[halsafar]

I am sure this question gets asked far to often. I did research and can't come to a definite answer.

I got XBMC running on this machine:
Ubuntu 11.10
Q6600 on Asus P5Q
8GB DDR2 Ram
8600GT

Yup the machine is a little dated now but perfect for an HTPC.

It seems the 8600GT just won't cut it. One reason being it has a fan, I was hoping for a quieter solution. The big reason being noticeable tearing during HD playback.

I don't care to game on this box past the classic console emulators. So I'm looking for a quiet yet fully featured HTPC GPU. The choices seem to be:
GT430 or GT520. Price is not really important here.

I'm partial to NVIDIA but with a good argument I'd be willing to consider an AMD card.

[darkscout]

Do you have VDPAU enabled? I've run the highest bitrate WALL-E through my 8300 and it did just fine.

[halsafar]

Video Playback
- Render method: Auto
- Allow hard acceleration VDPAU: true
- Adjust display refresh rate to match video: false
- Sync playback to display: false

I do believe these are the default settings.

[live4ever]

8600GT was a G84 part and the video decoding was only VDPAU feature set A I think.

GT520 is lower in power consumption (passive cooling) I'd say only get the GT430 if you have lots of interlaced stuff (OTA recordings etc).

[darkscout]

You have it enabled, is it working? Check the debug logs.

[jackh]

I have just setup a dedicated XBMC machine, running on Linux, and bought this GT210 (1GB/passive cooling) for it. Works like a charm!

No gaming in mind, just plain and heavy 1080p, and its temperature barely goes up to 60 Celsius

[halsafar]

What feature of GT 430 makes it better for interlaced stuff over GT 520?

For reference I watch a lot of old cartoons, 80s 90s stuff, hd movies so 1080P content is important.

If the 8600GT is feature set A for VDPAU, what feature set should I be looking for, simply the highest?
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Li...chips.html

I will check the debug logs when I get home to see if it is truly activated.

[eskro]

What feature of GT 430 makes it better for interlaced stuff over GT 520?

twice the Stream Processors

[darkscout]

520 is Feature Set D

We asked NVIDIA about the changes in the new VDPAU feature set and what it meant for Windows users. They indicated that the new VPU was a faster version, also capable of decoding 4K x 2K videos. This means that the existing dual stream acceleration for 1080p videos has now been bumped up to quad stream acceleration.

And possibly other goodies.

[halsafar]

Thinking this one:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=62293&vpn=...cture=ASUS

[halsafar]

Got the GT520. Fanless, loving how quiet the box is.

The tearing I notice in moving scenes has NOT gone away, regardless of playing old cartoons, 1080P MKV's or even a DVD disc. I might just start a new thread on this. Quite disappointing.

q6600, GT520, HDMI1.4, Sony Bravia 46' (only 2 year old TV). I've turned off motion flow and all those crazy settings.

I'm thinking it is linux, same box booted into windows using VLC I can watch the same videos without a problem.