|
Onboard Video Acceleration: ATi Vs. Intel Vs. nVidia
Introduction
Video cards aren't just for playing games. Graphics acceleration is great for fragging, but for watching videos you need good video acceleration. Such is the case with the increasingly popular Home Theater PC (HTPC). How stymied would you be if you spent over $1,000 on a computer to find that your previous $40 DVD player did a better job playing movies? Dedicated video cards can be expensive while also introducing power and heat concerns, so having onboard hardware video acceleration is very appealing to the HTPC crowd. Just like set-top boxes, HTPCs are usually on 24/7, so any saved kilowatt hours are always welcome. The real improvement, though, is having less heat and therefore less noise-producing fans to manage that heat. In the world of laptops, onboard video is often the only video option, so a chipset without good video playback might be a deal-breaker. While I'm looking at desktop motherboards here, the chipsets are common to both desktops and laptops so my findings will really be applicable across the board. This review will compare the video playback performance of AMD's 690V, NVIDIA's MCP61, and Intel's G965 chipsets using CyberLink's StarCinema DVD player and codec. To rate the video as objectively as possible, I'll be using the HQV benchmark DVD, a collection of clips that highlight the many processes that video playback involves, and then rating them based on my findings.
Page 1: Introduction to Video Acceleration
Page 2: Methodology & Benchmark Results Page 3: Conclusion
4 Comments - Read comments or write your own.
0 User Reviews - Be the first to share your experience with this product. 
|
Related Articles Editorials July 8, 2008
Editorials May 23, 2008
Editorials March 4, 2008
Editorials November 16, 2007
Recent Reviews Video Cards July 15, 2008
Portable Media Players July 13, 2008
Video Cards July 11, 2008
Video Cards July 4, 2008
Recent News LAPTOP Magazine Jul. 18, 2008 - 2:17 pm
Anandtech Jul. 17, 2008 - 10:30 pm
Bit-Tech Jul. 17, 2008 - 9:52 pm
techPowerUp! Jul. 17, 2008 - 9:14 pm
Gizmodo Jul. 17, 2008 - 12:15 am
legion Hardware Jul. 16, 2008 - 9:48 pm
Stereogum Jul. 15, 2008 - 1:24 pm
Engadget Jul. 15, 2008 - 12:55 pm
Destructoid Jul. 14, 2008 - 9:06 pm
Wired Blog Jul. 14, 2008 - 8:52 pm
Recent Affiliate News Bit-Tech Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:22 pm
[H] Enthusiast Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:22 pm
Techgage Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:21 pm
Legit Reviews Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:20 pm
X-Bit Labs Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:20 pm
X-Bit Labs Jul. 12, 2008 - 12:19 pm
Futurelooks Jun. 25, 2008 - 5:39 pm
PC Perspective Jun. 25, 2008 - 5:39 pm
Guru3D Jun. 25, 2008 - 5:38 pm
The Tech Report Jun. 25, 2008 - 5:37 pm
|
|||||||||||||||
