New living room PC, which GPU best for Linux?

[val-gaav]

I can play 720p HD H.264 files just fine on my radeon x1200 (rs690) and Athlon x2 1700... CPU used by mplayer is around 20%-40% ...

[Kano]

720p is no problem, for 1080p 100% smooth you just need around 3 GHz to avoid dropped frames when decoded on 1 core.

[BlackStar]

720p is no problem, for 1080p 100% smooth you just need around 3 GHz to avoid dropped frames when decoded on 1 core.

Which is why you use multiple cores for decoding (if you have them).

Otherwise I agree, a nvidia card is the best bet right now.

[deanjo]

Which is why you use multiple cores for decoding (if you have them).

Which would require building against a external ffmpeg-mt, which is very raw, unsupported, and still lagging far behind in 264 decoding and offers very little over the current base ffmpeg in performance which is not multi-threaded when decoding 264.

[BlackStar]

Which would require building against a external ffmpeg-mt, which is very raw, unsupported, and still lagging far behind in 264 decoding and offers very little over the current base ffmpeg in performance which is not multi-threaded when decoding 264.

You are mistaken: ffmpeg-mt allows 1080p decoding on Athlon X2 CPUs. This is simply not possible with single-threaded ffmpeg.

Other than that, no it doesn't offer much

[deanjo]

You are mistaken: ffmpeg-mt allows 1080p decoding on Athlon X2 CPUs. This is simply not possible with single-threaded ffmpeg.

Other than that, no it doesn't offer much

I just said that it would require building against ffmpeg-mt (which is NOT part of the official MythTV tree), re-read the reply. Even ffmpeg-mt has a hard time decoding medium to high bitrate 1080p 264 on a dual core especially if any filtering is to be done as well.

[t.s.]

Like the others says on this thread: planing/care to play 1080p content? if not, you can get less powerfull system, like, not-too-powerful AMD CPU and onboard ATI (3200?) GPU; or not-too-powerful intel CPU with intel newer (3x or 4x, but not GMA500) GPU.

If you care about 1080p content, then get not-too-powerful CPU and an NVidia chipset.


OK, I'll try to sum it up:
get the NVidia ION platform

[Kano]

Well when you get a 3 ghz cpu for less than 100 bucks then you have got optimal h264 decoding AND system speed. Those low speed Atom CPUs are stupid as a new cpu can use Speedstep/Powernow to save energy too in idle mode. That just does not work when you oc it with increased Vcore (over fsb 400 i even needed to disable EIST completely). I did not try a 2.8 ghz cpu, but i would choose something like Pentium E6300 and oc it a bit if needed. A cheap G43 would be enough, maybe even G41 but then you could not oc so well (also it does not support AHCI mode for hd).

[t.s.]

@Kano
For speed, yes, choose something like you've said. But if it's main purposes for htpc, then I still suggest an ION platform. With underclocking and undervolting, estimated power consumption's still quite big. Not to consider it's size

http://en.expreview.com/2009/06/26/zotac-ionitx-a-motherboard-reviewed.html/6

^^^ something that I accidentally meet when digging information. Too bad, still use fan for cooling.

[deanjo]

@Kano
For speed, yes, choose something like you've said. But if it's main purposes for htpc, then I still suggest an ION platform. With underclocking and undervolting, estimated power consumption's still quite big. Not to consider it's size

http://en.expreview.com/2009/06/26/zotac-ionitx-a-motherboard-reviewed.html/6

^^^ something that I accidentally meet when digging information. Too bad, still use fan for cooling.

Given MythTV (which is his application that he wishes to use) is usually used for it's PVR capabilities, an atom just isn't up to the task. A nice low powered dual core+ AMD or intel desktop CPU coupled with a nvidia chipset board or separate nvidia vdpau card however would allow watching and playback of even HD content with ease. You also can slap on one of the many super silent CPU coolers to further cut back noise. With a atom board you really don't have a choice (and those little fans are noisy little bastards).