Which card to get for use with SageTV?

[jettman]

I have narrowed down my search to this 5700

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...127-112&depa=1

and this 5700 Ultra

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...122-192&depa=1



Is there any reason that I would need the 5700 Ultra? I guess I am looking for guidance on which one to get.

TIA

[RageFury]

For curiousity's sake, is there a reason why you chose NVIDIA over ATi?

[jettman]

I already have two ATI cards and just want to try an Nvidia based card. That is really the only reason.

[salsbst]

What kind of display are you planning to use?

[jettman]

A 27" SDTV. It only has RCA inputs so I will be using that.

[salsbst]

That's another good reason to go with nVidia -- slightly better TV out than ATI.

[mlbdude]

If you plan on doing VMR9 go with the Ultra. On my non-ultra 5700 I am limited to low resoluions with VMR9.

[jettman]

what resolutions can you go to without pq loss with your 5700? I would probably only need to do 720 x 480 since my TV is SDTV.

[mlbdude]

I can get 640x480 with no tearing or stuttering at all. At 720x480 I get some stuttering and occasional tearing.

One thing to consider no matter what you get, is to try for an EVGA card. Not sure what decoder you are using, but the EVGA ones come with NVDVD 2.55.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...130-180&depa=1

[jettman]

Can you use NVDVD with other brands of video cards? Also, isn't NVDVD 4 coming out soon?

Originally Posted by mlbdude

I can get 640x480 with no tearing or stuttering at all. At 720x480 I get some stuttering and occasional tearing.

One thing to consider no matter what you get, is to try for an EVGA card. Not sure what decoder you are using, but the EVGA ones come with NVDVD 2.55.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...130-180&depa=1

[kny3twalker]

I will have to say get the non ultra for a SDTV
a FX 5200 should be able to run it just fine

with VMR9

[jettman]

I was looking on ebay last night and found a great deal on a 5900 xt for $129! I decided to go with that.

[mlbdude]

My 5200 in my client PC can't do VMR9 at all without tearing or stuttering. It seems the baseline is a 5700 on nVidia or a 9600 pro on ATI for minimal VMR9 support.

[mls]

I don't have any problem with tearing or stuttering with a 5500 on my client machine, but it's a really fast machine anyway (P4 3GHz with PC-3200 RAM in Dual Channel mode). While a higher end graphics card will certainly improve things, it still needs a high end machine under it to do VMR9 well.