2011-01-20, 08:40
Hello All!
I recently built myself a rig as an exclusive HTPC for XBMC with the following configuration:
AMD Athlon X3 440
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H Rev. 1.4
2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz (The BIOS POST however reports that the RAM is running at 1333MHz, unganged)
Western Digital 320GB SATA Blue Hard Drive
Corsair VX450 Power Supply
Cooler Master CM590 Chassis
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
I did some reading on the forums here and elsewhere and realized that the onboard GPU, HD4250, was sufficient for 1080P content. All my media is stored on a NAS and the network is gigabit. When I copy files stored on the NAS to this system, I am getting speeds between 40 and 60MBps.
I got the latest XBMC 10.0 Dharma off the home page of the site.
I installed Windows and ran all the updates. Got the latest drivers for the HD4250 from ati/amd and installed the same. I then installed XBMC. The skin in use is the default Confluence. I enabled DXVA2 from the System Menu. However, when I tried playing any 1080p or even 720p encoded mkv file, I am encountering constant "buffering" issues and constant frame drops. I even copied the files locally to the system and tried but with the same result. However, the same files play flawlessly with MPHC, both with DXVA enabled and disabled. With DXVA enabled, the CPU is running at under 10% and with DXVA disabled, it runs just above 40%.
For reference, the values for the RAM for the GPU is set at defaults through the BIOS and Windows reports that it is using 512MB for the GPU and the rest is allotted to Windows, i. e. 3.5GB.
I also tried using a dedicated GPU, the MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM but still got the same issues.
I do understand that it is advised that I get a dedicated GPU for bit-streaming and DTS Audio. I do intend to do that but for the time being, I want to use the onboard GPU. I will get the HD5xxx GPU in a couple of weeks.
I have another system running the following specs:
Intel Core Duo E4400
Asus P5GC-VM Mainboard
4GB RAM
80GB SATA Hard Drive
MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Here, due to the limitation of the mainboard, the RAM is reported as 3.5GB. The onboard video is disabled.
On this system, XBMC runs well and the files play flawlessly, However, this system does not belong to me and I had this for testing soon after Dharma was released. However, I tried using Aeon MQ2 on this build and it was very sluggish. However, even with Aeon enabled, the media files played without issues.
Now, I need help to eliminate the issues with the AMD build which I intend to keep as the HTPC.
Your help will be really appreciated.
I recently built myself a rig as an exclusive HTPC for XBMC with the following configuration:
AMD Athlon X3 440
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H Rev. 1.4
2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz (The BIOS POST however reports that the RAM is running at 1333MHz, unganged)
Western Digital 320GB SATA Blue Hard Drive
Corsair VX450 Power Supply
Cooler Master CM590 Chassis
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
I did some reading on the forums here and elsewhere and realized that the onboard GPU, HD4250, was sufficient for 1080P content. All my media is stored on a NAS and the network is gigabit. When I copy files stored on the NAS to this system, I am getting speeds between 40 and 60MBps.
I got the latest XBMC 10.0 Dharma off the home page of the site.
I installed Windows and ran all the updates. Got the latest drivers for the HD4250 from ati/amd and installed the same. I then installed XBMC. The skin in use is the default Confluence. I enabled DXVA2 from the System Menu. However, when I tried playing any 1080p or even 720p encoded mkv file, I am encountering constant "buffering" issues and constant frame drops. I even copied the files locally to the system and tried but with the same result. However, the same files play flawlessly with MPHC, both with DXVA enabled and disabled. With DXVA enabled, the CPU is running at under 10% and with DXVA disabled, it runs just above 40%.
For reference, the values for the RAM for the GPU is set at defaults through the BIOS and Windows reports that it is using 512MB for the GPU and the rest is allotted to Windows, i. e. 3.5GB.
I also tried using a dedicated GPU, the MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM but still got the same issues.
I do understand that it is advised that I get a dedicated GPU for bit-streaming and DTS Audio. I do intend to do that but for the time being, I want to use the onboard GPU. I will get the HD5xxx GPU in a couple of weeks.
I have another system running the following specs:
Intel Core Duo E4400
Asus P5GC-VM Mainboard
4GB RAM
80GB SATA Hard Drive
MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Here, due to the limitation of the mainboard, the RAM is reported as 3.5GB. The onboard video is disabled.
On this system, XBMC runs well and the files play flawlessly, However, this system does not belong to me and I had this for testing soon after Dharma was released. However, I tried using Aeon MQ2 on this build and it was very sluggish. However, even with Aeon enabled, the media files played without issues.
Now, I need help to eliminate the issues with the AMD build which I intend to keep as the HTPC.
Your help will be really appreciated.