What do you think Nvidia will do about the 3GB VRAM requirement for 4K Netflix and edge?

[cbn]

Lower the requirement from 3GB to 2GB via software tuning?

vs.

Release low end cards with greater than 2GB VRAM? (Eg, GT 1020 with 4GB DDR4, GT 1040 with 4GB DDR4, GT 1030 with 4GB GDDR5, etc)

vs.

Something else?

 

[w3rd]

People who have 4k Netflix don't own beginner GPUs. Because they have 4k Monitors already.

 

[bystander36]

People who have 4k Netflix don't own beginner GPUs. Because they have 4k Monitors already.

I don't know about that. We aren't talking gaming PC's. These are PC's designed for the living room to watch movies. There are going to be plenty of people in that boat.

I predict a possible software solution from Nvidia for existing customers, but maybe 50/50 that this happens. Moving forward, they'll just start putting 4Gb on their entry level GPU's.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

If previous history is any guide, they will definitely add beam to lower end cards.

 

[2is]

People who have 4k Netflix don't own beginner GPUs. Because they have 4k Monitors already.

That's not at all true, plenty of people own 4K monitors with fairly basic GPUs. Not all 4K owners are gamers.

 

[cfenton]

My guess is they will say, "If you want 4K, then buy a 1050 4GB or better." At least until AMD has something that can stream 4K Netflix for cheaper.

Right now they only sell two cards with less than 3GB of memory, and they are both low end. My impression (which could be wrong, of course) is that most low end cards are sold in OEM machines, and most of those will already have Kaby Lake processors, which can already do 4K Netflix.

 

[Spjut]

I've been considering getting GT 1030 for my older LGA 775 systems but the 4k Netflix deal is what has made me hold off for the time being.

 

[crisium]

Luckily (?) I'm too cheap to pay the extra for 4k on my Netflix. But for the media PC we are likely to get a 1030 and may want to get 4k Netflix eventually. I find it an odd requirement. Is the VRAM used for video buffering? Can't it use system memory? Is it really going to buffer that much anyway?

 

[2is]

Luckily (?) I'm too cheap to pay the extra for 4k on my Netflix. But for the media PC we are likely to get a 1030 and may want to get 4k Netflix eventually. I find it an odd requirement. Is the VRAM used for video buffering? Can't it use system memory? Is it really going to buffer that much anyway?

Well the stream itself is probably using x265 which is very highly compressed and probably needs to be decompressed once in VRAM

EDIT: looking at the requirements, it also looks like Netflix 4K will only work on 7th gen Intel processors, but I did not see a 4GB VRAM requirement.

 

[w3rd]

I think you missed my point.
Who buys a 4k monitor and doesn't have a GPU to push it? Let alone a new system that meets the requirements of 4K Netflix.

 

[Chesebert]

That would be me. I got a 1060 3GB for HTPC (madvr) and light gaming duties. I plan to enjoy Netflix 4K on 4K TV. I certainly did not pay $200 or anywhere close to that for the card.

 

[Elfear]

I think you missed my point.
Who buys a 4k monitor and doesn't have a GPU to push it? Let alone a new system that meets the requirements of 4K Netflix.

You're right for 4k monitors, but there are plenty of people out there with 4k TVs that don't have a big boy GPU. Most HTPCs would probably have a rather basic GPU if I had to guess.

 

[bystander36]

I think you missed my point.
Who buys a 4k monitor and doesn't have a GPU to push it? Let alone a new system that meets the requirements of 4K Netflix.

Besides the HTPC's mentioned before, plenty of people use 4K monitors for work purposes, that don't need a gaming GPU.

 

[cbn]

EDIT: looking at the requirements, it also looks like Netflix 4K will only work on 7th gen Intel processors, but I did not see a 4GB VRAM requirement.

The 3GB VRAM requirement (and link to Nvidia about that) in the following article:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11306/nvidia-netflix-4k-pc-preview-launched

 

[2is]

The 3GB VRAM requirement (and link to Nvidia about that) in the following article:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11306/nvidia-netflix-4k-pc-preview-launched

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742

No mention of that at Netflix though. Their listed requirements suggest the IGP in 7th gen CPU's is all the GPU you need.

 

[2is]

I think you missed my point.
Who buys a 4k monitor and doesn't have a GPU to push it? Let alone a new system that meets the requirements of 4K Netflix.

Pretty much everyone who doesn't game.

 

[cbn]

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23742

No mention of that at Netflix though. Their listed requirements suggest the IGP in 7th gen CPU's is all the GPU you need.

Yep, a Kabylake processor (with its iGPU) will work.

But the Nvidia Pascal cards (with 3GB VRAM or greater) will allow Skylake and older (as well as AMD) CPUs to also work.

P.S. Right now the Nvidia support is just a preview, but eventually once the specs settle it should be included in Netflix documentation.

 

[w3rd]

Correct, as in One still needs a competent enough GPU to push 3840 × 2160 pixels, in anything. And typically, that requires a discrete gpu.
Surprisingly, this winter AMD's new radeon APU will change that baseline for the industry.

 

[Dribble]

Correct, as in One still needs a competent enough GPU to push 3840 × 2160 pixels, in anything. And typically, that requires a discrete gpu.
Surprisingly, this winter AMD's new radeon APU will change that baseline for the industry.

I would hardly call a Kabylake iGpu competent and that works. I strongly suspect it's got nothing to do with the gaming capability's of the gpu but whether the tiny video decode unit can do 4k, and whether it passes some arbitrary DRM test to keep studios happy.

 

[Malogeek]

The 3GB VRAM requirement (and link to Nvidia about that) in the following article:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11306/nvidia-netflix-4k-pc-preview-launched

It's interesting the PlayReady integration and requirements. I was trying to find out what AMD GPUs supports for new PlayReady levels since the highest needs hardware support for it but I could never get an answer from anyone, whether AMD support or from certain AMD folks at B3D. No one ever responded as to what they supported.

 

[Genx87]

Amazon FireTV solves a lot of this stuff. Can be had for 80 bucks during a sale. /shrug

 

[Malogeek]

Amazon FireTV solves a lot of this stuff. Can be had for 80 bucks during a sale. /shrug

There are many ways to "solve" the issue but I don't have a cable box either which would solve my HBO DVR problem as well. That's not the point though is it? That's like telling everyone in the CPU Overclock forum to buy a Dell desktop instead.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> Lower the requirement from 3GB to 2GB via software tuning?

This seems plausible since the 4K frame buffers are only 40 MB each even for 40-bit pixels, so 80 MB for double-buffered. But I haven't read up on what other VRAM is needed while decoding.

 

[zinfamous]

I think you missed my point.
Who buys a 4k monitor and doesn't have a GPU to push it? Let alone a new system that meets the requirements of 4K Netflix.

No one missed your point, you're just ignoring all the responses:

No one needs a fancy GPU to push video 4k through a 4k TV (i.e: non-gaming fancy display) with zero gaming needs.

 

[Malogeek]

I've been a long time HTPC user in my house and I can tell you that the main goal of building HTPCs is the cheapest, smallest and quietest APU or CPU+GPU possible for the requirements. You want the minimal hardware because you're usually placing them in very tight spaces, tiny cases and limited airflow, and you don't want to be hearing any fans either.

Raven Ridge could be a huge boost to the HTPCs as multi-purpose units capable of pushing 4k HDR and gaming.