Windows Vista Ultimate Video Card Question

[mn072065]

I figure I will go to the place where I can always get answers. I will be buying the new windows ultimate OS. I have the Dell XPS 600, 3.2 dual core, 4GB memory and I'm upgrading my 2 250GB Raid 1 HD for 2 150GB 10MRPM HD. But I have the Nvidia 6800 card. I can do better. I want the best card I can get for $600 dollars. Any recommendations please. Thanks

[Bodyslide]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143075

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143074

Not sure when DX10 or Vista Drivers will be out for them.

Good Luck

[glockjs]

tbh unless you're a pure gamer a 6800 is more than you will ever need. atm the 8800's are the most powerful cards on the planet. imo it might be worth the wait for ati-amd to strike back because right now they're in the lab cooking up some crazy stuff.

[edDV]

From a video perspective, now is not the best time to buy a high end card. Even the high end cards lack these desired features.

- A proven HDMI/HDCP solution for protected media.
- A reliable h.264 or VC-1 full hardware decoder (no CPU activity). Two would be nice.
- HDTV quality deinterlacing.
- Any h.264 or VC-1 hardware assisted or full encoding.

All of these are needed to complete the HTPC concept. If you wait, the gamer solutions will be better too with DirectX 10 support not yet implemented. Better to wait. Just get a basic card for now.

[mn072065]

edDV thanks. You make sense. Could you please tell me a card that will be good enough for windows vista ultimate for now until the better ones come out. This way I order now and when vista comes out, i have a card that's at least capable of it. Thanks again.

[Krispy Kritter]

Your 6800 will "good enough" for now. If you have to spend money, upgrade to a 78xx or 88xx series card.

Of course all of this is based on what you use the pc for....you never did say.

[edDV]

That depends on what you need for the short term. For a new card, at minimum look for a card with "Pure Video" (NVidia) or "AVIVO" (ATI) if you are feeding an HTPC.

[mn072065]

I just want to have enough video power for the full Aero look of Vista Ultimate. I will be buying high end games but that's around February. Again I appreciate al the comments. Will the Pure Video help?

[edDV]

I just want to have enough video power for the full Aero look of Vista Ultimate. I will be buying high end games but that's around February. Again I appreciate al the comments. Will the Pure Video help?

It will help playing video inputs from tuners, files or direct feeds. It will also help speed video decode and provide improved outputs to external TV displays.

Aero look requires an advanced GPU and hardware blending. Vista specs probably identify minimum legacy cards.

Remember, this is a video forum not a gamer's forum.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919183
"Note A Windows Aero-capable graphics card is a graphics card that meets the following requirements:
• Supports a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver
• Has a DirectX 9-class graphics processor unit (GPU) that supports Pixel Shader 2.0
• Supports 32 bits per pixel
• Passes the Windows Aero acceptance test in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK)"

[edDV]

Found a list of current cards that pass the "Aero" test.
http://www.msbetas.org/?page=vistareadygpus

[FulciLives]

I am also looking to buy a new video card and I found out that the "lowest" Nvidia GPU that FULLY supports PURE VIDEO is the 7600GT. Note I said FULLY because other "lower" Nvidia GPU's support PURE VIDEO but not FULLY i.e., not all functions of PURE VIDEO.

If you shop on-line you can find a 256MB 7600GT for around $150 US Dollars ... give or take.

I am thinking of buying this one mself ---> CLICK HERE

I hope to order one with some "Christmas money" I should be getting

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[glockjs]

Found a list of current cards that pass the "Aero" test.
http://www.msbetas.org/?page=vistareadygpus

Intel

945G Express Chipset
945GM Express Chipset Family

LAWL

[TheFamilyMan]

If that $600 is really burning a hole in your pocket, the nvidia 8800 series it the current king of the hill and is (potentially) dx10 compilant (but IMO we won't really know until DX10 really exists for the masses). My suggestion: ignore SLI and crossfire setups. From what I've seen, the performance payoff from that second card is usually far worse than it would have been if you saved up the extra money for a better single card; also consider the extra power, noise and heat of that second card. I predict that SLI/crossfire will abandoned in a year or so by everyone except the uber-gamers that don't think twice about dropping $1000+ every year for their bragging rights.

[etsolow]

If that $600 is really burning a hole in your pocket, the nvidia 8800 series it the current king of the hill and is (potentially) dx10 compilant

Save your money! The GeForce 8800 series is definitely NOT Vista-ready, and for all we know may never be. There are NO Vista drivers available, even in Beta. NVIDIA refuses to release the drivers even with users screaming and hollering that they were misled by NVIDIA's "Ready for Vista today" campaign. Why? Who knows, but there must be a very good reason.

See threads here:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=23399

and here:

http://www.digg.com/hardware/No_Vista_drivers_for_NVIDIA_8800_series_cards

for discussions of NVIDIA's lies around the 8800 release.

E

Edited to fix link...

[TheFamilyMan]

The GeForce 8800 series is definitely NOT Vista-ready, and for all we know may never be. There are NO Vista drivers available, even in Beta.

Whoa there! It makes no sense that the 8800 will never be supported by Vista. I agree that nvidia misled those on the bleeding edge of Vista, but its public statement about the 8800 drivers and Vista is good enough for me. Also consider that DX10 will not ship with the scheduled release of Vista, but some time later and I'm sure web forums will be filled with microsoft bashing about this when Vista officially hits the stores, by the same people that are now crying out about the Vista drivers. So what does all this really mean? The bleeding edge (e.g. Vista) can be RISKY; DX10 viability is months or maybe a year or more away. Be patient or be frustrated: you choose.

IMO buying a "DX10" card now really makes no sense because it will be outdated by the time DX10 has anything of value to offer. But, the 8800 series running DX9 rips to shreads all the existing DX9 cards, so if you want the best now, there you go.

[etsolow]

Agreed, Vista will likely be supported at some point in the future. NVIDIA has said as much, and it would be suicide not to. The question is "when?"

They've said by late January... but it's late December now and they don't even have anything worthy of releasing as beta. This indicates to a lot of us there is a big problem somewhere, and they are scrambling to resolve it. Hopefully it's a software problem, but maybe it's a hardware problem they just discovered... then what?

And the DX10 argument is moot. I don't care if it supports DX10 now because there are no DX10 games. I *do* care that I can't run DX9 games in Vista, I can't use multi-monitor in Vista, I can't run Aero in Vista... etc. All on a card that is marketed by NVIDIA as "Essential Vista". If they had put a disclaimer up (before last week... it's small and their marketing is still very deceptive, but at least it's there now) before people had bought these cards for Vista I wouldn't have a problem.

I'm just trying to help people avoid the same mistake I made... the subject of this thread is Windows Vista Ultimate Video Card Question and the fact of the matter is that the 8800 series doesn't currently have any Vista driver. $650 is a lot for a standard VGA adapter.

[edDV]

My experience tells me ... Don't buy anything that hasn't been demonstrated to work in a way that solves a problem you have.

Why buy this stuff when you know next years card will be cheaper and work better? What problem does the card solve for you today that justifies the cost?

[etsolow]

Why buy this stuff when you know next years card will be cheaper and work better? What problem does the card solve for you today that justifies the cost?

Why buy anything then? There will always be something cheaper and better, eventually.

Obviously, this particular card doesn't solve any problems, but has caused a lot for me. *IF* NVIDIA's advertising hadn't been grossly misleading, I'd be perfectly content with the card. Cost/benefit is obviously an individual decision, I'll thank you not to second-guess mine.

[edDV]

Why buy this stuff when you know next years card will be cheaper and work better? What problem does the card solve for you today that justifies the cost?

Why buy anything then? There will always be something cheaper and better, eventually.

Taking Vista as an example, I won't buy it until I see it demonstrated that it solves a problem that I have. Then I will weigh the pro/con of the conversion and decide.

[mn072065]

I decided to buy the Nvidia 1950XT Pro. I have someone giving me this for xmas gift. Then again afterwards I will upgrade again. According to what I read, it will work great with Aero look. Thanks all for the help.

[ViRaL1]

I decided to buy the Nvidia 1950XT Pro. I have someone giving me this for xmas gift. Then again afterwards I will upgrade again. According to what I read, it will work great with Aero look. Thanks all for the help.

WW! ummm....

[FulciLives]

I decided to buy the Nvidia 1950XT Pro. I have someone giving me this for xmas gift. Then again afterwards I will upgrade again. According to what I read, it will work great with Aero look. Thanks all for the help.

WW! ummm....

LOL

Well I guess I will go ahead and say it then ...

The 1950XT Pro is an ATI card ... not a Nvidia card.

See the link here ---> ATI Radeon® X1950 PRO

I'm sure it is a great card but it doesn't do your credibility any good calling it Nvidia when it is ATI.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[glockjs]

im guessing this is all coming from the ol parents wallet

[mn072065]

Fulci I'm sorry I know the difference, I just thought I might just go for the ATI instead. All I want is one card that I can use with Vista Ultimate and have full Aero look. I'm guessing this will do for now. But thanks so much for the help to all.

[mn072065]

glockjs, it's coming from a co-worker. I'm lucky this xmas.

[edDV]

What is the big deal with the aero look? This was a breakthrough back in 1983 with the Abekas A62 and then the 1984 A64 4:2:2:4 (alpha) disk recorder and other 4:2:2 equipment helped revolutionize the look of advertising and TV effects. Nothing new here unless you consider 20 years old new.

We even had full 4:4:4:4 in 4 layer realtime compositing on-air by 1989. Nothing new there either. The Star Trek Next Generation TV series and many others wouldn't have been possible without this technology.

20 years later Vista has alpha blended menus? Is this a big deal?

This guy gets some of the history right.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Media-Server-Tech/a_from_tape_to_disk.shtml