x1300 or 8400GS

[dragon]

I know they're both pretty rubbish but I have the x1300 kicking around in my box of spares pulled from a dell and the 8400GS is around somewhere (pulled from housemates pc)


Which is the better card as I need a PCI-E video card to go in a machine it's going to spend most of the time displaying the windows desktop or eve-online/l4d

My Atom 330 manages that with a 2400HD but it lacks the grunt for some HD decoding and I just picked up a 2.1ghz Quad opteron server very cheap which can be easily adapted to work as a desktop (I'll probably replace my secondary desktop, a 1.6 p4 with the atom and use the "server" as me primary desktop)

it dont matter which you use if all you want is to put an image on the screen

[dragon]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

it dont matter which you use if all you want is to put an image on the screen

Pretty much, might put something a bit better in later, but first i need to sort some ram.


Still can't complain to much providing they actually have some stock left just ordered myself one of these for £165 http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...5-3919424.html

[Welshchris]

i used a PNY 8400GS 256mb PCI-E i got on Play.com for £25 in a basic 4400 AMD machine i built for a mate 3 weeks ago to replace the Athlon 2400 i built for him 5 years ago. As Zinglebarb said if all u want is something basic to put an image on the screen they r fine. Since all my mate does is send emails, browse the net and watch stuff on BBC Iplayer the 8400GS is more than ample

[popper]

Originally Posted by dragon

I know they're both pretty rubbish but I have the x1300 kicking around in my box of spares pulled from a dell and the 8400GS is around somewhere (pulled from housemates pc)


Which is the better card as I need a PCI-E video card to go in a machine it's going to spend most of the time displaying the windows desktop or eve-online/l4d

My Atom 330 manages that with a 2400HD but it lacks the grunt for some HD decoding and I just picked up a 2.1ghz Quad opteron server very cheap which can be easily adapted to work as a desktop (I'll probably replace my secondary desktop, a 1.6 p4 with the atom and use the "server" as me primary desktop)

"or eve-online/l4d" ?, no idea what that is , but you also say "with a 2400HD but it lacks the grunt for some HD decoding "

based on the assumption you might like to decode HD video quite regularly, then its seems pritty simple....

although i havent tryed one as yet, it appears the "8400 GS " is the lowest in the nvidia range that has the "VDPAU" hardware ASIC onboard, many people are apparently using that ASIC for AVC HW HD 720p and 1080i/p decoding with a multi threaded decoder like CoreAVC.

the ATI/AMD "x1300" while potentially can also HW decode if they ever get around to activating it in future drivers..., its not clear weather it has the ATI/AMD "UVD" HW decode equ of nvidia "VDPAU" HW decode onboard, so useing the "8400 GS " seems to be your better option right now.

while i do like the HD3xxx/4xxx and the potential for using ATI/AMD "UVD" ASIC, the simple fact is ,right now theres no documentation for it as yet, wereas the "VDPAU" ASIC is a known quantity, the developer docs are available and the 3rd partys are adding and improving "VDPAU" assisted HW decoding too open and closed apps right now.

as it stands now, it appears your "8400 GS /VDPAU" will be far better than your 2400HD inside the Atom 330 box were video playback is concerned.

[Druchii]

Eve is a game, an MMO if i'm not mistaken. Not sure on how graphics heavy it is though.

Originally Posted by popper

"or eve-online/l4d" ?, no idea what that is , but you also say "with a 2400HD but it lacks the grunt for some HD decoding "

based on the assumption you might like to decode HD video quite regularly, then its seems pritty simple....

although i havent tryed one as yet, it appears the "8400 GS " is the lowest in the nvidia range that has the "VDPAU" hardware ASIC onboard, many people are apparently using that ASIC for AVC HW HD 720p and 1080i/p decoding with a multi threaded decoder like CoreAVC.

the ATI/AMD "x1300" while potentially can also HW decode if they ever get around to activating it in future drivers..., its not clear weather it has the ATI/AMD "UVD" HW decode equ of nvidia "VDPAU" HW decode onboard, so useing the "8400 GS " seems to be your better option right now.

while i do like the HD3xxx/4xxx and the potential for using ATI/AMD "UVD" ASIC, the simple fact is ,right now theres no documentation for it as yet, wereas the "VDPAU" ASIC is a known quantity, the developer docs are available and the 3rd partys are adding and improving "VDPAU" assisted HW decoding too open and closed apps right now.

as it stands now, it appears your "8400 GS /VDPAU" will be far better than your 2400HD inside the Atom 330 box were video playback is concerned.

HD2400

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd2400/specs.html

ATI Avivo™ HD Video and Display Platform

• Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats
  • High definition (HD) playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats

MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding

8400 GS

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce...ech_specs.html

High-definition H.264, VC-1, MPEG2 and WMV9 decode acceleration

all pretty much the same . 64 bit memory bus on both .

My answer to the OP which was which is best just to put a picture on the screen was correct and seeing as the specs for Eve are not demanding it really does not matter. Between the 8400 GS and the 1300 the GS is better between the 8400 and the 2400 there is barely a difference imo

Video: 64 MB Shader Model 2.0 Graphics cards such as GeForce FX (5 series) class card or higher, ATi 9500, x300 series or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers

[popper]

my edit went wrong and i can tbe bothered to retype it.....

basicly , sure , and my assumption and advice stems from the fact he mentions HD playback so he might want to decode HD on one of the cards he has.

the "VDPAU" ASIC is a known quantity, the developer docs are available and the 3rd partys are adding and improving "VDPAU" assisted HW decoding too open and closed apps right now.

were as the ATI/AMD "UVD" ASIC, as of right now theres no documentation for it as yet, unless the devs sign an NDA, and even then,the docs are very limited, very little if any apps work with the ATI Avivo or the "UVD" ASIC come to that, so given the 3 cards mentioned, the one with 3rd party support and VDPAU" ASIC, the 8400GS seems to win out as "Which is the better card " if 3rd party apps/HD AVC video playback is also a requirement/wish...

[dragon]

Sorry wasn't clear on my orginal post, it's 2 different machines

Actually I popped what I thought was the 8400GS in and it turned out ot be an 8500GT (was the one shipped with my housemates pc, but we upgraded his)


The HD2400 wasn't an option as it's still in the Atom and is infact a Low profile PCI card (Don't find to many of them about )


Now all I need to do is get some Ram (I pinched the 2gb stick out my atom machine for now, although its 667 and non ECC where as the oringnal module in this machine is 800mhz ECC, although the machine doesn't care if you use non ECC memory and a soundcard that will either work in a 3.3v only PCI slot or a usb one.

The atom was a nice little machine and it will probably end up being my fileserver, or used via synergy to run the other screen so i can have IRC up when playing Eve (If i use 2nd monitor on same machine game minimises when you move offscreen)

Currently using a HP server as my pc and it's noticably faster (I picked up one of the ML115's that are on offer atm, quad 2.1 opteron )