Video cards for HTPC/Gaming Rig

[Blu Skye]

I am searching for the right video card(s) for my up and coming HTPC. First and foremost it needs to process video well. Rest assured I will have a fast processor, and enough memory, so take that into consideration. Second, it needs to play today's games like Half-Life 2, Doom 3, UT all with the bells and whistles turned on. Native resolution of my projector is 1280 x 720.

Since most of these cost around the same with a few exceptions, I'd figure I'd ask which one you would go with/recommend. Noise is not a key factor here is it will be put in an equiptment room. I can add some serious cooling to keep the temps down.

Just an FYI, if I did the single Ultra card, I could get another Ultra down the road and run it in SLI mode since the board I am considering supports SLI. The question is, is it okay to mix and match different Ultra cards? I just don't want to be screwed down the line if I get say a brand "A" now and all that's available in a few months is brand "B" and they don't match.

Thanks!

 

[Matthias99]

None of the above: Single X800XL, ~$250-300?

You would be missing the NV4X's PVP, but thus far it's been fairly disappointing, and the X800 cards still have hardware MPEG1/2 decode and some decent video scaling/filtering. You can also get an AIW X800XL (although I'm sure you have other capture cards picked out already).

Barring that, I'd look at a single 6800GT in PCIe. Dual 6600s are a lousy deal IMO, and dual 6800GTs are way too expensive. The top-end cards aren't worth the premium over the slightly slower models. This would let you upgrade (theoretically) to a dual 6800GT later if that turns out to be a decent price/performance option. Although personally I would go with the cheaper X800XL and save the money for an upgrade down the road.

Just an FYI, if I did the single Ultra card, I could get another Ultra down the road and run it in SLI mode since the board I am considering supports SLI. The question is, is it okay to mix and match different Ultra cards? I just don't want to be screwed down the line if I get say a brand "A" now and all that's available in a few months is brand "B" and they don't match.

The official line is that they need to be the exact same card, and they may have to have the same (or a very close) BIOS. I'm not sure how much this actually holds up.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What kind of inputs are on the projector? Are you planning on using DVI or HDMI? (AE700?)

I considered getting a 6800gt for a while, but its lack of component output is something working against it in my case.

I'm running a 9800pro with the component output to my projector and it's working great.

Remember to factor in the cost of a more expensive motherboard and powersupply into the cost of an SLI system.

In any case, I wouldn't recommend 6600gt cards in SLI because a single 6800gt is a better option in most cases.

Oh, and for a resolution like 720p, I don't think getting 6800gts in SLI would benefit you much. SLI really excels in very high resolutions, but you could get by with a single 6800gt for that resolution probably.

I'm looking at an X800XL with component out as my next videocard down the road.

 

[kurt454]

I also say get the X800XL with component out.

 

[Blu Skye]

I have several options for connectivity for my projector. I can use DVI as I have 2 of them on the projector, component, S-Video, VGA. I was planning on DVI.

Don't get my wrong, my projector can handle higher resolutions, the fact being I'd rather just stick to the native res on my projector.

This might be a dumb question, but would it be worthwhile to get a SLI motherboard (if I go the Intel route) and get say the x800xl, and when I want an upgrade, get 2 NVidia boards later for SLI (if it becomes all that)?

Why no love for the Ultra? Too hot? Expensive? How does the x800xl compare to the x850xt's (PE or Non-PE of the 850)?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I think sticking with native res is a good idea.

If you're going ATI, I'd say skip the SLI motherboard. ATI is coming up with their own version of SLI in the future and it might be better than nvidia's offering.

If your projector has DVI, that's what you should use.

benchmarks of single cards

benchmarks including SLI

No love for the ultra because it's not worth the extra cost over the gt.

 

[Blu Skye]

Thanks for the links and the info.

As far as video processing/quality goes for HTPC use, which brand would be better? I know they both tout their own "HD quality playback" and their accelleration, etc. Is one better than the other, i.e. like AMD is "better" for gaming than Intel?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Isn't this the same poll over at avsforums in the HTPC area? If you didn't see it there, basically as everyone said there, SLI is WAY to unstable for use in HTPC at this point. No PVR/MC software properly supports it at this point in time. If when that ever happens, newer hardware will be out that far surpasses anything that can be built today. The whole problem with SLI right now is stability on the current generation of motherboards. Sure you can get yourself a singl video card now and go SLI in the future, but you will also be out an additional $150 for the price of the new motherboard that you will need to get the stability.

Everything points to useing a NV6600 as the card dejur of the current generation of video for HTPC use. The IQ enhancements that it has with its DVD output and scalling makes this the current card of choice. The NV6800 do not all contain the image enhancements that the 6600 series cards have in them. I am personally trying to do the same thing you are at the moment, both a gaming and DVR setup, but the more I research on it, the more it become apparent that the two really do not belong in the same setup. DVR is all about stability. The last thing you want to see is that your system crashed while/before it could record your show, and now you missed it completely and have to wait for a re-run. If you really want DVR, then this is the reality you will be dealing with in a SLI setup at this point in time. The other issues that come into play are heat and noise. If the HTPC is truely going to be in your HT, then a SLI setup will be at least 20-30 db's (equivlently 8-24x, as db is a log scale) louder then a good HTPC should be simply due to all the air-flow/fans that you will need for the extra BTU's that SLI will produce.

Again, I have nothing against SLI in a gaming setup as long as you do not mind the instability that it brings with it. In a HTPC where stability is number 1, there you have a problem with combining the two...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Blu Skye
Thanks for the links and the info.

As far as video processing/quality goes for HTPC use, which brand would be better? I know they both tout their own "HD quality playback" and their accelleration, etc. Is one better than the other, i.e. like AMD is "better" for gaming than Intel?

I think they're pretty similar. Some people will have to believe that nvidia is vastly superior due to its SM3.0 support, but by the time that's in widespread use, the current cards are probably not even going to be able to handle it anyway.

If you look around the video section for a while (the tab at the top of the page) at some different articles you'll find some screenshots of ATI vs nvidia. I honestly can't tell any difference half the time, and the other half I wouldn't be able to tell you which one is "better"

I still think a 6800gt or X800XL would be the best option for you.

 

[kylebisme]

People would be recomending the ultras and xts if you were looking to run 1600x1200 or such, but the gts and xls are just slower clocked versions of the former and are generally accepted as more than cappable at resolutions as low as 1280x720. That said, you seem to have the urge to put the biggist and baddest rig you can together and in that case I say you might as well. But be sure to make use of it by cranking the resolution up to benift from the supersampling in games were you don't have a bunch of small text to worry about, and you might want to take noise into consideration when you ponder SLI.

 

[Fallen Kell]

This article says it all as to why NVidia on HTPC....

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2305

And for the resolution, you want a card that can do 1920x1080 assuming you have a 1080p native display (not many out there, Sharp Aquas 45" LCD, Samsung 46" LCD...). Otherwise you only need 1280 x 720 for a 720p native display (all plasma's, DLP's, 99% projector's).

 

[Blu Skye]

Thanks for the link Fallen Kell.

Isn't the Purevideo "broken" on the 6800GT's? I think that's why most are going for the 6600GT's because the 6800GT and the 6800Ultras are not working correctly with Purevideo. I also read the plain 6800 works fine with Purevideo.

Snowman,

I don't have to build the biggest and baddest rig, I just want something that will last a while, and that has upgrade potential. The only reason why I even brought up the SLI stuff was future expandability. If I got an Ultra now, I could get another one down the road and be up to date. While my HT won't take advantage of the SLI, my main computer could considering I run at 1600x1200. But that's beside the point!

 

[Blu Skye]

Yeah.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Blu Skye, yes I have also heard that pure video did not work properly in all the 6800's. I know there was a driver issue for parts of it and some were related to the manufacturer who made the specific card. I believe that some of them do work fine with purevideo now with the new drivers, but I would do some research on the specific card you are looking at before buying. PureVideo really is worth it in the HTPC in my opinion. You do need to use the NVidia decoder codex, but it is worth it especially if you use Windows MCE which pretty much excluesively uses WMP for video.

 

[rise]

i'm going with a 6600gt in my htpc build. probably evga.