Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


psk20

155 posts

Master Geek


#30629 16-Feb-2009 09:34
Send private message

Hi all,

I'm having many, many issues with my ati radeon hd4870 512MB. The card is working as well as radeons tend to, but unfortunately, it's not as well as advertised. Although gaming performance is amazing, it has serious issues with h.264 hardware decoding. It's reached the point that I'm thinking I'll try and see if I can get my money back.

So here's the question. If you were to shop for a replacement for the card with a similar budget, what would you go for? Ideally, it should perform in games approximately as well as the ATI card, but would be NVidia. Moreover, it NEEDS to not have issues decoding h.264 video. It also has to support hdmi output (preferrably without having to seperately purchase a dongle).

Has anyone tried using any Nvidia cards in that price-range for DVB-T/blu-ray playback? Any issues, or did they run perfectly smoothly right out of the box?

Cheers!

Create new topic
davidcole
6029 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #196017 16-Feb-2009 11:38
Send private message

At least a Nvidia 8500 Gt or 8600Gt. These will handle you h.264 decoding.  I think there are 9xxxx series equivalentss.  There's a pretty good thread on here that discusses the various cards and their capabilities.

Not sure about your gaming though, as I run a decicated PVR with an 8600gt so I don't put games on that.




Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server
Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight 




Asmodeus
1015 posts

Uber Geek


  #196020 16-Feb-2009 11:46
Send private message

There are only a couple of nvidia cards that match the 4870 in terms of gaming performance, the latest GTX 260 being the probable closest match to the 1GB (or maybe a 9800GTX+ if you only have the 512MB 4870). I believe there have always been problems with Radeon cards and h.264 but I don't know much about it, there are plenty of discussions here and elsewhere on it though.

If its just h.264/blu ray you want then anything from an 8400 upwards will do the trick.

I have a passively cooled 9600GT in my HTPC which I also use for gaming and it cranks pretty well on a 720p tv but if you are really after those high frame rates and/or have a 1080p tv, you'll need more...

I assume since you have a 4870 your not too worried about noise/heat? In that case, just get whatever nvidia card you want/can afford




HTPC: Silverstone Crown CW02 case | Asus P5Q-L main board | Intel Dual core E8400 3.0GHz CPU | Thermalright Ultra120-Extreme Passive CPU Cooler | Blackgold BTG3540 TV Tuner & Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE Edition | Asus EN9600GT-Silent Passive GPU | 4GB Supertalent DDR2 800 RAM | 5+TB HDD space | LiteOn DH-401S BD/DVD/CD reader | Corsair HX-520w PSU | 1 single Noctua Silent Case fan | Logitech diNovo Bluetooth Media Desktop | Logitech Harmony 785 Universal Remote | Logitech Wireless Rumblepad 2 | Windows 7 Media Center, MediaBrowser & Arcsoft Total Media Theatre

psk20

155 posts

Master Geek


  #196021 16-Feb-2009 11:49
Send private message

Hmm yeah, an 8600GT would do the h.264 job fine, but the issue is, which gaming graphics cards would do the job fine, without issues? For instance, has anyone out there successfully used a GTX 260 to watch freeview?

i actually upgraded from an 8600GT to my current card because the 8600GT had poor gaming performance. Makes me sad that the cheaper card was much better for HTPC use :(



psk20

155 posts

Master Geek


  #196022 16-Feb-2009 11:54
Send private message

Yeah, I was thinking probably that a GTX260 would be the way to go, but was just hoping someone might be able to confirm that they'd done it with no issues (just to allay my fears :D). Obviously the card has more than enough power to do it.

Yeah, noise and heat, though a major annoyance, is just something that I have to live with if I want my htpc to be great for gaming. And yeah, I'm running it at 1920x1080p at the moment! Although to be honest, my 4870 isn't *that* loud. The fan is set to run at about 30% by default, which keeps it cool enough. At 30% it's not horribly noisy, although it is audible.

Nety
2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #196027 16-Feb-2009 12:15
Send private message

The GTX260 has Purevideo HD support at version 2 so will be fine for media centre duties.







Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

psk20

155 posts

Master Geek


  #196577 18-Feb-2009 18:06
Send private message

Update... I tried going back to Vista and using the newish 9.1 drivers... and both of the problems I was experiencing have disappeared. Hopefully by the time Windows 7 is no longer beta software, the issues will be worked out and I can go back to it!

Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.