What the benefit of a video card in an htpc these days?

Q

quiktake

Gawd
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Messages
574
I currently have an AMD 5750 1 GB card in my htpc, but I am struggling to find what benefits in offers other than the occasional game. MADvr seems doesn't seem to recognize it after setup, I think the card is underpowered for that purpose.

The 5750 provides a 1080p signal to my 4K Sony TV, and the Sony does a pretty good job processing the image. I have an extra AMD 7950 that I could put in to gain 4k support at 30hz which is fine for video.

Are there any obvious advantages of putting either card in? I am think to upgrade the htpc to a skylake setup to take advantage of possible 4k support as well as lower power usage.
 
Depends on what you're doing. If you game on an HTPC then its worth having a video card. For 1080p video not so much. Now once you do 4k content with H.265 you may need a video card, or a cpu with integrated graphics with H.265 support. But considering how well the integrated graphics are for video there isn't much need for a dedicated GPU. In alot of cases its just extra heat and power for no added benefit.
 
Yeah, with steam streaming at 720p I wasn't really seeing a great reason for the separate video card anymore.
 
My opinion on it is that it's user preference for the most part. Obviously if you want to game on it you'll need one, but I also like having one for picture adjustment (which seems better on discrete) and the additional bandwidth. iGPUs steal a considerable amount of bandwidth and this becomes noticeable if your HTPC's GUI is flashy or has a lot of stuff going on. Discrete video cards also receive more driver updates. Most of the time it's just bug fixes but every once in a while major features get added that iGPUs usually don't receive.

To me discrete makes things feel a little bit better. Is it mandatory? No. But depending on model they are nice to have.
 
I used an E6600 and HD 6570 for quite a while. I had been eyeing the A8-7600 since I first read about it and it was delayed forever. Last month I finally decided to get it. I just like the idea of not having to have something extra in there. I think I'm going to go even lower power and get a Kabini-based system.

I just discovered the In-home Streaming function in Steam, and it works great. So if you're just playing Steam games you still might be able to get by without a dedicated video card in your HTPC as long as you have a good gaming system to stream from.
 
And you guys call yourselves enthusiasts!

GPU is for more then just graphics and games in a HTPC. GPU assisted video rendering is phenomenal and makes a world of difference.

Depending on the content you are feeding into it, the end result can literally be night and day. For example, I have a folder full of 480p content for my daughter that I ripped from DVDs and compressed.

If I play them from my laptop onto my TV they look grainy, colors are kinda blocky, blacks look like crap. If I play them on my HTPC the MadVR GPU assisted video rendering quite literally gets rid of all of that with the added bonus of great upscaling.

1080p content that is marginally compressed looks significantly better also. Depending on the power of the video card you can turn on different features and have even better end results.

EDIT: I have an HD 5770 in my HTPC. If you don't see a different with MadVR then your settings somewhere probably need to be tweaked. Onboard video on newer 1150 processors and my old 1156 processor just doesn't cut it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top