Graphics cards & driver bugs

[elootos]

Something else that I've been reading about recently is whether to go for nVidia or ATi with regard playback of broadcast HD material here in the UK.

I've always plumped for nVidia (for no real reason), and their drivers have always worked well, but it seems ATi have been getting a lot better of late and apparently the issue of corruption on H.264 broadcasts pixelating has finally been fixed in the last few weeks with a driver update. For my nVidia 8800GTS in the lounge, H.264 broadcasts (BBC HD) have always pixelated for a few seconds and then cleared, but it's frustrating skipping through programs. However the 8600GT in my bedroom PC behaves normally, so go figure. Perhaps not a driver issue but a hardware one with the nVidia boards.

So in case you're wondering which make/model to go for in your HTPC build, it tends to come down to personal choice, but for the budget conscious the onboard ATi (AMD) HD4200 graphics seem to be really good now the issue of corruption has been fixed. Certainly the 2 systems I have access to with ATi graphics (discrete HD4350 boards though) now play OTA HD material flawlessly. And according to the spec sheet the HD4200 also supports HDMI v1.3 (good) and is specifically designed to enhance Blu-ray playback (also good).

This is of course all about media playback, for a gamer, onboard graphics are a complete no-no, and then it all comes down to grunt for yer dollar.

Just thought I'd put my findings in writing...

[dunks517]

(04-08-2010 06:43 PM)elootos Wrote:  Something else that I've been reading about recently is whether to go for nVidia or ATi with regard playback of broadcast HD material here in the UK.

I've always plumped for nVidia (for no real reason), and their drivers have always worked well, but it seems ATi have been getting a lot better of late and apparently the issue of corruption on H.264 broadcasts pixelating has finally been fixed in the last few weeks with a driver update. For my nVidia 8800GTS in the lounge, H.264 broadcasts (BBC HD) have always pixelated for a few seconds and then cleared, but it's frustrating skipping through programs. However the 8600GT in my bedroom PC behaves normally, so go figure. Perhaps not a driver issue but a hardware one with the nVidia boards.

So in case you're wondering which make/model to go for in your HTPC build, it tends to come down to personal choice, but for the budget conscious the onboard ATi (AMD) HD4200 graphics seem to be really good now the issue of corruption has been fixed. Certainly the 2 systems I have access to with ATi graphics (discrete HD4350 boards though) now play OTA HD material flawlessly. And according to the spec sheet the HD4200 also supports HDMI v1.3 (good) and is specifically designed to enhance Blu-ray playback (also good).

This is of course all about media playback, for a gamer, onboard graphics are a complete no-no, and then it all comes down to grunt for yer dollar.

Just thought I'd put my findings in writing...

May I recommend the 5000 series of ATI Graphic cards as this allows Bitstreaming of HD audio when using TMT3.

[huxley]

I always had nVidia cards from my first PC. On my current i5 build (which is my purpose built HTPC) I plumped for a 5850 for the bitstreaming option and also some big screen gaming. I doubt I`d go back to nVidia. Despite the size of the card and its fan, it`s fairly quiet. And not had a single problem with regards to picture or sound. The CCC took a little while to get used to, new layout etc but it was worth it in the long run.

[elootos]

I've always sworn by nVidia as well, but am definitely turning in favour of ATi.

I really need an upgrade to my lounge GPU which is an 8800GTS but it has temp readings of 72deg in the height of summer. WTF!?!?

Gaming is a thing of the past really for the system so one of the 5xxx series is definitely on the cards.

[huxley]

Lol my old 8800 has a passive cooler on it. Whilst it was set up in the loft last year it was so hot it would burn you.
Thing still works though.

[phillj]

[/align][align=justify]I too have always gone for the Nvida chipset over the ATI (for no good reason really).

The one thing with the ATI cards that has put me off a little (not because it is worse, but becasue I have no experience with them, which is silly really) is that the HDMI audio through is done through (black magic) on board with no connectors (thinking about it could it be via an onboard sound card?). The Nvidia one takes an spdif out, which is fine if you have a motherboard or soundcard with it, but if not then you are stuffed. I had to break out the soldering iron to make a converted from coax to the connection type on the card as I didn't have the onboard header (and couldn't find one on the net). Does anyone have experience of how ATI cards perform with Audio over HDMI?

[elootos]

(06-09-2010 08:44 AM)phillj Wrote:  Does anyone have experience of how ATI cards perform with Audio over HDMI?

I've used them a couple of times on other people's systems and it's worked very well, just as it should

You're right though, it does appear as a soundcard in the Control Panel to select.

[huxley]

Having the sound and picture via one lead helps in two ways -
1 one less device to set up (driver conflicts/power usage etc)
2 No audio lag. My old Auzentech card as good as it was used to go out of sync from time to time esp with live tv.