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HD decoding CPU usage shootout: ATI vs nVidia

by Erik Hanson posted Dec 31st 2007 at 3:22PM

ATI vs nVidiaWhile around here you're more likely to see a flame war erupt about Blu-ray versus HD DVD, on many computer gaming websites the war is over ATI and nVidia, with the two major video card manufacturers constantly leapfrogging each other in an attempt to benchmark the highest scores on games like Unreal Tournament and Doom. Ars Technica has a head-to-head comparison on how well the their latest offerings perform decoding high-definition content, using an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive and some prerecorded 1080p and 1080i content. While both camps did similarly well, ATI was better at playing back VC-1-encoded HD DVD content, and nVidia held a slight edge on 1080i recordings. The benefits to both allow even older video hardware to take a load off the CPU, meaning home theater PC builders can pair a cheaper CPU and video card for playing back HD on the cheap.

Asus rolls out HDMI-enabled EAX1600PRO / EN7600GT graphics cards

by Darren Murph posted Mar 13th 2007 at 11:02PM


Asus is no stranger to kicking out curious motherboards and other peripherals that we geeks just can't help but love, and following up on its undertaking of auxiliary displays and the AquaTank PCI card is a couple of swank new video cards that tout an HDCP-friendly HDMI port. The half-height ATI Radeon X1600 EAX1600PRO was apparently crafted with the common HTPC builder in mind, as its diminutive size lends itself to becoming a perfect fit for those tight spaces within AV-like media center PC cases. But before you gamers get too excited, you should probably know that in-game performance is likely to be less than stellar, but HotHardware did note that its model wasn't shy when overclocked. Interestingly, this HTPC-centric card comes bundled sans a true HDMI-to-HDMI cable, which leaves us all a bit miffed considering the niche it's trying to appease. The EN7600GT ups the ante by delivering the frame rate luxuries as only an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 can, but its full-height design will definitely cause problems in slimmer enclosures. Other extras found on this device are its SLI-capabilities, DVI / S-video outputs, and optical audio jack, but considering it packs just 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, the hardcore gamers in the crowd are still not likely to find themselves impressed. Still, with the EAX1600PRO ringing up at just around a cool hundred, and the more powerful EN7600GT asking just about twice that, these here cards look to be solid options if you're just getting around to creating your own HTPC.

[Via Slashdot]

ATI sued over "HDCP ready" videocards

by Richard Lawler posted May 8th 2006 at 2:26PM


HDCP may be necessary to play your high definition DVDs at their full resolution, and even though ATI listed it as a feature on their website, the cards did not actually support it. No surprise that a lawsuit has now been filed by some disgruntled consumers.

We're no legal experts, but having a feature on the box and not actually being able to use it in any circumstance is leading us to believe ATI may just have to take an L on this one. As it stands only a few PC videocards actually do support HDCP, and they are NVIDIAs packaged in Sony Vaios. Although ATI has an HDCP-compatible card in development, none have hit shelves yet.

[Via Engadget]




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