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Q6600 and 8800GTS 320MB able to play 1080p?

post #1 of 19
5/19/08 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
I'm in the process now of building a new system. One of it's purposes is to be able to play back HD content. I'm sort of limited in my budget but I'm trying to get the best parts I can afford. Right now I've settled on getting a Q6600, either the Gigabyte DS3L or DS3R, 4GB of DDR2 800 memory and Vista Home Premium 64-bit along with an Antec 500W power supply.

I plan on getting a blu-ray drive in the future but would like to be able to play web/HDD based HD content now like Apple's movie trailers, etc. You may have seen the recent drop in price of the 8800GTS 320MB cards. I picked one up for $87.98 shipped and was hoping to use that. However, the lack of PureVideo HD 2 gives me second thoughts. I'm not a big gamer at all but wanted something powerful enough to play most games. The 8600GT is around the same price but isn't nearly as powerful as the 8800 series cards. My question is whether or not the 8800GTS 320MB G80 will be sufficient enough for 1080p playback? I can always upgrade my graphics card in a year or so but would it be OK for now?

Thanks
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post #2 of 19
5/19/08 at 5:56pm
You could probably go with no video card and the pure power of the quad core 6600 will work just fine on its own. Only thing I've question is using Vista 64bit, that's where you're more likely to run into real issues.
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post #3 of 19
5/19/08 at 6:46pm
im running a q6600 and an 8800gt, i can rip a br, remux a br and playback a ripped br at the same time and my cpu barely breathes.
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post #4 of 19
5/19/08 at 6:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metric View Post

im running a q6600 and an 8800gt, i can rip a br, remux a br and playback a ripped br at the same time and my cpu barely breathes.

The 8800GT has the G92 core, and has hardware acceleration, the 8800GTS 320 does not. In fact, the 8600GT would probably be a better choice for HD playback than the GTS, unless gaming was in the cards.
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post #5 of 19
5/19/08 at 6:55pm
Thread Starter 
What do you guys think about the ATI HD3650 or 3850? I've heard ATi has better image quality than nVidia and either one of those should play most games OK. I would really like a 8800GT which I think uses nVidia's newer PureVideo HD 2 chip but it's nearly $100 more than I have to spend on a video card right now.

Good to know the Q6600 is up to the task though!
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post #6 of 19
5/19/08 at 7:44pm
Are a Q6600 and 8800GTS enough for BR playback? If they aren't then who exactly is playing them on a PC?
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post #7 of 19
5/19/08 at 7:57pm
My Q6600 only uses 15% CPU to play HD/BD discs in full software mode (no acceleration), best quality with PowerDVD.
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post #8 of 19
5/19/08 at 11:20pm
Thread Starter 
I just got the shipping email. I guess even if the 8800GTS 320MB doesn't decode blu-ray that well my Q6600 should do the job just fine anyway.
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post #9 of 19
5/20/08 at 2:24am
Sorry for the thread hijack, but somewhat related...how would an E8400 do with BD playback? Should I look at a graphics card or will I be good with just the processor and a decent motherboard with onboard graphics?
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post #10 of 19
5/20/08 at 4:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FordGT View Post

I'm in the process now of building a new system. One of it's purposes is to be able to play back HD content. I'm sort of limited in my budget but I'm trying to get the best parts I can afford. Right now I've settled on getting a Q6600, either the Gigabyte DS3L or DS3R, 4GB of DDR2 800 memory and Vista Home Premium 64-bit along with an Antec 500W power supply.

I plan on getting a blu-ray drive in the future but would like to be able to play web/HDD based HD content now like Apple's movie trailers, etc. You may have seen the recent drop in price of the 8800GTS 320MB cards. I picked one up for $87.98 shipped and was hoping to use that. However, the lack of PureVideo HD 2 gives me second thoughts. I'm not a big gamer at all but wanted something powerful enough to play most games. The 8600GT is around the same price but isn't nearly as powerful as the 8800 series cards. My question is whether or not the 8800GTS 320MB G80 will be sufficient enough for 1080p playback? I can always upgrade my graphics card in a year or so but would it be OK for now?

Thanks

Yes.
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post #11 of 19
5/20/08 at 5:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nm88 View Post

My Q6600 only uses 15% CPU to play HD/BD discs in full software mode (no acceleration), best quality with PowerDVD.

Q6600 is more than enough.... and you can even overlclock easily to 3.6Ghz @ 1600Mhz FSB ..... thats having 4 CPU cores @ 3.6Ghz and most players are multi thread capable....


nm88 ...i"m wondering.... how do u frce powerdvd not to use your video cards acceleration ?
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post #12 of 19
5/20/08 at 6:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdcrox View Post

The 8800GT has the G92 core, and has hardware acceleration, the 8800GTS 320 does not. In fact, the 8600GT would probably be a better choice for HD playback than the GTS, unless gaming was in the cards.

True but i often run HA off; the q6600 is a great chip.
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post #13 of 19
5/20/08 at 6:36am
A Q6600 could probably play four h264/vc1 Bluray movies simultaneously even without a graphics card helping :-)
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post #14 of 19
5/20/08 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FordGT View Post

I'm in the process now of building a new system. One of it's purposes is to be able to play back HD content. I'm sort of limited in my budget but I'm trying to get the best parts I can afford. Right now I've settled on getting a Q6600, either the Gigabyte DS3L or DS3R, 4GB of DDR2 800 memory and Vista Home Premium 64-bit along with an Antec 500W power supply.

I plan on getting a blu-ray drive in the future but would like to be able to play web/HDD based HD content now like Apple's movie trailers, etc. You may have seen the recent drop in price of the 8800GTS 320MB cards. I picked one up for $87.98 shipped and was hoping to use that. However, the lack of PureVideo HD 2 gives me second thoughts. I'm not a big gamer at all but wanted something powerful enough to play most games. The 8600GT is around the same price but isn't nearly as powerful as the 8800 series cards. My question is whether or not the 8800GTS 320MB G80 will be sufficient enough for 1080p playback? I can always upgrade my graphics card in a year or so but would it be OK for now?

Thanks

You don't even need a quad core, I have an 8800/GTS 320 and it works fine with a 6800 dual core.
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post #15 of 19
5/20/08 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trailergod View Post

nm88 ...i"m wondering.... how do u frce powerdvd not to use your video cards acceleration ?

XP + pre-HA (162.18) Nvidia drivers.

And while 3.6 overclocks are certainly possible on the Q6600s, I wouldn't call it "easy". With current steppings, 3.2 is a fairly safe bet though.
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post #16 of 19
5/20/08 at 1:52pm
Sadly my mobo is bios locked for overclocking but stock 4 cores at 2.4ghz as mentioned above is a great chip for full software decoding. I guess your answer OP is yes, your setup is more than able, even overkill to some degree.
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post #17 of 19
5/20/08 at 2:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by arfster View Post

A Q6600 could probably play four h264/vc1 Bluray movies simultaneously even without a graphics card helping :-)

Yep, Q6600 is an awesome processor and I'm very glad I bought it
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post #18 of 19
5/20/08 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
I probably would have went with the E8400 too if I didn't do a lot of Photoshop/Dreamweaver work as well as video editing(not a lot but some). I figure 4 cores should last me a few years until I upgrade to Nehalem.

The graphics card is on its way here, the PSU should be shipping soon and I'll be ordering the Q6600 and motherboard soon as well. I'm really excited to get building!

Thanks for all the assurance guys!
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post #19 of 19
5/20/08 at 3:52pm
Don't worry, you'll love the Q6600.

And I see it's only $219 now at Newegg, what a steal.
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