I use CoreAVC and even my E8400 can decode 1080 movies easily. (100% software based). The GPU acceleration is only supported on certain type of encoding unfortunately. Some of my h.264 can't be used but some can.

I tried totally disabling AVC and FFDshow, the video that can't run either don't load at all.. or runs but voices are out of sync and bad image quality >(.

My games started closing all of a suddenly when using 9.1 (I remember it didn't happen with 8.12) But I reformatted my computer when installing 9.1 though.. Driver issue? The game just closes itself out of no where without any errors.

Damn How come 8.12 doesn't detect my graphics card?

I uninstalled, restarted into safemode, used driver sweeper to clean the remainings, rebooted into windows to install the 8.12 hotfix. Then reboot again as instructed by the installer and driver was not found >(.

I'm using the latest DirectX, updated using the websetup. I reverted back to 8.12. No more sudden closure . L4D and Cabal happens a lot. Didn't happen with EVE Online though.

Guess I'm gonna be skipping 9.1

Reference card? But 10c increase from idle to load is damn good leh. Even better than my 4850GS lol. Mine from idle to load got about 15-20c differences. U sure it is running at 75C load?

Cause he said his is idling at 65C... sounds like a reference to me. My friend's sapphire jumps to about 90C at load lol.

Tell you what, use GPU-Z, do a logging for your temperature. I think you can see what's the max temperature really are. If you were to alt-tab, it won't be "accurate" any longer. The temp is probably much higher than 75C imo.

Gainward/Palit might fit into your requirements here. I own a 4850GS and it is pretty much silent for my ears . While maintaining at max temperature of 60C while gaming.

Bump up the fan speed to a level that you won't notice the noise. Like mine I'm running at 50%, idles at about 40C and about 35C with aircond.

Control fan speed? If you're using the newer CCC, can just look into your Overdrive part.

There is one seller in the garage sale section selling this 4830 with big fan. I'm sure there are more though..

Yeah, L4D doesn't really utilize a lot of GPU power. I think maybe 4650 would be sufficient? But 4670 for the price/performance is pretty good IMO.

The outlook is nice, fully black!

How's the temperature on the XFX 4850? idle and load figures, kinda interested.. Wonder how will the HSF perform hmm.

What's to be expected from 9.2? More performance gain? I was unable to use 9.1 since it is giving me trouble >(.

RA3 checking for updates as it starts up I reckon.

ATi WDM I think is for the sound through HDMI.

Sian >( 9.1 and 9.2 doesn't seem to work well with opengl games. My game stutters badly with 9.1 and 9.2, have to use 8.12 hotfix . Hopefully 9.3 solves this..

Isn't this basically a slower clocked 4870 @@... But the factor would be the price.. I doubt it'll be cheap though..maybe slightly cheaper than the 4870 perhaps.

92C, what 4670 is this? IIRC the 4670 should not have such temps.. passive cooled?

My 4850GS fan speed always at default also sounds like it is gonna give way soon >(. 50% already making noise, at 100% the noise is very very irritating already lols.