# Is This System Powerful Enough For BluRay Playback?



## DaveK (Jan 13, 2009)

I'm in the very, very slow process of building my first machine and I hope to have it up and running by next month, I'm going to be upgrading it for BluRay but my parts are a bit on the weak side. My machine will have an E4300 overclocked to 2.4GHz, will have a 512MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro and 2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400. Once I've got my build up and running I have to upgrade to a 24" 1200p monitor and an LG GGC-H20L BluRay/HD-DVD Drive.

But the monitor and BluRay drive cost €400 which is around the price of the machine itself. Does anyone know if the E4300 and X1950Pro will be able to handle 1080p movies? Because I was going to eventually upgrade to an E8400 and if the E4300 can't cope I might aswell buy the E8400 instead of wasting the €400, any ideas?

My ASRock mobo is limited to 2GB RAM though I bought my friend's Asus mobo (forgot the model :S) and I'll be using 3GB RAM then if it helps.


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## alexp999 (Jan 13, 2009)

Is this system just for blu-ray/hd or is it gaming too?
If you want blu-ray, it might be best to get a low end 3 or 4 series ati, or a low end nvidia 8 or 9 series. X1950 is definetly the wrong card to buy for gaming or HD.
As for the CPU, you may as well go for an E1200 or E1400 an OC it to around 3Ghz. For playing back HD you need the clock speed not the cache.


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## DaveK (Jan 13, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> Is this system just for blu-ray/hd or is it gaming too?
> If you want blu-ray, it might be best to get a low end 3 or 4 series ati, or a low end nvidia 8 or 9 series. X1950 is definetly the wrong card to buy for gaming or HD.
> As for the CPU, you may as well go for an E1200 or E1400 an OC it to around 3Ghz. For playing back HD you need the clock speed not the cache.



It's just for BluRay at the moment. I'm in a bit of a crap situation then because I already have the E4300 and X1950Pro though my friend will be selling his MSI 4850 in the future, it retails for €149 at the moment but he'll probably give me a good deal so I'll see when he might be selling it and what price.

As for the CPU, would it be worth seeing if I can push the E4300 more? I've read that thing can get up to 3.4GHz (I wouldn't go that high though) or would an E1200 be better? I do a lot of photo editing and some video editing and I don't really want to gain in one area (BluRay) and lose in another (Editing). What would you recommend, E1200, push the E4300 or E8400? Keeping in mind I don't even have a usable machine for the E4300 yet lol. I just want to know so when I do get the machine up and running what performance (or lack thereof ) to expect.


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## alexp999 (Jan 13, 2009)

If you already have the CPU then keep it, wasnt sure whether you were buying or already had it.
If you were buying I was just trying to save you money, lol.

For video editing and video playback, the less cache you have, gives you better performance as the CPU hasnt got as much to look through before it moves onto the next calc.

Higher cache is great for gaming, cus you often have repeated objects, etc.

I reckon you could get 3Ghz out of that E4300 easy. As for the X1950 Pro, afaik, it cant decode movies, so you will be reliant on your CPU for doing that. Usually the minimum for 1080p blu-ray decoding on a CPU is a 2.4ghz dual core. (which you have).

See how you go with it, and if its a bit choppy, it might be worth OCing the CPU a bit more (or you could OC it anyway, lol)


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## cdawall (Jan 13, 2009)

you should be fine does the X19K series support HDCP? if not you wont see any blu-rays on your TV


and i believe 2.4ghz would refer to a Pentium D netburst style.


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## DRDNA (Jan 13, 2009)

originally the X1900 series were qualified cards for Blu Ray but now seems as every thing has changed ..The minimum has gone up....my rig in the sig plays no problem ,love it too.......maybe some one with a like set up could run the blu ray adviser test for you.I ran it on an X850XT PE and it said VGA only on a socket 754 rig.


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## Darknova (Jan 13, 2009)

The E4300 will do 3Ghz easy mate.

The X1950, like alexp999 said, is not the best card, it doesn't offload HD rendering to the GPU like newer cards do.

Hell, I can play HD video on my onboard graphics.

Also, try and get hold of 4Gb of RAM if you can, not necessary, but makes a bit of a difference


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## alexp999 (Jan 13, 2009)

cdawall said:


> you should be fine does the X19K series support HDCP? if not you wont see any blu-rays on your TV
> 
> 
> and i believe 2.4ghz would refer to a Pentium D netburst style.



according to AMD it does support HDCP:

http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1950/x1950pro.html


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## cdawall (Jan 13, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> according to AMD it does support HDCP:
> 
> http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1950/x1950pro.html



then he will be fine even with just 2gb of ram it might drop a frame every once in a while but considering intel 4500m HD and T5800 can run blu-ray i think he will be fine


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## DRDNA (Jan 13, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> according to AMD it does support HDCP:
> 
> http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1950/x1950pro.html



but contradiction come up when you check qualified cards out side of AMD's site.according to AMD my X850XT PE is HDCP but blu ray adviser application from sony says only VGA


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## alexp999 (Jan 13, 2009)

DRDNA said:


> but contradiction come up when you check qualified cards out side of AMD's site.according to AMD my X850XT PE is HDCP but blu ray adviser application from sony says only VGA



I think thats cus the the ati chip is HDCP capable, but if the MF doesnt provide a DVI or HDMI slot, then the card isnt HDCP capable.

@ DaveK, does your card have DVI?


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## DaveK (Jan 13, 2009)

So for video editing and playback, less cache is better? Would there be much of a difference between a 3GHz E4300 with 2MB L2 than the 3GHz E8400 with 6MB L2? Or are we just talking a little bit of a performance decrease?

Does anything else besides gaming rely on larger cache?


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## Darren (Jan 13, 2009)

DaveK said:


> My machine will have an E4300 overclocked to 2.4GHz, will have a 512MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro and 2GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400. Once I've got my build up and running I have to upgrade to a 24" 1200p monitor and an LG GGC-H20L BluRay/HD-DVD Drive.



I'm running an Athlon X2 3800+ @ 2.8Ghz, which translates to a score equivalent E6400 according to the Sandra benchmark. I've also got a Nvidia 9600 GT 512 MB graphics card and 8 GBs DDR OCZ PC6400. My system is capable of running 720p Blu-Ray without a hiccup, smooth playback without any issues. However with 1080p Blue-Ray material there is a audio sync problem e.g. the mouth movements can not keep up with the voice. 1080p on compressed material such as from Apple trailers is fine, the problem is only on authentic high resolution untouched Blue-Ray material.

So to answer your question, yes 720p will play fine, 1080p might stutter or have sync issues. I would keep the CPU as it's enough for today's applications, enough for gaming, video editing etc. But the issue lies with the x1950 Pro, once its replaced with a more capable card such as the ATI 4830/4850, Nvidia GTX 260 etc it should be fine 

PS. Blu-Ray DVD movies at 1080p take up a lot of ram, easily 2 GBs on its own, I'd upgrade to at least 4 GBs.

Edit:



DaveK said:


> Yeah, the card has 2x DVI and both the card and monitor I'm looking at are HDCP compliant. As for RAM, the ASRock mobo is limited to 2GB but when i get the 4850 I'll be using the Asus mobo then I'll use 3GB RAM, can't go any further due to 32bit :S
> 
> Would faster RAM be better than PC6400?




Faster ram wouldn't make any noticeable performance. I would rather more ram than faster ram, because PC6400 is fast enough


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## DRDNA (Jan 13, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> I think thats cus the the ati chip is HDCP capable, but if the MF doesnt provide a DVI or HDMI slot, then the card isnt HDCP capable.
> 
> @ DaveK, does your card have DVI?



My card has only DVI on the X850XT PE ...same cable and same monitor and same DVI on my rig in the sig playes just fine and blu ray adviser doesn't say VGA any more.


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## alexp999 (Jan 13, 2009)

DaveK said:


> So for video editing and playback, less cache is better? Would there be much of a difference between a 3GHz E4300 with 2MB L2 than the 3GHz E8400 with 6MB L2? Or are we just talking a little bit of a performance decrease?
> 
> Does anything else besides gaming rely on larger cache?



Maybe rendering or CAD work.

But its due to the fact the CPU's are built to check the cache before every new calculation to see if they already have the required data, so to speak.

Therefore, for video editing and playback, every frame is different.

It will make marginal differences in performance on video playback, but say something like a 3hr film in 1080p, decoding/encoding that on an E1200 vs E8400 at the same clock speed will cause the E1200 to finish with a notable lead over the E8400.


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## DaveK (Jan 13, 2009)

Yeah, the card has 2x DVI and both the card and monitor I'm looking at are HDCP compliant. As for RAM, the ASRock mobo is limited to 2GB but when i get the 4850 I'll be using the Asus mobo then I'll use 3GB RAM, can't go any further due to 32bit :S

Would faster RAM be better than PC6400?


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## kid41212003 (Jan 13, 2009)

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=7

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-3.html

His CPU can handle blu-ray just fine, he only need a "_newer_" GPU, which should handle blu-ray better than "_older_" GPU.

The G92 cards handle blu-ray better than the G80 cards, even *if* G80 cards are alot faster.


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## cdawall (Jan 13, 2009)

kid41212003 said:


> http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=7
> 
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-3.html
> 
> ...



which G80 cards are better than G92? the 9800GTX and 8800GTS 512 beat the 8800GTS 320/640


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## kid41212003 (Jan 13, 2009)

cdawall said:


> which G80 cards are better than G92? the 9800GTX and 8800GTS 512 beat the 8800GTS 320/640



I said _*If*_, and I did made it bold...


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## cdawall (Jan 13, 2009)

kid41212003 said:


> I said _*If*_, and I did made it bold...



lol i thought you were trying to point something out shoulda put G94 instead of G92 to be less confusing


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## DaveK (Jan 14, 2009)

Would 3GB RAM be enough or should I upgrade to 64bit? If I should, how do I know if my system is capable of 64bit? Vista Home Premium 64bit Upgrade is approx €85 which seems an ok price.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 14, 2009)

Davek, you will be fine. 2GB and 32 bit will be ok.


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## CarolinaKSU (Jan 20, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> Maybe rendering or CAD work.
> 
> But its due to the fact the CPU's are built to check the cache before every new calculation to see if they already have the required data, so to speak.
> 
> ...



That seems to defy logic tho, youre saying that even though the faster and much more powerful chips don't encode faster? Then why am i not using my old P4 to encode video rather than my E6600? It has a much higher clock but a teeny tiny cache yet the same video i can encode on the E6600 that takes half an hour will take 2 hours+ on the P4.


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## DaveK (Feb 22, 2009)

Sorry to bump this thread, but does playing BluRay or HD-DVD have a high GPU usage? I'm not talking about using my X1950 Pro, but I'm taking this into consideration when getting a gfx card. Let's say I play a movie, is the gfx card going to be under a lot of load during the movie? Because my X1950 Pro sounds like a hairdryer and if playing movies makes the GPU load I'll probably look into a quiet card. I can stand the X1950 Pro while gaming or listening to music because the sound is up, but if the card is loud during movies that will be annoying, especially when there's quiet moments.


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## Darren (Feb 22, 2009)

DaveK said:


> Sorry to bump this thread, but does playing BluRay or HD-DVD have a high GPU usage? I'm not talking about using my X1950 Pro, but I'm taking this into consideration when getting a gfx card. Let's say I play a movie, is the gfx card going to be under a lot of load during the movie? Because my X1950 Pro sounds like a hairdryer and if playing movies makes the GPU load I'll probably look into a quiet card. I can stand the X1950 Pro while gaming or listening to music because the sound is up, but if the card is loud during movies that will be annoying, especially when there's quiet moments.




Playing HD content is mostly CPU dependant but having a beefy GPU helps. An X1950Pro could probably play 720p without any issues, you'll definitely struggle with 1080p. I'd advise that you buy an ATI 4830 because they are cheap, around £80-95, they have HD encoding support in hardware/software.  Plus they are beefy enough to play todays games at very high detail - No lag! 

Edit:

If you're worried about the noise of the GPU it depends on what cooler the manfuacturer puts on it. You can spend an extra £15 and put a passive solution on it such as the accelero S1 Rev 2.


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## DRDNA (Feb 22, 2009)

The most I have ever seen the card in my sigs use was 5% and it would only last 3-5 seconds and it would only happen maybe 5 or 6 times in a two hour Blu-Ray  movie .

CPU did however have usage accross all four cores.

EDIT just retested and 7% steady on GPU with the 9.2's and all CPU cores too but very very low on cpu's now ....I will post a screenie in a minute.


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## DaveK (Feb 22, 2009)

Yeah, I was actually considering buying a 4830 my ASRock mobo is a poor overclocker and I can't use my Asus mobo to overclock until I get a PCI-e card. I can get the Sapphire one for 100 euro.


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## DRDNA (Feb 22, 2009)

screenie:


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## Darren (Feb 22, 2009)

DRDNA,

Remember you are running a i7-920 @4.1GHZ

DaveK is running a E4300 @ 2 GHz

The CPU impact will effect him way more!

Edit:

Dave K,  I thoroughly recommend the ATI 4830, check my previous post if you missed it!

x1950pro is old and nacked, needs replacing anyways.


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## DaveK (Feb 23, 2009)

Looks like I will be buying a Sapphire 4830 with next months money, another month of using DVD-Rs for storage 

On the plus side, better card which enables me to use my Asus mobo which overclocks better and my spare 1GB stick of RAM. Overall better performance I guess and the ability to use more RAM.

Judging by the 4850 Sapphire, the card isn't quiet. So it really wont go under a lot of load with playback? Last thing I want is it being loud, there's a reason why I don't watch DVDs on my 360.


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## Darren (Feb 23, 2009)

DaveK said:


> Looks like I will be buying a Sapphire 4830 with next months money, another month of using DVD-Rs for storage
> 
> On the plus side, better card which enables me to use my Asus mobo which overclocks better and my spare 1GB stick of RAM. Overall better performance I guess and the ability to use more RAM.
> 
> Judging by the 4850 Sapphire, the card isn't quiet. So it really wont go under a lot of load with playback? Last thing I want is it being loud, there's a reason why I don't watch DVDs on my 360.



Then get a passive solution, no FANS!

Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 VGA Cooler  £16.09 inc VAT 
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-023-AR


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