ATI - X1650 Pro XT?

[wab]

csy,
Did you go with the X1650Pro or X1650XT?
Anyone else out there using the X1650?
I was about to pull the trigger for the 7600GT but was curious about the X1650 results.
I also read these articles, and now I'm rethinking the ATI line.

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx1k/imagequality.html

http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1650/features.html

Watch stunning, high-definition video on your PC

Thanks to ATI’s Avivo display technology, the Radeon X1650 delivers industry leading video performance, achieving more than double the score of competing cards in HQV testing4. Both standard definition and high-definition digital video will appear crystal clear and burst with true-to-life colors.

The Radeon X1650 scores 123 out of a possible 130 points in HQV tests, the highest score of any graphics card4 The X1650 is the industry leader in its class in video performance according to HQV testing, the standard method of measuring the picture quality of DVD playback.
4. The Radeon X1650 PRO earned a score of 123 in HQV benchmark tests, one of the highest video performance scores in the industry. Test system: AMD 4200+ 1GB DDR2 Catalyst 6.6 (8.26) drivers

X1650XT:
ATI seems to clarify these results in their remarks pertaining to the XT.
Is it the XT only or both the XT and the Pro that deliver these results?

http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1650/...tures.html

The Radeon® X1650 XT delivers superior mainstream performance with industry-leading image quality1 and best-in-class HD video2.
1 ATI is the only graphics chip maker that can display both HDR and FSAA 3D image enhancement features at the
same time and is the only chip make to display 1.07 billion colors when attached to 10-bit displays.
2 The Radeon X1650 XT earned a score of 123 in HQV benchmark tests, one of the highest video performance scores
in the industry. Test system: AMD 4200+ 1GB DDR2 Catalyst 6.6 (8.26) drivers. Some digital content protection
schemes may not be supported by all product variants

[csy]

I have the X1650Pro.

The picture quality is much sharper and clearer than my old Nvidia 7600GS.

I mentioned in other thread that I lost picture quality going from an ATI 9600XT to the Nvidia 7600GS, which I have now regained, but the interesting thing is the 9600XT and the X1650Pro both appear to produce the same PQ on my LCD TV.

But I think I've uncovered a generic ATI driver bug. All ATI cards I've tried (9600XT, 9800Pro, X1650XT) suffer jerky scene movements when using the combination of 1280x768 res, VMR9+DXVA, and decoder/renderer aspect ratio correction. If you disable or change the combination then motion becomes smooth again (eg change Purevideo decoder to raw/anamorphic display, and instead enable GBPVR aspect ratios which change screen size). I did not have this problem on the Nvidia 7600GS. On investigation, I've found this ATI issue reported in other forums and a couple of similiar threads in this forum and is specific to VMR9 renderering. VMR7 and Overlay renderers work fine and don't have this issue. The common workaround for VMR9 is to turn-off hardware acceleration on the decoder, which still looks sharp on the X1650 with Catalyst 6.10 driver (I think due to the superior edge sharpening on the X1000 series).

[Ted the Penguin]

just FYI 6.11 are the latest drivers.

[csy]

Thanks, I hadn't noticed 6.11 was released.

I've installed 6.11, but made no difference. I did spot on the release notes an unresolved issue regarding choppy playback on PowerDVD so maybe they have recognised there is a problem.