[meridius]

Hi all

I have been running xbmc 12 for a long time using and upgrading to Kodi 17.6 as its time to play 4K videos and other new formats. I run windows 7 on 2 of my front end pc and would like to know what GFX card I should get to upgrade one front end with a intel GPU and the other with a ATI card GFX card as none of these playback any 4k content.

I would also lie to know which brand and card is better ATI or Nvidia as I don't game on these machines and are only for playback of videos.  I would like a GFX card that plays every file format out there as I know there is a few different types of 4K videos like 8bit and 10bit and HDR and other formats that are in 4K like V9 and Hevc.

could anyone tell me what I should upgrade to.  I have herd that ATI don't let you have video settings anymore on the new drivers, is this true or have they added them back ? as I like to turn off all processing and colour corrections as I don't like the video touched.

on my ATi I use the old  AMF catalyst control centre that lets you adjust settings for video playback like Dynamic Range Full and limited and Deinterlacing.

I have not had much experience with Nvidia so I am not to sure how they work.

so which has better play back ATI or Nvidia and has the most support for 4K filetypes and which plays the better  video quality output for HDMI ?

thanks for any help and feedback

[Klojum]

It depends a bit on which OS you will be running Kodi.

In general, HDR is still a work-in-progress for anything PC related.

Windows 7/8/10 tends to have okay drivers for all graphics cards: AMD, Nvidia, Intel.

In Linux for LibreELEC or Ubuntu setups, Nvidia used to do well with their video drivers, but since they haven't bothered to implement support for 10bit videos and they also have abandoned VDPAU altogether, there is no usable alternative. So Nvidia support in Kodi is likely to be dropped in the foreseeable future.
For AMD, the Ryzen GPUs have all the goodies but require very new, if not the latest, Linux kernels. LibreELEC does not use those kernels yet at this time, so testing with the current built-in AMD drivers is a bit complex.
Intel GPU drivers seem to be on track also where Gemini Lake and Coffee Lake are concerned. HDR is not implemented at the moment in their Linux drivers.

If you have the option to wait a couple of months longer, I would say "stay put for now".

[meridius]

Hi there I only use windows 7 systems for my front end. so what your saying any of the GFX cards ATI or Nvidia on a windows system ?  I am not wanting to upgrade the CPU with built in GFX as this means a new motherboard. I would like to know which GFX card is best to go for as of drivers and support and display settings to turn on and off the settings and video playback quality. 

I Have always used ATI but I am not to sure if this is the best route to go since its been years since I did a hardware upgrade and was wanting to know which hardware is best to get now and not only that needs to support all 4k formats and colour options since my cpu can not handle them at all.

is HDR hardware supported now just kodi needs to support it ? and you say wait a littlie longer why ? is there a reason to wait

thanks

[wrxtasy]

is HDR hardware supported now just kodi needs to support it ? and you say wait a littlie longer why ? is there a reason to wait

thanks

Auto frame rate switching & dynamic range matching - 4K (HDR10) capable Hardware (click)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 graphics cards
Perfect for low cost budget 4K (Windows) HTPC - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=318937

[meridius]

so what your sayig the  GT1030 is no good as it does not support Auto frame rate switching & dynamic range matching and that is only has 2GB of VRAM and you need a GFX card with 4GB of VRAM ?  Also these cards do not support hdmi 2.1 and only Hdmi 2.0 and that I need to use dsplayer

so do I need to wait for a new next gen card for HDMI 2.1 and the next version of kodi to use 4k as I don't want to mess around with Dsplayer

[wrxtasy]

This was the best advice if you still want Intel type PC compatibility:

For AMD, the Ryzen GPUs have all the goodies but require very new, if not the latest, Linux kernels. LibreELEC does not use those kernels yet at this time, so testing with the current built-in AMD drivers is a bit complex.
Intel GPU drivers seem to be on track also where Gemini Lake and Coffee Lake are concerned. HDR is not implemented at the moment in their Linux drivers.

If you have the option to wait a couple of months longer, I would say "stay put for now".

If you need a 4K HDR Plug N Play media player right here right now and live in the USA, simply take up the $105 Apple TV 4K 3 months Direc.tv deal.
The deal us an absolute steal for quality hardware. Use the MrMC App with it and you can throw virtually any content you want at it streamed from network connected storage. (No VP9 which is really rare outside of the 4K YouTube anyway)

There has been no mention of Audio requirements either.

You do not need HDMI 2.1 for 4K HDR. Only HDMI 2.0a and a 18Gbps High Speed or Premium Certified cable.

There is no Plug N Play Intel compatible 4K HDR solution at the moment it's all a bit of a convoluted mess and has been like that for quite a while.
The ARM Chipset based media players these days are miles ahead.

[meridius]

thanks, I don't really want any new other hardware apart from  a graphics card for my two pc`s that run windows 7 that support all the formats in 4K and HDR. don't want to upgrade the CPU as that means a new motherboard.

the GTX 1030 supports
Hardware decoders = MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 part 2, MJPEG, VC-1, H.264 (8-bit) HEVC (8-bit & 10-bit), VP9 (8-bit & 10-bit)
so it covers all 4K formats I think  but not to sure about HDR and this support Auto frame rate switching & dynamic range matching

but this card only has Standard Memory Config = 2 GB and you said you need 4gb why ?

the bit about wait a couple of months what does that mean ? new drivers or a new set of graphic cards ? so by the sounds of it theres no graphics cards that can do all the supported 4k formats and HDR in hardware at the moment. so I should wait for the next gen GFX cards ?

I really not interested in other devices and other operating systems to get 4K as I use pc with kodi,  I can wait but I need to know what to wait for as I only use my own 4K content.

Also support for HDR or is that another format that needs to be supported by new hardware or drivers and

another question is this all the 4k content
HEVC
HEVC 10-bit
VP9
VP9 10-bit

but also what about
HEVC 12-bit
VP9 12-bit
are these supported or do they even exist ? and if so are they supported 

cheers

[Klojum]

12-bit video is very much a future thing IMO, 10-bit video has barely landed.

Official Netflix requirements for Windows 10 with an Nvidia GPU state at least a GTX1050 3MB card if I'm correct. No idea where Win 7 comes into play.

[meridius]

Thanks

it seems you all  keep saying to go for an Nvidia and not a ATI is there a reason for this ? I see you can get a GTX 1050 TI passive  4GB card but it is not cheap nearly double the price just to get that extra ram.

there seems to be no passive ATI cards

[Klojum]

it seems you all  keep saying to go for an Nvidia and not a ATI is there a reason for this?

I have no experience with new ATI Ryzen hardware or software/drivers. I only know that in Linux, drivers for such APUs requires very new Linux drivers, see: Raven Ridge With The Ryzen 5 2400G On Mesa 18.2 + Linux 4.17 Is Finally Stable
For Windows, things for ATI *should* be okay, but again... the HDR story will still add a few more chapters.

there seems to be no passive ATI cards

ATI manufacturers have never been that enthousiastic with passive cards, maybe because their efficiency (=less heat) was never good enough. Even with the less powerful cards.

[meridius]

thanks I might just wait then since it sounds like you need a 4gb card which are over priced and even then these cards don't support Auto frame rate Switch & dynamic range switching & HDR.

do you think the GT 1050 Ti will get Auto frame rate Switch & dynamic range switching & HDR support with drivers or will it be the next version of the card ? also will they be supported in kodi 18 ?

also do Nvidia and AYI have the same quality video output ?

thanks all