Best Video Card for 7MC with Blu-ray

[GeoffBQ]

Ok now that the new cards are out for this month which is the best with $100 budget?  That should be enough?  Straight up HTPC Set Top Box Duties with Blu-ray capabilities. No format or device shifting.  I am not asking for a lot anymore am I?

Thanks,

Geoff

[Aaron Ledger]

Are you building from scratch or just looking for a GPU upgrade? For just a GPU upgrade, you could start by looking at NVidia GT 430 or AMD 6570.

[GeoffBQ]

Using an existing server and recommissioning it for a rack based HTPC so just need a good GPU.  Is there anything in the new 7750 that makes it worth the $10-$20 more than budget?

Thanks,
Geoff 

[Aaron Ledger]

Probably not. 7xxx brings support for 4096×2160 @ 24p which is in HDMI 1.4a spec, but I am assuming you don’t have a display or content for that.

Another consideration is MadVR renderer, if you plan to use. You’ll be better off with NVIDIA on that front. If you can wait, maybe see what NVIDIA rolls out in the 6xx series for the lower end. The GT 430 is a pretty good card for MadVR and 1080p/24 content and display.

[GeoffBQ]

If it were between these three cards what would be everyone’s preference?

An AMD 6750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161379

A 7750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131461

A GTX 550 Ti

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125409

Thanks,

Geoff

[Aaron Ledger]

Any reason you are looking into cards in the $100 range? If all you need is WMC and Blu-ray playback with a commercial software player then the 6570 or GT 430 will be plenty adequate for 1080p display. You’ll save some money too both in terms of initial purchase and power use. For HTPC, I only recommend considering the more powerful cards for gaming, display resolution larger than 1080p, compute performance for transcoding/other application or a higher-end NVIDIA card for certain types of MadVR usage.

[GeoffBQ]

I thought it might a good value range for the recent chipsets.  That is good advise, thank you.

Geoff

[Aaron Ledger]

You definitely get more raw performance/dollar by stepping up to the $100 – $150 range, it’s just that it’s wasted for many HTPC-only applictions.

[Dkeyguy1]

I was running nVidia http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500217

Now I am running this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150602

and have a much better Media Center live tv, bluray, video, experience

[Chasseur]

Dkeyguy1, could you give more details about your “much better experience”?

[Dkeyguy1]

Sorry it took so long,

The nvidia card gave me issues powering of the display, whether running single, dual, 60 hz, 120 hz, didn’t matter. The new card, which is on http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757

with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103961 , same as all that I’ve tested for best performance, and the video quality is best with this card even running on http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131758 with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849 video perfomance is always the focus of my testing, not gaming

[Dkeyguy1]

I’ve tested it for video quality on 2 machines and it didn’t give resolution change issues like the nvidia card when powering off and back on the displays, single and double displays tested.

Also the video quality and responsiveness is better, this particular card is also single slot which achieves better results and takes up less space while not being too loud. I’m running it with a Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe card, TMT5 for BR, Playon, Internet TV in MC, Media Browser, etc.,

For the time being, I’m sticking with AMD for graphics, and I’ve been an nVidia freak for more than 5 years. XFX seems to have a good product, good support site, and the only drawback in all this is that the display port to HDMI adapter doesn’t come with it. ($10 on newegg, though) And in order to pass through audio, unlike the nvidia, you have to go HDMI / display port

[Dkeyguy1]

Smoother transitions, crisper picture, no more resolution “twitches” when changing tasks, brighter clearer picture watching BR playback, single slot card takes up less room, and is quieter, driver upgrades don’t require resetting all the options every time.

[Aaron Ledger]

I think what Dkeyguy1 is seeing is similar to my experience in that there are configurations where particular cards perform better/worse depending on the circumstance. A card (and particular driver version) may handle some content types better/worse and it may also behave differently with displays, AVRs, HDMI repeaters, etc (HDMI handshaking issues).  Unfortunately, this essentially means, you just have to give something a try that *should* be good and see if it works adequately with your equipment and content types.

In my primary viewing environment, I have my HTPC connected to a Samsung C8000 plasma via a Denon AVR-2112CI. I have used Intel HD Graphics, NVIDIA GT 430, GTX 560Ti and AMD 6570. Out of those selections, I prefer the 6570 for the following reasons:

1. 6570 behaves best with respect to HDMI handshaking (e.g. it never comes up in an incorrect resolution or some other anomaly) whereas Intel and NVIDIA both have occasional issues in this setup though connecting directly to the display seems to alleviate most issues.

2. Full-range RGB color space is easiest to achieve in my configuration with 6570. NVIDIA requires messing with the installation or creating custom resolution to get full-range out of HDMI. Intel will only output limited-range to my display (though this is purportedly fixed in IVB).

3. 6570 has the most accurate pixel clock for 24p content. Basically, I can watch a feature-length film via 6570 without a drop/repeat whereas the Intel/NVIDIA solutions will have at least a few. NVIDIA will allow getting even closer if you set a custom resolution, but I personally find this to be a pain.

4. 6570 (and Intel) are more seamless when dealing with 3D Blu-ray content and refresh rate switching.

I do not prefer the 6570 in the following circumstances:

1. There is the issue of certain types of recorded TV content that switch between hard and soft telecine modes (aka 29/59 frame rate issue). I find that the GT 430 performs best in this regard. 6570 will have a bit more judder with this content and Intel will have a bit more artifacts.

2. When stopping content playback in WMC, there is a momentary white distortion that displays in the top of the screen on some pixels. This actually isn’t a big deal at all, but I wish it did not do that.

Again, these are my preferences and observations in this particular configuration. I am also a “videophile” sort and things that I notice are not always noticeable by more casual viewers such as my lovely wife.

[Dkeyguy1]

Thanks for this, I do agree with all.

But I will tell you that I’ve found with more cpu and memory horse power you do not experience :

1. There is the issue of certain types of recorded TV content that switch between hard and soft telecine modes (aka 29/59 frame rate issue). I find that the GT 430 performs best in this regard. 6570 will have a bit more judder with this content and Intel will have a bit more artifacts.

2. When stopping content playback in WMC, there is a momentary white distortion that displays in the top of the screen on some pixels. This actually isn’t a big deal at all, but I wish it did not do that.

There’s the rub…. when it comes down to it, the balance between finance, power usage, performance,,

It’ll drive ya buggy.

My best machine for all around performance and least financial expense, with little to no issues is an ASUS F1A55-M/CSM FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

AMD A6-3650 Llano 2.6GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6530D AD3650WNGXBOX

Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX

ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS – OEM

Windows 7 Home Premium, TMT 5, and an LG 42″ 60 hz display, but it works awesomely with the Toshiba 120 hz as well with none of the aforementioned video issues

Lowest cost, quiet, excellent performance, I just haven’t been able to test the 3D for lack of a working display. And the longevity, if it’s like all my other builds with these brands, should be way out there.

Sorry I haven’t had more luck with smaller units. The E-350 APU I’m testing now has excellent video, but doesn’t have the CPU to back up more intense usage (recording 4 HD programs at once with the usb Ceton was more than it wanted to do with 4 gb of ram)

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