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Advice, please.

H

Hugger

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
70
I have Windows 7 Pro x64 with an E8400 CPU and an old GeForce 8600 GT card hooked to a 24" monitor with HDMI.
Tomorrow I want to order a new card.
We don't do much in the way of gaming - Bejewelled etc - but do watch some videos and make office documents.
I've been looking at the HD 5770's but want to know if there is something better for us, either by ATI or Nvidia.
Thanks.
Hugger
 
For the money, you can't go wrong with the 5770 at all. What's your budget?
 
You aren't going to see any difference with videos with a new video card. 8600gt is plenty for 1080p. What issues are you having with video? Really either a video plays smoothly or it doesn't. Its not like games where frames per second are effected by your 3d hardware.
 
Do you currently have problems with you existing card? Video lag issues? If not I would just leave your system as is...
 
lloose said:
You aren't going to see any difference with videos with a new video card. 8600gt is plenty for 1080p. What issues are you having with video? Really either a video plays smoothly or it doesn't. Its not like games where frames per second are effected by your 3d hardware.
Click to expand...

This. The 8600GT has full acceleration for h.264, and partial acceleration for VC1. That's more than enough to playback video on a decent single-core processor.

What you need to do is make sure you have software that supports DXVA v1.0 properly.
 
I run into occasaional lag.
My budget is best if kept under $200.
Thanks.
Hugger
 
Considering your budget, the 5770 might help resolve some of the video lag. It sounds like you may be a pretty casual user though? When was the last time you updated your 8600 GT's drivers from nVidia's website? Updated drivers if your a year or two out of date can easily improve performance in some games or movie playback by 10-15% and maybe you won't need to upgrade at all?
 
Hugger said:
I run into occasaional lag.
My budget is best if kept under $200.
Thanks.
Hugger
Click to expand...

How much memory do you have? How much crap is running in the background? 8600gt should give more than flawless playback. Im talking you can go down a few levels and still achieve a soild frame-rate from beginning to end in full resolution.

Check your temps too when you feel the "lag". Might be from your card or cpu overheating.
 
Another thing is you could get rid of all the crap running in the background and system tray and leave only the essentials. Trust me it makes abig difference. if that doesn't change anything then the 5770 may be the way to go....
 
I've updated the drivers a few months ago but will check and see if there's something newer.
CPU and card run cool.
I'm also going to try turning off stuff to see if that helps.
If not I'll get the 5770.
Which brand would be best?
Thanks.
Hugger
 
Hugger said:
I've updated the drivers a few months ago but will check and see if there's something newer.
CPU and card run cool.
I'm also going to try turning off stuff to see if that helps.
If not I'll get the 5770.
Which brand would be best?
Thanks.
Hugger
Click to expand...

xfx, really the 5770 is overkill if your don't use it for games (best bang for the buck if you do) but if your set on a 5770 then get an XFX for the warranty
 
OK Thanks.
I've first got to see if there's something else causing the problem.
Hugger
 
Hugger said:
I run into occasaional lag.
My budget is best if kept under $200.
Thanks.
Hugger
Click to expand...

5770 then. ATI Stream FTW. :)

PS if your gaming is fairly light, you can save yourself some money and just get a 5670 1GB for half the price. Also, the 5670 consumes a lot less power than the 5770 and will be just as good for media oriented applications such as video playback.

I recommend Newegg or Amazon for their hassle free return policies.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...EPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=radeon+5670
 
What media player are you using? You shouldn't need to upgrade your video card for smooth video playback in any format.
 
You shouldn't need to upgrade your video card. An E8400 should be able to do the video decode all by itself without GPU assistance anyway. I think there's something else going on.

Check your task manager while you're playing a movie and make sure nothing is sapping CPU cycles. Also find out how much processor time the media player is using. It should be pretty low, down in the teens if that, if the GPU is doing its job. And possibly up to 40% if the CPU is doing the decode by itself.

This should help you make sure DXVA is working. If it already is, disable it to take your 8600GT out of the loop and let your CPU handle it all to see if it plays smooth. You might want to put your 8600GT through some tests, see if there's corruption in 3d games or Furmark. If you determine it's the card I'd get a Radeon 5670 for your needs.
 
Too many red fanboys around here.

Why do people keep recommending he buys a 5770 or any other card for that matter - it would make no difference whatsoever?

The 8600GT accelerates video just fine, and plays bejewelled. If you have problems it's probably not the video card. In the pretty unlikely instance it is then it could only be a driver problem. The 8600GT is plenty powerful enough for everything mentioned so far.

Any slow downs from the way it used to feel are almost certainly one or more of the following:
-old windows install with too much junk running.
-very badly fragmented hard disk.
-not enough memory.
-gpu not accelerating video properly. This is only likely to be a problem for HD video (e.g blu ray) as the rest will hardly stretch your cpu even if it's not offloading to the gpu. Again a new card won't help here - if anything nvidia pure video is more reliable then ati stream - just use a video player that supports it - there are plenty.

If you want a faster PC then buying a new video card won't help. Assuming none of the above is a problem then a new cpu (e.g. quad core), or SSD hard disk are going to make much more difference then anything else.
 
Last edited:
I got an ATI HD 3850 to play Blu Ray and people told me it was way too powerful. But I got it anyway, overpowered or not, because it doubled up as my backup video card.

The point is that your GeForce 8600 GT is fine for what you use it for so save your cash. And if you have problems with video playback, I suggest you focus on fixing the problem, maybe even ask for advice on that in the appropriate forums.
 
If your video is not playing smoothly with those specs then your computer has a problem that needs to be addressed. Throwing a dif vid card may fix it but more then likely you'll be just throwing money at a problem you haven't figured out yet.

What you may want to do is go down to the Media Center section and post your issues. Someone will surely give you some suggestions on where to look for your current issue.
 
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