[tokyo]

I'm planning to upgrade my pc for HTPC usage, mainly dvd movie watching using Sanyo projector (Z2) thru DVI.


And base on my readings in this forum the right card for my usage and budget are ATI 9600 pro or nVidia 5700.


I'm turn between these two cards so, please give me your recommendations, experience and comments into which is the right choice.


Here's my PC's spec.

OS: dual boot (XP and SUSE9.1)

CPU: Athlon XP2500

Memory: PC2100 256MB

MB: WinFast K7NCR18G-ProII

Geforce4 MX graphics

Built-in hardware Dolby Digital (AC3)

SPDIF output

DVD: Combo Lite-on LTC-4816H

HDD: 80GB Seagate ST380011A


AV system:

Yamaha RX-V450 A/V receiver

Denon 5.1ch speaker set

Sanyo Z2 projector



Thank you.

 

[VespaMan]

Well, both will probably work. But here are some pro/con's that I have found (I have or have had 2 nvidia 5200,one 5700U, ati 7200 (old htpc), ati 9700 pro, 9800aiw, and now latest x800xt (for gaming..);


nvidia binary driver:

Quite good for htpc with nvmc support.

Manages hdtv streams without any noticable problem.

On some of my nvidia cards (mainly the cheaper ones) dvi has problems while booting (until X are started) this is a bios issue, and I have not seen it on my latest 5700 ultra resident in my current htpc.


ati binary driver:

is not too good, does not manage hdtv resolutions.

don't think there's nvmc support(?).

never had a problem with DVI on these cards.


At this moment I am happy with nvidia 5700U. Ultras have a better VGA quality due to better on board power supply, but since you are going to use DVI, I would be surprised if there's any quality difference... Also, if you are not viewing hd material, you will probably be more happier without nvmc, since your cpu is powerfull enough.


- Micael

 

[pivot]

VespaMan, is the nvidia 5700 much better than the 5200? I've just gotten an nvidia 5200 to test if it was better than a radeon 9100, but it has much less detals in dark areas, and lesser colour fidelity.

 

[tokyo]

Thank you for your inputs.


Since I'll be watching DVD media, I guess both cards will do the job greatly. Well, I'll purchase the ATI 9700 pro (Sapphire 128mb). Is there any great maker of video card with 9700 pro?


__________

Tokyo

 

[tokyo]

I'm hoping that 9700 pro (Sapphire) will work with my linux (Suse 9.1) environment.


____________

Tokyo

 

[tokyo]

Sorry, my post above has wrong card no. I'm pertaining to 9600 pro (not 9700 pro).


______________

Tokyo

 

[VespaMan]

pivot,


Well, to be honest, I have never done a true A-B comparison between the 5200's and the 5700U, since while I have run the 5200's in a htpc environment, I did not use the same display devices. I have a 5200 on the computer I'm writing this on, and I do not think it is very good with dark areas, a bit washed out. I thought that this might be a display issue, but this might be what you are seeing(?).

I also had problems with the passively cooled 5200 in that they are showing some distortion while running hd material, which luckily, I have never seen on my 5700U.


What I can say definitely is that the 5700U runs in circles around the 7200. I never tried the newer ATI's for too long since the issues with the hd (1920*1080) material.

The AIW did not convince me, since I though it where quite noisy, and it was hot as a gas owen, even if it where doing not much.


I think that, since the 5200 is an entry level card (important words here are *low*cost*) I think that the picture quality has to be lower. But then again, I think that if it is visible or not depends on what display device one are outputting to.


I also have no experience in using the video out feature in any of these cards.


There's an interesting thread in the crt forum where mp is talking about the 5700U merits have you not read it.


- Micael

 

[pivot]

Thanks, I might try the 5700. If it's a nogo I can easily sell it on ebay again. Do you have a link to that thread btw?

 

[tokyo]

I've done some search at Tom's Hardware website regarding these 2 cards (9600 pro & 5700). And it seems that 9600 pro is the best choice. Here's the link.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...n_9600-28.html

 

[VespaMan]

tokyo:

If gaming performance under windwos is what is important to you, the 9600 is probably better than the 5700. I though you meant that you where interested in the HTPC performance and support under Linux. Anyway, when you are going to test the board, make sure to also try the gatos-driver, which is slightly better than the binary ati driver with video material.


pivot:

The thread I where reffering to was this on;
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ht=nvidia+5700




- Micael

 

[pivot]

I think most gatos features for video playback is being folded into the mainline xorg ATI driver. I've tried a recent binary snapshots and they are generally in good shape. The only thing I'm really missing is xvmc support.

 

[tokyo]

VespaMan,

Thanks for your advice. I just bought a 9600 pro card and I'll be installing it tonight.

My main purpose is video watching (projector) and test Linux HTPC with card. Well, I know that nVidia has far better support than ATI but, I'll try ATI's linux driver from their website.


I'll post my test later.


____________

Tokyo

 

[pivot]

Tokyo, any vertict on your purchase yet?


Btw, I hear the XvMC support may be added to the proprietary ATI driver in the near future.

 

[tokyo]

Sorry for the late reply regarding the result of my 9600 pro installation. It took me a week to wrestle with the proper setting of the card for my Z2 projector. Yesterday, I finally got the proper setting by forcing 720p output in projector. Well, I haven't tested the linux performance but the windows movie (dvd) pq in my projector is great and I don't experience any skipping or pausing problem. I'm using PowerDVD as my player. I know that there are lots of great player but, I'm content with PowerDVD + 9600 pro performance.


Suse 9.1 doesn't initialize on my dual boot PC, so it seems I need to re-install Linux and then get my dirty hands with 9600 pro installation/setting for my tft display and projector. I just hope that 9600 pro will not burn my displays.


If I'll succeed in running Linux for multimedia purposes in my box, I might think of ditching XP (Home).


----------------

Tokyo

 

[pivot]

Try any of these X11 modelines;


The ones I use;


#60Hz HDTV derived

ModeLine "1280x720" 74.160 1280 1352 1392 1648 720 725 730 750 -hsync -vsync

#50Hz PAL

ModeLine "1280x720" 61.800 1280 1390 1430 1648 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync


Alternative ones;


# Alternative "accurately 50Hz" PAL modeline, from avsforum

#ModeLine "1280x720" 54 1280 1300 1420 1440 720 726 742 750 +hsync +vsync

# 60Hz, seems to work ok

#ModeLine "1280x720" 74.250 1280 1390 1430 1650 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync

#50Hz adjusted to 8 pixels horizontally, nvidia

#ModeLine "1280x720" 60.300 1280 1392 1456 1608 720 725 730 750 -hsync +vsync

 

[tokyo]

Pivot,


Thanks for the X11 modelines. I'll try those setting once I installed linux in my dual boot machine. Right now I'm looking for the appropriate Linux distro....whether it will be Suse 9.1, Gentoo or Lorma Linux 5.0.


________

Tokyo