VDPAU video card purchase - advice needed

[darksky]

I'm looking to make a purchase of a VDPAU enabled video card. Is the 8400GS the best choice for a non-gaming system? The MB has a PCI Express 16x slot. My understanding through reading this wikipedia page is that the G98 is the most recent (3rd generation) chip that supports VDPAU.

[perfectska04]

Originally Posted by darksky

I'm looking to make a purchase of a VDPAU enabled video card. Is the 8400GS the best choice for a non-gaming system? The MB has a PCI Express 16x slot. My understanding through reading this wikipedia page is that the G98 is the most recent (3rd generation) chip that supports VDPAU.

The G98 8400GS is certainly the best choice if you don't plan to do any kind of gaming. However, make sure to get at least the 512MB version, since there are many people who have experienced problems with VDPAU and only 256 MB of video RAM.

Also, don't worry too much if you find a cheaper card that is not an 8400GS; with the latest drivers, almost all 8xxx series cards and above can decode VC1 through VDPAU. Although with those cards there is only partial acceleration, the difference in cpu usage is only around 5-10% at most.

[darksky]

Cool, I found a 512 meg PCIe 16x 8400GS for $40 on newegg. Sparkle brand, passively cooled, etc. etc.

Thanks for the info.

[mlord]

Originally Posted by darksky

Cool, I found a 512 meg PCIe 16x 8400GS for $40 on newegg. Sparkle brand, passively cooled, etc. etc.

The Sparkle fanless 9500GT is a better deal for VDPAU right now. The 8400GS cannot handle the advanced de-interlacing modes, whereas the 9500GT can (but only just barely).

Cheers