Pentium upgrade worth it?

[ziton]

I have a Pentium 4 2.8GHZ am considering an upgrade to Intel Pentium D 945 Dual Core 3.40Ghz.
Will there be any improvement with GBPVR?

[McBainUK]

A faster CPU is useful for things like transcoding. performance. More CPU and graphics card grunt can be useful for HD playback also. Is this the only piece of hardware you will be changing?

[ziton]

Is this the only piece of hardware you will be changing?

I upgraded the graphics card from Radeon 9800 256mb to a BFG 7600gs oc 512mb. Then the psu from 350 to 500. I'm thinking the BFG needs more PSU.
What do you think?

[McBainUK]

Do you mean it needs more than 500? Maybe, but I've found PSU quality is better than crazy watt numbers. It's what the card needs on the different rails/amps that matters.

As an aside, there are much better places to talk about PC hardware than these forums. Tom's Hardware or futuremark (yougamers) for example.

[johnsonx42]

I can't see how a 7600gs would need more power than that. I've run 7600gs's in micro-atx systems with 220 watt power supplies without incident.

As to the CPU, as always it depends on what you are doing with it and also on the cost. What do you hope upgrading the CPU will fix or change for you?

[ziton]

What do you hope upgrading the CPU will fix or change for you?

smoother playback with less skips and choppiness.

[johnsonx42]

more cpu would only help if you're doing all your decoding with the CPU. you ought to be able to get at least some GPU-acceleration with the 7600gs. what decoders are you using?

[ziton]

what decoders are you using?

ffdshow is all I know.
How do I locate the decorders?
What are the best decorders to use?

[pBS]

ffdshow should work fine...you may have to adjust some settings to get it's half acceleration..
set on output tab, make sure only nv12 color is checked, uncheck all others..and tick 'set interlace flag in output', and 'method' and 'feild order' should be auto..

oh and be sure to have latest of the ffdshow tryouts..[beta7 or better]

[Bathman]

I would try powerdvd I find I get lower cpu usage with this decoder than with ffdshow. I believe it uses more graphics card hardware acceleration this freeing up cpu use.