Need PCI (not PCI-E) GPU

H

hiodie

Gawd
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Aug 24, 2008
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So I am currently upgrading an old computer and am need of a (cheap) PCI graphics card. It will be for a P5Q Pro for the time being until I get enough money for a 4870 or GTX260 (or something similar) and then I will use it with my 2.8 P4 system (AGP and PCI slots only). My question is that if I were to get a 2400PRO (or is there something better?) would it be able to playback 720p? I know its fairly CPU limited, but I didn't know if I could offload it onto something with hardware decoding. Thanks.
 
2400 is a good htpc card, should do fine at 720p. at 1080p its fail though.
 
mine stuttered a lot playing mkv files at 1080p

edit - read after below post, forums are fail too.
 
You said you want to play 720p but you weren’t really specific as to what kind of files you are trying to play.

Hardware acceleration of H.264 comes into play mainly if you are, for example, using a program like PowerDVD to play a Blueray movie disc on your computer. If you’re talking about hardware acceleration of mkv files, that is going to be a bit more tricky and in many cases won’t be possible. A 2.8Ghz P4 should be fine if you’re using a efficient decoder like CoreAVC but if you’re using something a bit less efficient like VLC it will probably chug or have audio sync issues.

When you’re eventually putting the card in the 2.8 P4 rig, I’d check ebay for an old AGP card. It’s actually pretty amazing how cheap some older AGP cards are selling for that still play most games today just fine. Like 6800 series or X800 series cards. Even a “good” PCI card is going to be extremely bottlenecked by the bus at this point.
 
Thanks for the tips...maybe I'll just have to coax the gf into letting me spend a couple hundred above budget :D

I don't really think I'll ever used the P4 system as a HTPC, but I was just going to see if it was a possibility. Probably just end up using as a server for the time being.
 
i have a p4 3ghz Northy and a mobile 970064mb that can play 720 fine, but it stuttets with 1080 content.

can the x800 do hardware acceleration for HD content?
 
MrGuvernment said:
i have a p4 3ghz Northy and a mobile 970064mb that can play 720 fine, but it stuttets with 1080 content.

can the x800 do hardware acceleration for HD content?
Click to expand...

No, I think that started with the 2xxx series.

I think the OPs best bet the 8500GT for a PCI solution.
 
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