Any good video decoding AND gaming cards?

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doveman

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Sep 27, 2007
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I've just returned a 7600GT AGP because it was faulty, but I was disappointed to find that it didn't support WMV decode acceleration as advertised.

Now I've learnt a bit more about it, I understand there's various levels of acceleration and some cards still leave some of the processing to be done by the CPU. If possible, I'd like to get a card that fully offloads the decoding to the GPU as I've only got a P4 2.8Ghz. Having said that, my HDTV only supports 1080i and I'm not planning to play HD-DVD or Blueray discs any time soon (if ever!).

I'd also like to be able to play games on this machine. The X1950 Pro is probably best for games but I'm not sure that it does the video decoding that I want, whilst the 2600XT probably does the video decoding but isn't very good for games.

Is there a card available that can do both tasks adequately, or is there something coming out soon that will? I know my machine's rather dated so I'm not looking to spend loads on a top-end gaming card as it won't be able to reach it's potential. I'll eventually build a new PCI-E based machine and get a decent gaming card for that but I'd like to use this machine in the meantime and use it as a dedicated HTPC when I build the new machine. With that in mind, I need a card that I can fit a quiet/passive after-market cooler to as well, which was a problem with the Nvidia AGP cards but I can take your card recommendations and look into whether they're compatible with the available coolers myself.
 
Does your HDTV take HDMI? In that case the HD2600XT is the best HDMI-out card I can come up with (Nvidia alternative out November? I forget), 8600GT-ish performance in games and cheap, benchmarks so far have shown it has the best video decoding hardware.

There are a few versions with passive cooling out too.

(edit: I see a Visiontek 2600XT AGP on Pricerunner, if you want the most 3D performance it's Radeon x19?0 but I doubt that's available in a fanless solution)
 
The 2600 is in AGP flavor, and good at video decoding, but not very good for gaming unless in very low resolutions.

The 8600gt(s) is not in AGP flavor afaik, but is also good at video stuff and better at gaming than the 2600.

So, go for the 2600, think there is a good deal at newegg atm.
 
Since you're stuck with AGP your choice is pretty limited, limited to only the 2600 which is just terrible in games but will work well for video.

Do yourself a favor and upgrade, atleast get yourself a s478 board that has a PCIe slot (I'm selling one). Hopefully NV will integrate their PV2 engine into their new 8800GT cards.
 
I wouldn't mind buying a s478/PCI-E board like an ASROCK that will take my DDR RAM in order to keep the cost down (in fact the cost of the motherboard will probably almost be covered by the savings from buying a PCI-E rather than AGP card) but I've heard those boards can be a nightmare so I'm not sure it's a good idea.
 
MrLonghair said:
Does your HDTV take HDMI? In that case the HD2600XT is the best HDMI-out card I can come up with (Nvidia alternative out November? I forget), 8600GT-ish performance in games and cheap, benchmarks so far have shown it has the best video decoding hardware.

There are a few versions with passive cooling out too.

(edit: I see a Visiontek 2600XT AGP on Pricerunner, if you want the most 3D performance it's Radeon x19?0 but I doubt that's available in a fanless solution)
Click to expand...

My HDTV takes DVI but it's easy enough to use an HDMI->DVI adapter and the TV is HDCP enabled which might come in handy one day.

I expect there's third-party passive coolers for the x1950 Pro but I don't know how it's video decoding compares to the 2600XT.
 
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