Nvidia 9800 GT EE - Anyone Using This Energy-Efficient Card?

[Savage1701]

I am considering this card since I don't game and only want it on Sage servers and clients where it is impractical to get an extender.

Has anyone used this card? I know it has the CUDA cores that my Core AVC decoder can access. I even have an older 8600 GTS that can be offloaded to just fine, but if I am going to buy a new card this seems to fit the bill for me, given the high regard CUDA core decoding has for video and the fact that I own Core license. I don't want high power consumption since the card will never have any gaming demands placed on it besides U.B. Funkeys my son plays - woooohoooo - that's a tough one to get a good frame rate on... :-)

My only concern is if the card will throttle back during shows and induce stuttering, or is it smart enough to keep going? I am especially concerned about H.264 shows from my HD-PVR.

Even my 8600 GTS can clean up my favorite "problem child" clip from "CSI - A Family Affair" episode opening scene, as can my ATI 4670, but I am not super-thrilled with ATI, most 4670's burn 2 slots, I don't like the way CCC addresses HDMI output to my TV, and Core AVC does not specifically tune itself to ATI, but it does to CUDA cores.

Thanks for any thoughts on this matter, especially if you are using one of these "EE" energy efficient cards.

Thanks for any input.

[SWKerr]

That is still a gaming card and will use more power than necessary. No HDMI.

ATI 4550, Passively cooled (Half the Price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102819

The ATI will not hardware accelerate with CoreAVC but it looks good. The Arcsoft software that came with your HD-PVR will work great with this.

[Savage1701]

Actually, I don't want HDMI per se. I want an Nvidia card that has CUDA cores to access the Core AVC decoder I have.

I also have Arcsoft DirecShow filter (the older, unhidden one) and the Cyberlink codec packs.

I think the 4550 is garbage. It can't handle nearly what my 4670 can. I have both.

But my question still stands - anyone using the EE series cards?

[SHS]

GPU support is going to change to OpenCL so that put end to both Cuda and Steam
Nvidia 9800 GT EE it need 550watt and dual 6 pin that not what I call a Energy-Efficient card
Savage1701 how about the GeForce GT 220

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Actually, I don't want HDMI per se. I want an Nvidia card that has CUDA cores to access the Core AVC decoder I have.

I also have Arcsoft DirecShow filter (the older, unhidden one) and the Cyberlink codec packs.

I think the 4550 is garbage. It can't handle nearly what my 4670 can. I have both.

But my question still stands - anyone using the EE series cards?

I would certainly expect a 4670 to kick a 4550s butt in gaming but from a TV\HTPC perspective what can't it do?

I like passive cooling and generally try to avoid fans if I can. I have had two where even though they were not very loud to begin with they eventually got worse. I had an nVidiad 8600 that actually overheated when the fan died. There are plenty of cheaper nVidia cards that will do 1080p on the CoreAVC decoder.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by SHS

GPU support is going to change to OpenCL so that put end to both Cuda and Steam
Nvidia 9800 GT EE it need 550watt and dual 6 pin that not what I call a Energy-Efficient card
Savage1701 how about the GeForce GT 220

What are you talking about?

Look at this Newegg.com URL:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Tpk=9800%20ee

The whole point is that the EE series runs off of slot power alone and saves energy on top of it. I'm trying to find out if anyone has tried it and paid a penalty in the video decode department.

Look, if you don't know anything about this card variant, please don't comment on it. It does not use dual 6-pins and is an energy efficient card, or so it says.

It has CUDA cores and Core AVC is optimized to work with CUDA cores. I can vouch for that as far as the Core decoder is concerned.

Bottom line - are you using this card or do you have direct knowledge of a person/system that is? Furthermore, are they using it with, preferrably, Core decoder or others, and how is it working for them in terms of H.264 decoding offload? If you can't answer that for me, then please don't reply.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I would certainly expect a 4670 to kick a 4550s butt in gaming but from a TV\HTPC perspective what can't it do?

I like passive cooling and generally try to avoid fans if I can. I have had two where even though they were not very loud to begin with they eventually got worse. I had an nVidiad 8600 that actually overheated when the fan died. There are plenty of cheaper nVidia cards that will do 1080p on the CoreAVC decoder.

Kerr, I have no clue. All I know is my HIS 4650 is not nearly the hero the HIS4670 is.

I mean, manufacturers mess with these GPU's all the time. I wish I could have just stuck with my Sapphires, but I needed a card and that was what was in stock and ready to go at that moment.

Believe you me, if I had known Core specifically could access CUDA cores I never would have touched ATI. And I agree with you on the fan noise. Passive or liquid cooling for sure. I liquid cool all my CPU's but tend to shy away from it on graphics cards due to all the oddball needs of the VRAM and MOSFETS on the card being cooled by the fan as well. I cooked an old 6600 once that way. The GPU stayed cool but I'm sure the loss of air flow did in the memory or some other part of the card that relied on that fan spillover effect. And the good coolers that cover all the parts of a card usually only get made for the high-end stuff that I don't need or want anyway since I don't game or own my own industrial co-generation facility to power them. :-)

I only realized the specialties of the Core after the fact. I tried it on a 8600 GTS card on an old Pentium D and it sliced the CPU usage by 80-90%. I also know it was hitting the GPU because it's temp went up about 5 degrees centigrade while I was watching a H.264 video.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

What are you talking about?

Look at this Newegg.com URL:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Tpk=9800%20ee

The whole point is that the EE series runs off of slot power alone and saves energy on top of it. I'm trying to find out if anyone has tried it and paid a penalty in the video decode department.

Look, if you don't know anything about this card variant, please don't comment on it. It does not use dual 6-pins and is an energy efficient card, or so it says.

It has CUDA cores and Core AVC is optimized to work with CUDA cores. I can vouch for that as far as the Core decoder is concerned.

Bottom line - are you using this card or do you have direct knowledge of a person/system that is? Furthermore, are they using it with, preferrably, Core decoder or others, and how is it working for them in terms of H.264 decoding offload? If you can't answer that for me, then please don't reply.

Oh I see that was the that come up with google

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

I only realized the specialties of the Core after the fact. I tried it on a 8600 GTS card on an old Pentium D and it sliced the CPU usage by 80-90%. I also know it was hitting the GPU because it's temp went up about 5 degrees centigrade while I was watching a H.264 video.

Any of the recent cards will do that with DXVA, no need for CUDA. My 780G (Radeon 3200 GPU) could play H.264 Blu-ray at well under 10% CPU due to DXVA and it's UVD. Same thing with my 9600GT, ~0% CPU due to it's onboard DXVA decoder.

CUDA is just a hack Core used for some reason instead of DXVA.