On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 10:09 AM, Florian Philipp <li...@binarywings.net> wrote: > Am 15.04.2012 15:18, schrieb Walter Dnes: >> On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 06:30:02PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote >>> Am Mittwoch, 11. April 2012, 02:11:35 schrieb Walter Dnes: >>>> >>>> If it's PCIe, so be it. Actually, a post that prevents me wasting >>>> money is helpful <G>. Would PCIe be significantly better on the same >>>> CPU+GPU, or is it hype? >>> >>> a lot, lot lot lot better. No hype. >> >> I've done some looking, and I'm back with more questions. I've also >> read the Nouveau-versus-NVIDIA thread. Questions... >> >> 1) Will PCIe 2.0 cards work in a PCIe 1.0 slot? I'm not expecting 2.0 >> performance, I just want full backwards compatability. PCIe 1.0 cards >> seem to be rare, and have to be ordered online, while I can pick up a >> 2.0 card locally at a store. >> > > PCIe-2.0 is fully downward compatible to 1.1 and 1.0. > >> 2) My main "torture test" will be HD fullscreen video. Will there be >> major improvement in that? That's 2D. Forget 3D. >> > > 2D video is still rendered using OpenGL if your video player supports it.
I'm not aware of any video decoders using CUDA, OpenCL, or pixel shaders for video decoding; AFAIK, unless you're using VDPAU you're still using the CPU to render the video to a frame buffer. The most a video player is going to use OpenGL for is stretching that frame buffer to fit a window or screen, and possibly as a compositor to place overlays like subtitles or playback control elements.. > >> 3) The 2 lowest-priced Nvidia's at the local store are... >> >> Asus EN210 SILENT/DI/512MD3/V2(LP) NVIDIA GeForce 210 Chipset (589Mhz) >> 512MB (1333Mhz) GDDR3 DVI/VGA/HDMI PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card >> >> >> and EVGA GeForce 8400GS 1GB (01G-P3-1302-LR) nVidia GeForce 8400GS >> Chipset (520Mhz) 1GB (520Mhz) DDR3 Dual Display DVI/HDMI/VGA PCI Express >> 2.0 Graphics Card >> >> Any preferences? >> > > 1GB of GPU RAM looks like overkill if you just want to watch videos. I > suggest selecting the model which is cheaper, has more connectors or is > more silent. Yeah, RAM isn't going to be the issue here. Honestly, this is the card I'd recommend if you're not doing any heavy gaming. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125402 It's cheap, dead quiet and has full hardware decode of h.264. -- :wq
