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oDium
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Let's clear things up a little bit. Ati 4xxx and newly arrived 5xxx series have an onboard audio chipset , that not only passes digital audio streams using HDMI , or DVI (with DVI to HDMI dongle) , but can actually totally replace a sound card i someone's system . The difference between 4xxx and 5xxx series , is that the second one , can now also bitstream DTS-HD and Dolby Digital digital audio streams . People who have capable receivers and Bluray players will find this feature extremely welcomed .
Nvidia not until recently , did not have gfx cards with onboard audio chipsets . Instead , most of her Htpc - friendly cards , had only a spdif connector onboard , so that the user had to connect the system's sound card with the gfx card internally using a spdif header, and all the gfx card had to do , was to pass sound through to the hdmi output.
But all that recendly changed with the gt 210 and gt 220 gfx's . But be carefull. While the gt 220 has indeed an onboard dedicaded audio chipset , the gt 210 does not. But however , you do not need a spdif header as i described above. The card uses automatically the pci express bus and takes sound from you're already installed sound card and drives it to the hdmi output of her's . So in the gt 210 case you will need a dedicated sound card if you want to get sound from your hdmi output.
Both of these cards and currently all cards from nvidia , cannot bitstream dts-hd and dolby digital like ati's 5xxx series .
One big problem that all users have with ati cards is dxva limitations that ati has implemented in her drivers. Files , especially those at 1080p with high bitrates and more than 5 reference frames will not play correctly. You will be seeing a lot of green artifacts on screen. Do not be confused with the all green screen problem xbmc recenlty had . It's something that ati can , but as it seems intentionaly does not resolve.
Nvidia cards apparently do not seem to have such kind of limitations and they seem that they can handle everything, even up to 16 reference frames!
In my opinion if you want a card dedicaded to dxva , go ahead to nvidia and preferably to a gt 220 . You don't want to rely on dxva and soon discover that some of your files cannot play correctly.
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I've got a 4670, again I bought it mostly because I heard good reviews about the HIS ICE-Q series...and overall I'm fairly happy. The card is almost impossible to hear, vents heat out the back of the case, and as ashlar said, it has the onboard audio decoder.
What I've found though is that it doesn't always re-sync audio when run through my Denon. On top of that, since it sees the Denon as the video device it's attached to, the overscan settings aren't always in the Catalyst Control Center which would be fine if ATI didn't default to underscan (perhaps this is fixed in 12.1, don't know)
So...i'm holding off to see what nvidia comes out with next...the 5xxx series is really tempting for me for the bitstreaming, but nvidia I'm sure will counter with something along those lines soonish.
Anyways, short answer, go with nvidia. :-)
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aXer, google for product reviews of the two models. I found suspicious that an higher specced model would go for lower specs on sound.
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IMO the only thing that ATI has over Nvidia is the ability to change the colorspace for the desktop. For some reason Nvidia does not have the ability in their control panel to change the colorspace for the desktop. XBMC uses the desktop colorspace. So watching bluray (rips) with XBMC on most TVs will crush your blacks and whites.
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aXeR
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Thats what I gathered from the Nvidia website too where as the 210 apparently has built in sound, should I opt for that then?
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aXeR
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On the GT220 at least, any sound actually comes from what ever other sound devices you have (e.g. onboard sound) the GT220 just grabs this and pulls it over the PCI-E slot.
If you don't mind me asking, how comes you chose to upgrade to the GT240 from the G210?
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oDium
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Guys , regarding the onboard sound. I am 100 % sure (don't ask me how , it's a long story) , that gt 210 doesn't have an onboard audio processor , while the gt 220 has. The gt 210 'grabs' the multichannel audio and every other sound from the system directly and automatically from the the pci - e bus . So in the case of the gt 210 you need a dedicated sound card , while in gt 220 case you don't.
If you still don't believe me , have a look over at nvidia's site . In gt 210 product details you will see that in the section hdmi audio there is an 'internal' thing.
By internal nvidia means what i described above . In gt 220 product details you will see again in the same section that there is a HDA thing. This is the way nvidia is telling you that gt 220 has a HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO CONTROLLER on board.
