X1600PRO or 7200GS Which one?

[Athfar]

Hey guys/gals...

I'm just wondering which of these would be more beneficial in a HTPC setup. I am liking that the 7300 doesn't take up two slots. This is used to do both Vista MCE and SageTV (trying to migrate but can't seem to just one).

I like the fact that the 7200 doesn't take up two "slots" because that does take away a PCI slot on my mainboard but that's not deal breaker (oh, and there's no rebate to deal with)...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130097
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161042

Please no nVidia vs ATi flames... Man I wish that HIS didn't have two slots lol, now that I look at it it seems a hell of a deal.

[tawd1992]

If you plan to do HD in the future you might want to consider the 8500gt or the 2400/2600 pro as these offer hardware decoding of HD material. The ATI 2400/2600 series just came out so drivers sound like they're not too polished yet.

[GTwannabe]

The 7200GS will struggle with video playback due to the crippled memory bandwidth and low GPU clock. The 1600 will be better, but for the same money, you could get an 8500GT, which fully accelerates HD material:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125062

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Athfar

Hey guys/gals...

I'm just wondering which of these would be more beneficial in a HTPC setup. I am liking that the 7300 doesn't take up two slots. This is used to do both Vista MCE and SageTV (trying to migrate but can't seem to just one).

I like the fact that the 7200 doesn't take up two "slots" because that does take away a PCI slot on my mainboard but that's not deal breaker (oh, and there's no rebate to deal with)...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130097
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161042

Please no nVidia vs ATi flames... Man I wish that HIS didn't have two slots lol, now that I look at it it seems a hell of a deal.

That's a lot of money to spend on older slow cards. The 8400gs can be had for about $50 and has all the video decoding power of an 8500GT...

Thanks,
Mike

[Athfar]

Thanks!! I guess I was just looking at the original price of the x1600pro and thinking it was a good deal...

I will look into the 8x00 and 2400 series.

[Athfar]

Can anyone spot the real difference (besides 3dmark tests) between the Geforce 8400gs and ATI hd 2400?

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Athfar

Can anyone spot the real difference (besides 3dmark tests) between the Geforce 8400gs and ATI hd 2400?

Pick your poison on which driver problems you want to deal with.

Thx
mike

[Athfar]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Pick your poison on which driver problems you want to deal with.

Thx
mike

So, flip a coin as to who will fix their's first?

[GTwannabe]

nVidia's (Vista) drivers are better right now. ATI drivers need some registry hacks to get the UVD acceleration working.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

nVidia's (Vista) drivers are better right now. ATI drivers need some registry hacks to get the UVD acceleration working.

Are you sure? I have seen reports of new drivers that get much better HQV scores on MPEG4 style codecs, but have not seen these released, or any data on how well they do MPEG2 playback.

Thanks,
Mike

[elaw]

*bump*

Anything new on this subject in the past few weeks? Anyone know how these cards are working on XP?

I just got my first PCI-E motherboard (yeah I'm a little behind the curve ) and I'm trying to decide between ATI and nVidia. Pretty much got it narrowed down to HD2600PRO / XT vs. 9600GT / GTS.

[mikesm]

They both still have issues. Actually, I was amazed at how well my Intel integrated graphics worked in my new SFF client. Cyberlink decoders used the hardware acceleration fine, and no real issues. It just worked.

I sure wish the other jokers would get things worked out. I guess since Intel can't compete on gaming performance they focused on getting video to work well.

Thanks,
mike