2007-08-03, 07:53 PM
sub Wrote:I've seen a few comments on forums about people using an AGP version of the ATI HD 2400, so it sounds like they starting to trickle out there. Apparently they great with H264/VC1 stuff like BluRay/HD-DVD, but there seems to be a few minor teething problems with highdef MPEG2. Hopefully these are software related and drivers will address these problems.
I haven't been able to find any Nvidia 8600 or ATI HD 2400/2600 series in AGP. It is good to hear some people have them. I'm always expecting ATI and Nvidia might suddenly change their minds and drop AGP support,even though they annonced support months ago.
I did read that the ATI cards are supposed to enable VC-1 acceleration in addition to the H264. The Nvidia 8-series do not enable VC-1. Not sure if you've seen the article below, but its got good comparison benchmarks. The article shows decode performance and includes an older P4 CPU (plus a C2D X6800 & E4300) in the benchmarks. With the HD 2600XT the P4 never goes above 20% utilization.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=1
For an older system, like AGP based systems, the extra VC-1 decode support could really help out. A silent, HDCP enabled 2400/2600 AGP might be a nice way to go for HTPC, if someone is making it.