2016-03-30, 09:26
(2016-03-30, 08:48)essjay Wrote: Speaking of graphics cards, is there any chance the original post could be updated with recommended hardware to get the best from DSPlayer & madVR? I'm looking to purchase a a GPU and ideally I'd like to only buy a Nvidia GTX950 as it's the cheapest but I don't actually know is it good enough. Should I be looking at a 960 or above?
Therefore, is a 960 or above just wasted resources? I don't game and this is purely for image quality.
I would never buy a graphics card for DSPlayer as it could quit working at any time. If you don't mind using any current version of madVR for the foreseeable future, then it might make sense. Or if you don't mind using Emby Theater or MPC-HC with Kodi in the future, it could also be worthwhile.
The GTX 950 is fine graphics card for madVR use, even when upscaling to 4K. But you will still have to compromise on some settings. Personally, I don't care about NNEDI3 image doubling all that much as super-xbr (which is currently being improved) when combined with SuperRes looks almost the same as NNEDI3 + SuperRes in test images, and actually looks better than NNEDI3 with some images. So it comes down to your taste for combining multiple image sharpeners/post-processing shaders with image doubling and SuperRes or a need to have extra power available when settings such as denoising, deblocking, etc. are added in the future. I'm certain there will be more "knobs" available in new version of madVR that require even more resources. Personally, I find any 2x resize to look good without being oversharpened by using a chain of super-xbr + SuperRes (3). That could easily be done with a GTX 950.
If it was me and I didn't care about gaming, I don't know I would be wanting to speed more than $200 on a graphics card that does nothing but produce images with madVR. If you are a video purist and would be willing to use MPC-HC with a mouse to get the best picture quality, then go for it. But a budget card like the GTX 950 is fairly future-proof for video rendering: 10-bit HEVC decoding, HDMI 2.0a, HDCP 2.2.
If you are image upscaling to 4K, I could post in the Doom9 forum and ask others if this is a card that will be capable of handling future versions of madVR. Today, it would probably be acceptable.
