Good, cheap, quiet video card

[Addict]

Hi folks,

I'm curious for some feedback on a decent video card. I don't need anything top of the line, I'm really looking for the biggest bang for my buck.

It has to passively cool (no fan, noise). It should have options for output (HDMI, DVI, Y/Cb/Cr, etc). Again, I don't need a huge powerhouse...I just need something that'll do the job. My old ATI AIW 9000 is struggling a little bit.

Thanks for any help, or links, or insight!

AL

[snipeman]

Do you want AGP?

[Addict]

Oops...knew I forgot something. The box I'm running Sage on has an AGP slot, but IIRC PCI is better?

I'm open to suggestion...

[snipeman]

Well in AGP there isn't a lot of choice anymore, when you want a decent fanless card. I'd recommend this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125039

You can't go PCI-E unless you change your motherboard in all probability. So many people struggle with the question, "Do I invest big $ in a high end AGP card, or deal with my slow stuff until I replace the whole system?"

If you don't want to do a lot of hi-res HDTV, this card might hold you over:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133151

In general, I like fanless, Gigabyte NVIDIA chipset cards for my Sage boxes. Everyone has an opinion and there are lots of other good options out there, but I've had great success with these. I have several systems and find it easy to shuffle the cards around as I get a new one every now and again.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

[Lucas]

I have the same Gigabyte 7600GS card and I would recommend it hardware wise.

In my setup I get a very occasional picture glitch that looks like tearing in the top 20 pixels on camera pans. It happens with SD and HD content. It must be driver related.

This is the only negative point about the card/driver combo on my setup.

[cychou]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I have the same Gigabyte 7600GS card and I would recommend it hardware wise.

In my setup I get a very occasional picture glitch that looks like tearing in the top 20 pixels on camera pans. It happens with SD and HD content. It must be driver related.

This is the only negative point about the card/driver combo on my setup.

Lucas,


May I ask are you using VMR9, 3D Acceleration, FSE, and Purevideo decoder in your set-up?

I am experiencing similar video glitches in my system (Gigabyte AGP 6600 non-GT version) when viewing HD Sports program. After downgrading Video driver to 84.21 as some people suggested here (after using both 93.71 and 94.24), the glitches seem to become less frequent, but still there.

So I am considering an Hardware upgrade to Gigabyte 7600 GS AGP to see if it solve my problem. However judging from your experiences, I probably should hold that thought.


Vincent

[stanger89]

If you're looking at PCIe, then the 8500GT is probably your best bet. A lot of people on AVS Forums really like it.

If you're stuck with AGP, it may well be worth waiting for ATI's 2400/2600 cards to come out.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by cychou

Lucas,


May I ask are you using VMR9, 3D Acceleration, FSE, and Purevideo decoder in your set-up?

I am experiencing similar video glitches in my system (Gigabyte AGP 6600 non-GT version) when viewing HD Sports program. After downgrading Video driver to 84.21 as some people suggested here (after using both 93.71 and 94.24), the glitches seem to become less frequent, but still there.

So I am considering an Hardware upgrade to Gigabyte 7600 GS AGP to see if it solve my problem. However judging from your experiences, I probably should hold that thought.


Vincent

I am using VMR9 and FSE with Purevideo. The glitch is there. It is very frustrating. Mostly it's absent. But all of a sudden it's there and very noticeable. It's a bit like when in the old VHS days, the tape would get slightly damaged, you would see a horozintal line at the bottom of the picture with everything below messed up.

The gigabyte card overclocks easily. I run it at 450MHz.

I tend to agree with Stanger89 on waiting on the new ATI cards. The 7600GS are good for Mpeg2 but poor for h.264 especially on lower end CPUs.
The 8500 is very good with h.264(giving hope that we may be able to play h.264 even on lower end CPUs) as well but alas it's not available in AGP form. If ATI can give similar performance to the nVidia 8500 on AGP then it would be the best option for upgrade.

In many ways, Nvidia has all the right functionality and options for video but as a previous ATI owner, I long for better drivers without such annoying video glitches.

[lobosrul]

I now have an 8500GT fanless in my client. Strangely enough I had some slight stuttering on 1080i non-telecined content (Saturday Night Live with Zach Braff when I noticed it).

Fortunantly the card seems to have a ton of head room for over clocking. I duct taped a cheap, very quiet 90mm case fan blowing right on to the heatsink of my 8500GT. I used ntune to overclock by 15% and 10% on the memory. Stuttering is gone, and a week later I havent had a crash.

So I'd recommend the card, just know you might need to OC it, if you plan on running VMR9.

It DOES NOT do the full h.264 acceleration in Win XP. Still waiting on a driver update, and I'm very much afraid that it might only work in approved apps (ie WMP).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Lucas

In many ways, Nvidia has all the right functionality and options for video but as a previous ATI owner, I long for better drivers without such annoying video glitches.

Funny, as a previous ATI owner (had a 9500), I dread "having" to go back to ATI's drivers.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Funny, as a previous ATI owner (had a 9500), I dread "having" to go back to ATI's drivers.

Hmmm. I had a 9600XT and driver wise was pretty stable. Any problems I had were with not enough horsepower for VMR9 and 1080i mpeg2.

I should clarify that I prefer the Nvidia drivers from a configuration and controlability point of view over ATI's.

Hey at least I am not getting any stuttering with either of them. FSE or no FSE.....

[Addict]

Thanks for the great feedback folks... I'm going to give the 7600GS a shot for the time being, as the price is right. If I see the same issues others are having, I'll figure out another solution.

Thanks!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Lucas

Hmmm. I had a 9600XT and driver wise was pretty stable. Any problems I had were with not enough horsepower for VMR9 and 1080i mpeg2.

Well it kind of T'd me off that Overlay was busted for about 11 driver revisions. Now there's talk of temporal smearing of MPEG2.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I now have an 8500GT fanless in my client. Strangely enough I had some slight stuttering on 1080i non-telecined content (Saturday Night Live with Zach Braff when I noticed it).

Fortunantly the card seems to have a ton of head room for over clocking. I duct taped a cheap, very quiet 90mm case fan blowing right on to the heatsink of my 8500GT. I used ntune to overclock by 15% and 10% on the memory. Stuttering is gone, and a week later I havent had a crash.

So I'd recommend the card, just know you might need to OC it, if you plan on running VMR9.

It DOES NOT do the full h.264 acceleration in Win XP. Still waiting on a driver update, and I'm very much afraid that it might only work in approved apps (ie WMP).

I also have a fanless 8500GT (500mhz core, 800mhz RAM) in my HTPC. My opinion is that the XP drivers for it are crap. I had the following problems on my clean, dedicated SageTV Client HTPC:

- High CPU usage and stuttering in HD (no PureVideo HD support for XP yet... ever?)
- Unable to open the nVidia control panel (workaround hack using classic panel had no TV/video processing options)
- Resuming from Standby would result in all Sage video stuttering horribly. Problem persisted until system was rebooted.

I finally got fed up and threw in another hard drive to try Vista (Business edition). Now my HTPC works beautifully:

- Super-low CPU usage, even at 1080i with every PureVideo bell, whistle, and Inverse Telecine enabled
- Inverse Telecine actually works correctly now (XP drivers would take 1080i @ 30fps content and convert it into a 1080P @ 15fps slideshow)
- nVidia control panel opens, with full set of video enhancement options
- PureVideo HD support
- All videos butter-smooth without the need to muck around with buggy anti-stutter "fixes" (FSE, ReClock)
- Standby/Hibernate works perfectly

You might want to look into switching to Vista... I think a lot of the stuttering gremlins we deal with in XP are due to context switching between 2D and 3D modes. With Vista, everything on screen is a 3D surface (Aero Glass-capable versions, anyway). As much as I dislike Vista for being forced down our throats, it does make an excellent SageTV environment.

[Addict]

Hey again folks.

Got the card, installed it. I've noticed that my PC's CPU is running higher than it did with my ATI AIW 9000 (actually maxing out on occasion). The menu navigation also hangs between transitions, which it didn't used to do... It actually displays both menus...hangs for a few seconds...then finally gets to where it's going. Sometimes the spinning circle comes up too.

Is it possible that Sage isn't using the full power of the card? I can't imagine that my ancient AIW 9000 is better than the 7600GS I just got...

I'm not noticing any different options in the MPEG2 Decoder options in Sage, but I'm not actually sure if I should be seeing anything new. The only options I have are:

* InterVideo NonCSS Video Decoder for Hauppauge
* SageTV MPEG Video Decoder (in use)

I've installed everything, all drivers, all utilities, rebooted multiple times, etc... VMR9, FSE, etc.


Thoughts?

[Lucas]

The decoder you are using is the default and it does not use any of the hardware features on your card. That's why.

The intervideo decoder will be better. Note that you can't play (CSS) DVDs with these.

I recommend you either get the Nvidia Purevideo decoder (bronze) or install something like WinDVD or PowerDVD to get their decoder. Then you will see much much better picture quality.

In fact you might have improved the performance of your old 9000 with the newer decoders.....

[Addict]

Well, I'm officially blown away.

Just bought the NVidia Purevideo Decoder, and no improvement AT ALL after telling Sage to use it. Not even an ounce.

Pulled the 7600GS out and stuck my ATI AIW 9000 back in. Reinstalled all the drivers. SAME QUALITY (worse than what it was before I removed it initially for the 7600).

This makes no sense. The ATI card and the NVidia card now have the same problems (same pooooor performance, regardless of card-specific decoders or not). Both cards, with varying decoders, result in the SAME quality (almost identical across the board).

Worse over, the GOOD quality I had for the past few weeks is no longer available. After uninstalling the ATI AIW 9000 and putting in the 7600GS, performance is terrible even after re-installing the ATI card.

<shakes head>

I'm completely lost and frustrated. Nothing has changed other than the graphics cards and associated drivers.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by Addict

Well, I'm officially blown away.

Just bought the NVidia Purevideo Decoder, and no improvement AT ALL after telling Sage to use it. Not even an ounce.

Pulled the 7600GS out and stuck my ATI AIW 9000 back in. Reinstalled all the drivers. SAME QUALITY (worse than what it was before I removed it initially for the 7600).

This makes no sense. The ATI card and the NVidia card now have the same problems (same pooooor performance, regardless of card-specific decoders or not). Both cards, with varying decoders, result in the SAME quality (almost identical across the board).

Worse over, the GOOD quality I had for the past few weeks is no longer available. After uninstalling the ATI AIW 9000 and putting in the 7600GS, performance is terrible even after re-installing the ATI card.

<shakes head>

I'm completely lost and frustrated. Nothing has changed other than the graphics cards and associated drivers.

You were using the nVidia Video Decoder, not the nVidia Post Processor, right?

[Addict]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

You were using the nVidia Video Decoder, not the nVidia Post Processor, right?

Yup.

[Lucas]

Somethin's strange!

Some questions.

Do you have an SDTV or another display?

How are you connecting to your TV or monitor?

What display resolution are you using?
If its an SDTV, the display should be set to 720x480 at 60Hz.

Have you played with the Nvidia control panel to setup the TV properly?
There is a setting for flicker control. You should reduce the control to increase flicker because this gives a much sharper image for video even if for the windows desktop the lines flicker.

With the Purevideo decoder, since it's the last you have installed, it will be the default decoder. In SageTV, set the decoder to default. This way, when you play a video and you see the Purevideo icon at the bottom right in the taskbar, you can right click to set its properties.

In Purevideo properties you need to select hardware acceleration and deinterlacing to Smart/Automatic or Best Available.