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View Full Version : which nvidia card 8500 or 7600?

zaprat
June 1st, 2009, 07:27 AM
I have a 7600GT and 8500GT. Of these 2 cards, which is better suited for use in HTPC application.

I have herd that 8500GT has better h/w decode & other feature support that the 7600GT. Is this correct? If so, does the additional features support offer advantages over the faster 7600GT card. Is the 8500 fast enough to handle the HD decode.

I also have a 8600GT (but the fan is a litte noisy) and it uses more power as is evident by the additional power connection required for the card. I think it is also a overkill. Hence I am no considering this to be good HTPC option. Do you agree?

PS. I use TV with PAL 720x576 50Hz:popcorn: for HD and SD.

PPS. Note, the card not being used will remain in the draw till I consider it useful for something else.
madverb
June 1st, 2009, 08:31 AM
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=7600GT+8500GT
Slate8
June 1st, 2009, 08:57 AM
I would use the 8500 as it looks to support VDPAU: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU

Hope this helps.
ian dobson
June 1st, 2009, 09:39 AM
Hi zaprat,

As the 8500 supports VDPAU, I'd use it. VDPAU is hardware acceleration for NVIDIA cards under linux.

madverb - really helpful, maybe you can do better next time.

Regards
Ian Dobson
madverb
June 1st, 2009, 07:24 PM
It never hurts for them to actually do the research themselves.
zaprat
June 2nd, 2009, 06:55 AM
thanks guys it is the 8500 then!

out with the screwdriver!
zaprat
June 5th, 2009, 12:48 AM
Guys, just wondering how I go about enabling VDPAU. Is it in mythbuntu 9.04 and which version of nvidia driver do I need.

I read some posts from sites indicating that it was only in development versions, but the were in relation to earlier versions of mythbuntu.

Links would be helpful, rather than crawling through go.........(not yet)......(not yet)....(nearly there).......ogle.
LorenzoS
June 5th, 2009, 09:36 AM
This thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1063102 gave me the info I needed to get it working, and I have only basic Linux skills. Reduced my CPU from 99% to under 10% so it was well worth it.
ian dobson
June 5th, 2009, 01:00 PM
Hi,

VDPAU will be available in MythTV 0.22, whenever that comes out. But a guy over at http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos has produced a "backport" where the VDPAU code is included in version 0.21.

I'm using the backport on my frontend and it works really well. With the backend running the standard mythbuntu weekly builds.

Regards
Ian Dobson