AGP Graphics Card H.264 decoding

[roberto188]

I have a P4 650 overclocked to 4ghz and 2gb of DDR2 667 Ram running windows 7. My graphics card is an Nvidia fx 5200 AGP 256MB. I can play most 720p movies as long as they are encloded in xvid or divx format, and I can also smoothly play SOME 720p h264 movies depending on what codec I use and what player. My quesion is, is there an AGP graphics card that will do the h264 decoding for me so that I can view 720p or even 1080p h264 movies? Any advice aside from.....dude get a new computer would be helpful.

[edDV]

I think the top NVidia AGP card is a 7600GS which has h.264 assist (PureVideo basic, not PureVideo HD) but also needs considerable CPU to decode h.264 720p, 1080p. It will do better with MPeg2.

The PureVideo HD cards will do a full decode with minimal CPU cycles.

[roberto188]

What about some of ATIs AGPS with UVD2....supposidly offloads all the h264 decoding and also supports MPEG 2 decoding

[edDV]

What about some of ATIs AGPS with UVD2....supposidly offloads all the h264 decoding and also supports MPEG 2 decoding

I'm not as familiar with the ATI cards.

[johns0]

I think the top NVidia AGP card is a 7600GS which has h.264 assist (PureVideo basic, not PureVideo HD) but also needs considerable CPU to decode h.264 720p, 1080p. It will do better with MPeg2.

The PureVideo HD cards will do a full decode with minimal CPU cycles.

The top agp nvidia card is a 7800gs with 256 bus width while the 7600gs is only 128 bus width and a lot slower.

[jagabo]

I believe full GPU h.264 decoding starts with the Nvidia 8500 and AMD/ATI 2400. I see there are several Radeon AGP cards that should work: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007850%2060...eId=1&name=ATI

Keep in mind you need drivers and a player that supports DXVA in Windows.

[edDV]

Yes, here is the PureVideo list but the 7800GS AGP doesn't implement all features.
http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/11036/PureVideo_Product_Comparison.pdf

The PureVideo HD list is here.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_43029.html

I just did a quick test using a 1920x1080p h.264/MKV file played in MPCHC.

Machine A: NVIDIA 7600GS AGP, CPU = Core2Duo E4300 1.8 GHz
The file played but CPU averaged 75%. The picture motion was a bit jumpy but watchable.

Machine B: NVIDIA 9800GT PCIe (PureVideo HD), CPU = Core2Quad Q8200, 2.3 GHz
The file played in high quality with zero CPU load.

I also tested Machine A with an NBC 1920x1080i/29.97 MPeg2 m2t tuner file in MPCHC with default deinterlace on.

The file played smoothly with 38-44% CPU usage.

[edDV]

An ATI card spec'd AVIVO-HD should play Blu-Ray h.264 or VC-1 with no CPU load.

[Schmendrick]

Just 2 weeks ago I installed a Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 AGP card on a Shuttle SS51G-system with just a Pentium 4 2.67 GHz and only 1.25 GB DDR 200 MHz RAM using XP Home or XP Professional. Using the most recent ffdshow DXVA decoder with the newest Media Player Classic Home Cinema an HDTV movei with Full HD resolution with 25 fps plays at 25-40% processor load. Without the DXVA hardware AVIVO codec acceleration e.g. using the CoreAVC-codec the same movie only plays with about 12 fps at 100% processor load. Also this system only has AGP 4x-speed.

To my knowledge the Nvidia-CUDA-graphics hardware acceleration only is avalable from the 8-series onward and for thus graphics cards no AGP versions have been built. So in the bottomline ATi graphics cards seem to be the only solution.

Good luck

Schmendrick

[roberto188]

Thanks Schmendrick! I have a P4 650 overclocked to 4ghz and a P4 in a serperate machine running at 2.66 ghz. My displays for both computers are 50" plasma 1080p TV's. After reading about UVD2 and the different ATI cards, I purchased the Radeon HD 4350, a small step down from your card, but I think with the DXVA decoder I should be good one both Computers. Just curious, any reason why you use 25 fps? Aren't most h264 encoded movies/videos run at 30 fps?

[jman98]

To my knowledge the Nvidia-CUDA-graphics hardware acceleration only is avalable from the 8-series onward and for thus graphics cards no AGP versions have been built. So in the bottomline ATi graphics cards seem to be the only solution.

Good luck

Schmendrick

This is my understanding as well. A few years ago I bought an Nvidai GeForce 7800GT card, which is AGP. I gave up checking some time ago to see if things changed, but after I bought it I was very disappointed to find out that it did not CUDA hardware acceleration.

[Schmendrick]

.....Just curious, any reason why you use 25 fps? Aren't most h264 encoded movies/videos run at 30 fps?

Well this is easy to explain. In contrast to the U.S.A. which is NTSC-land and thus still most movies and even HDTV videos are recorded in 30/60 fps. Germany, the UK and most of Europe is PAL-land and thus movies and TV as well as HDTV-TV is produced and broadcasted in 25/50 fps instead. Most of the HDTV material I have are recorded HDTV transmission from DVB-satellite transmissions from BBC HD, arte HD (a french/german free to air channel) and other german HDTV channels.

Schmendrick

[jagabo]

Most NTSC movies on DVD/BD are stored as 23.976 fps. They go through 3:2 pulldown to create 29.97 fps when an interlaced signal is required.

[edDV]

To my knowledge the Nvidia-CUDA-graphics hardware acceleration only is avalable from the 8-series onward and for thus graphics cards no AGP versions have been built. So in the bottomline ATi graphics cards seem to be the only solution.

Good luck

Schmendrick

This is my understanding as well. A few years ago I bought an Nvidai GeForce 7800GT card, which is AGP. I gave up checking some time ago to see if things changed, but after I bought it I was very disappointed to find out that it did not CUDA hardware acceleration.

Mpeg2, h.264 and VC-1 hardware assisted decoding has nothing to do with Cuda. The decoding hardware is built into the chip (aka PureVideo HD or AVIVO HD). If you don't see the "HD" designation, expect considerable CPU load during 1x play of HD formats.

Cuda offers GPU algorithm assist to effects rendering or encoding.