What specs on a videocard affect 2d most?

[NeezyDeezy]

For example, what allows some cards to be able to playback very high definition signals smoothly and others choppily? What's the main hardware difference in this kind of performance, and in 2d performance more generally?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: NeezyDeezy
For example, what allows some cards to be able to playback very high definition signals smoothly and others choppily? What's the main hardware difference in this kind of performance, and in 2d performance more generally?

not sure about 2d performance, i assumed that was mainly down to the quality of the RAMDAC's etc i dont know.

things like PureVideo (nvidia) and ATI's AVIVO are what helps HD playback....(or should do eventually) these are dedicated video processors built into the GPU its self.

i believe PureVideo occupies some 20+million transistors on GF6 and GF7 dies.

 

[biostud]

2D = CPU power and for videoplayback you get the power from buying AVIVO (for the X1xxx generation)or PureVideo. AFAIK AVIVO is the best atm, although it's rumored that nvidia will soon release H.264 support for 6xxx and 7xxx series.

Also for ATi AVIVO the HD acceleration is something like this:
X1300: 480p
X1600: 720p
X1800: 1080i

 

[Subwayeatbig]

Well the new driver that supports h.264. Nvidia says even the lowest 6200 can play 1080p h.264