bumped into this while doing research on htpc.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 Analysis Comparison between Intel integrated vs ATI vs Nvidia GPUs.

great read, and really great work from the author - Zardon.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-...a-and-intel/43/

correct, lots of things could change. also in 4 months, the price would have settled down and we have all sorts of choices from the gpu's vendor

baha, finally got a htpc rig. tormented whether to use amd fx500 +785g+ati or i3/h55 or a mini itx.

end up got a nice offer from fellow forumer and settle for a mini itx rig. 1 year old but im not gaming much, except maybe wow though...

my findings so far :

7ultimate 32 bit, geforce 258.96 for 9300 igp (zotac mini-itx) to 428xg.

1. if using hdmi input source video (setting in hdtv) - overscan. regardless of any resolution, even 1024X768
i will have overscan. i need to do custom resolution.

2. if using hdmi input PC - no overscan. perfect.

PQ is tons better using video. you still have the video config. (standard,dynamic,movie, user,game).
using PC, the skin tone is reddish. figured i need to do the tinkering within MPC or other software.

still need to learn though, anybody have any tips ?

anyway im going for 5670 or 5770. ati is so much better from what i read...


edit : reddish as in general ben kenobi is really having "happy hour" time in kamino seas...

This post has been edited by lightastral: Oct 17 2010, 11:13 AM

bleh, lowyat.net is full of poison. reading the 6870/6850 thread and it seems 6850 is quite good . rm600 too..

anyone took the plunge ?

update on my htpc project.

have been very busy for the last few months so have to put aside this aside.

previously i have been tinkering with the onboard GPU (nvidia 9300) + MPC. biggest problem is scaling issues.

so as our sifu paskal recommendation and he's been telling us quite a few times already, i finally drag my feet and bought off an ATI 5450 for rm135. almost bought a 6850..lol. poison poison.

scaling is spot on out of the box. i mean, no issues at all. and the PQ is much much better. wifey said the color is better to her eyes. i was itchy to test TRUEHD passthrough so spend about 2 hours reading it again. finally got it light up but still got issues. mpc using ffdshow isnt doing hardware acceleration..hmmm.

prolly going to test TMT + mediabrowser, again as per our sifu recommendation.

will post some picture afterwards, till then, big thanks to paskal and also stan001 for their write ups.

evaluate your need and scenario.

for me why i chose htpc over notebook is :

1. cost price vs performance is much better than laptop.
2.discreet gpu and upgradeable.
3. can opt to install dvd rom or blu ray afterwards.
4. can let it on 24/7 for downloading.
5. easier to fix or troubleshoot. can DIY.

i think the best thing about htpc is flexibility. yeah you can play 1080p file in notebook these days,
but when the fan starts whirring, automatically you'll check the heat and afterwards you are not comfortable
anymore though actually its not posing any problem.

if you are on a budget,

cheap amd with cheap ati 5450 is suffice. gpu will do all the decoding and stuff. google up on 1080p hardware acceleration.

echosian, whats your setting in :

1. TMT
2. Windows sound

prolly we can compare our settings.

sorry for the late reply. checked on my version and its TMT3.

my setting

TMT3 : primary audio HDMI
windows : AMD HDMI output configured to 5.1

mine is through ATI 5450. whats yours ?

and btw i uninstalled all nvidia (im using zotac 9300) drivers. no problems so far.
even can passthrough dolby truehd.

can you screenshot the sound properties supported formats in your windows ? im assuming you are using windows 7.

its a nice case. im using that with zotac 9300 -g- e.

oh, i bought it from a forum member last year. forgot the price already. if im not mistaken
mobo,cpu,memory,casing about RM 550. then i add a low heat for cctv 1TB HDD@RM 160 and ati 5450@ 135.


total cost about RM845. 5450 is really good for the price. passive cooling too. excellent PQ and HDTV scaling.

i am not to poison you but not only the casing, the power supply is excellent. performs far better
than the rated 300W.

hmm i have yet to face that problem....

everything is working quite well now.