285

Though given your price constraints and the competition, there's no good reason to use anything other than the GTX 750.
 
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Psyside

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Apr 2, 2009
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Thanks alot. So the cpu wouldn't be a problem right?

GTX750 would offer everything like the 750 ti i guess (for my usage)
 
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96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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ViRGE said:
Also keep in mind that the only PC video card with HDMI 2.0 support is the GTX 900 series. So if you want to do better than 4Kp30 on a TV, you wouldn't be able to do that with the GTX 750.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to quote this so you keep this in mind Psyside. I know you said you don't have a 4K monitor yet and will be downsampling, but you'll need to have a DP output on the 750 (which is pretty normal), as well as a DP input on the display. That is typical for most 4K monitors, but 4K TVs tend to stick to HDMI.
 
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Psyside

Member
Apr 2, 2009
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96Firebird said:
I just wanted to quote this so you keep this in mind Psyside. I know you said you don't have a 4K monitor yet and will be downsampling, but you'll need to have a DP output on the 750 (which is pretty normal), as well as a DP input on the display. That is typical for most 4K monitors, but 4K TVs tend to stick to HDMI.
Click to expand...

So you want to say that i should look for a GTX 750 which has DP right?
 
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digitaldurandal

Golden Member
Dec 3, 2009
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96Firebird said:
I just wanted to quote this so you keep this in mind Psyside. I know you said you don't have a 4K monitor yet and will be downsampling, but you'll need to have a DP output on the 750 (which is pretty normal), as well as a DP input on the display. That is typical for most 4K monitors, but 4K TVs tend to stick to HDMI.
Click to expand...

Can he use an active adapter to change DP to HDMI?
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
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Psyside said:
G2020 won't be a problem if i get this card?
Click to expand...

For your usage? No, so long as your software correctly offloads decode to the GPU. Some older versions of software may not correctly offload h.265, so make sure you check that out.
 
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Psyside

Member
Apr 2, 2009
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So final thoughts, i'm buying the card tomorrow,

Worth to pay + 40 euros for GTX750 ti vs GTX750? what i'm missng?

Also R7 260x is completely out of the question right?
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
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Psyside said:
Worth to pay + 40 euros for GTX750 ti vs GTX750? what i'm missng?
Click to expand...
For video playback? Nothing. So long as you can find a GTX 750 with the outputs you're looking for, it's just as good. The only benefit is for gaming, where the Ti has better performance.

Also R7 260x is completely out of the question right?
Click to expand...
Correct. Everything in AMD's lineup other than the 285 is incapable of doing 4K decode in hardware.
 
9

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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Latest drivers?

Video Decoding​
To access the video decoding options, open mpc hc, press o for options, go to internal filters, and click Video Decoder at the bottom.

The important things to note here are the hardware acceleration options on the upper right side. My recommendation is to use nvidia cuvid for an nvidia gpu, intel quicksync for an intel gpu, and dxva2 (copy-back) for an AMD gpu, or just use the “none” option if you want to use your CPU. Hardware acceleration lowers cpu usage on supported formats, such as 8 bit HEVC, 8 bit H264, VC-1, mpeg 2, etc, depending on the GPU and what is ticked in the video decoder options.
Click to expand...
Source
 
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inf1nity

inf1nity

Golden Member
Mar 12, 2013
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Do you have the latest drivers for the card? The drivers on the disc often tend to old outdated versions. Get the latest ones from nvidia's website.
 
9

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,740
334
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Check out the link in my previous post, it has a lot of info on how to setup MPC-HC. Looks like it was last updated last month, but some of the stuff might be outdated...
 
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