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Just for sure...

 
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gjaky




Joined: 05 Jun 2010
Posts: 2789
Location: Budapest, Hungary


PostLink    Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 4:10 pm    Post subject: Just for sure... Reply with quote


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I use my NEC with a htpc built from the drawer, since I mostly watch compressed 720p HD movies, there isn't too high requirements for the pc: I have a 'socket A' based AMD athlon xp 2800+ @ 3000+ (2200MHz), the vga was a radeon 9000 pro (AGP) the whole thing performed very well. Now I got a geforce 6600GT card which has some H.264 acceleration (at least in theory), but to be honest I didn't notice any improvement in 1080p movie playback -which is ummmm... unusable Very Happy I've tried VLC, MPC with different settings (even with CoreAVC) but it doesn't seem to work, however once I noticed with a certain setting the cpu usage was only around 80% but the playback still chopped. Yes I know modern multicore cpus (like in my desktop pc) play 1080p without any problem. Is there any way-around to make my el-cheapo htpc play 1080p movies, or it simply won't do? The best nvidia AGP cards were the GF 7 series, but they basically have the same H.264 acceleration as my GF 6600GT, there are stronger -more modern- ati AGP cards, but they lack powerstrip / custom resolution support. Not a big deal the whole 1080p thing, because My 6PG xtra isn't really a high performer with it's aftermarket HD-6 lenses, just thought worth to ask...

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projectors in the past : NEC 6-9PG xtra, Electrohome Marquee 6-7500, NEC XG 1351 LC ( with super modified Electrohome VNB neckboard !!!)
current: VDC Marquee 9500LC
The MOD: VNB-DB, VIM-DB
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AFryia




Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 956
Location: S.E. Michigan VPH-G70Q


PostLink    Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Strange, my old P4 CPU with 9800Pro would do 1080p @72hz over DVI. My G70 could not center that image but it did lock on and display it.
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gjaky




Joined: 05 Jun 2010
Posts: 2789
Location: Budapest, Hungary


PostLink    Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 2:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can you give me a bit more description about your old pc? (cpu speed, player you used)
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projectors in the past : NEC 6-9PG xtra, Electrohome Marquee 6-7500, NEC XG 1351 LC ( with super modified Electrohome VNB neckboard !!!)
current: VDC Marquee 9500LC
The MOD: VNB-DB, VIM-DB
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AFryia




Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 956
Location: S.E. Michigan VPH-G70Q


PostLink    Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pentium P4 3.0Ghz Socket-478 512KB L2 cache 800Mhz FSB

1.5GB Ram

Radeoan 9800Pro 256MB AGP

mATX ABit board, can't remember the model.

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barclay66




Joined: 27 Jun 2011
Posts: 1291
Location: Germany

TV/Projector: Marquee 9500 Ultra


PostLink    Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,

From personal experience I can tell that the AMD processors perform quite well at office applications. When it comes to video coding, rendering or other video related activities the Pentiums will outperform them easily, even as single cores with the same clock frequency.
If You're using an Athlon You will most likely have an AGP connector for the graphics card. This (together with slower RAM than DDR-2) will represent a significant bottleneck, even if the graphics card is up to date (which most with AGP connector aren't). Sometimes there's another show stopper: If either the BIOS and/or the operating system are too old then advanced capabilities (e.g. Video hardware accelleration) might be left unused.
Some inexpensive board with Core i3 or Core i5 CPU, at least 2 GB DDR-2 or DDR-3 RAM and some average PCI-E graphics card will do the trick. Even some older Pentium 4 boards might be usable (see example above). You should at least use Windows XP with SP3 and current drivers...

Regards,
barclay66
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gjaky




Joined: 05 Jun 2010
Posts: 2789
Location: Budapest, Hungary


PostLink    Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 6:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the input, you write very interesting things.
1.) My previous desktop pc was also an s478 based 3GHz (800MHz FSB) pentium 4, with 2GB dual channel DDR ram, and ATI radeon 9550 vga (~underclocked radeon 9700) and that pc was unable to play 1080p mkv movies as well (on XP SP3)
2.) I found Athlon cpus more suitable for multimedia applications, my first dedicated htpc was based on an AMD sempron 2400+ (1666MHz real clock) and played 720p mkvs very well too, however my above mantioned desktop pc originally came with a 2,66GHz Pentium 4 cpu, which it was unable (!!!) to play 720p mkvs (that 2,66GHz cpu now resides in my mom's pc, and with that rig it also unable to play 720p mkvs...)

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projectors in the past : NEC 6-9PG xtra, Electrohome Marquee 6-7500, NEC XG 1351 LC ( with super modified Electrohome VNB neckboard !!!)
current: VDC Marquee 9500LC
The MOD: VNB-DB, VIM-DB
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CasetheCorvetteman




Joined: 09 Nov 2008
Posts: 6319
Location: Australia


PostLink    Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And now ill give you abit of MY personal experience....

AMD CPUs will generally, "in my personal experience", be more reliable, with a far lower failure rate than INTeL.

Ive built alot of computers over the past 10 or so years, i was selling new ones for a while ( all except one was AMD, almost all with Athlon XP or sorts, some were Athlon 64, and there was one INTeL )

Ive never ever had a single AMD fail in the loads i built and sold, at one point i even gave a 5 year warranty with all AMD computers, and never had a claim. Had a fair few buyers buy newer computers off me later on and their old ones still running, but never a failure.

I have had numerous INTeL CPUs fail, one i built for myself, and loads of them at my place of employment, which i didnt build, but i find that quite irrelevant.

I also found that in terms of gaming performance up til i went back to retro console gaming, AMD had it all over INTeL in every way known, ESPECIALLY in price.

Gjaky, a 2.66 GHz P4 is only a 266 FSB, they call it a 533, but its really not. If it is, it sure as sh*t doesnt go like one.

The AMD Sempron 2400+ is a 333 FSB, which means alot when it comes to just making it, or just missing out.

Alot of people used to get hung up on the AMD numbering, and call all sorts of garbage when they saw the actual CPU speed was not the same as the name. At one point i did have a genuine 3200+ Barton Core Athlon XP, and it DID easily outbench the P4 3.2GHz 800FSB CPU it was compared to when it came to gaming benches, and i think the nFORCE 2 chipset on the AMD may have also had alot to do with that.

Your choice of mainboard with either a P4 or an AMD K7 of sorts was quite critical to the actual performance youd see. The fact your "above mensioned desktop" came with a 266 FSB CPU, unless you changed the mobo, id be suprissed if you were getting the most out of that 400 FSB INTeL.
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