Video & Games: Same display processing?

19lbGordon · 02-16-2005, 11:35 AM

Video Graphics cards are typically marketed towards "gamers" in their product descriptions. Does displaying a movie or recorded program from a PC to HDTV go through the same functions as displaying a game?

In other words, does a better video processor benefit the playback of video files as it does games?

shinings · 02-16-2005, 07:20 PM

speedwise, a 3-year-old card could run DVDs and normal AVI movies (not those HDTV high-bitrate format video files) with no problem. newer cards improves picture quality a tiny little bit, i believe.

Gaming is different because in most cases, they are on-the-spot rendering, meaning a lot of calculation burdens on the GPU. the faster, the better.

It's like you could easily drive a shitty car on highways, while you need a 4x4 truck to go into mountains, because it's a much tougher task.

19lbGordon · 02-16-2005, 09:57 PM

Thanks for the reply. So, take the ATI Radeon 9800XT & the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, for example.

9800 XT:
256, Memory: DDR1/365mhz, Engine: 412mhz, Fillrate: 3.40Gpixels/sec

9800Pro:
256, Memory: DDR2/350mhz, Engine: 380mhz, Fillrate: 3.04Gpixels/sec

When using an HDTV as the display, which of these figures are no longer relative? I'm assuming this is the point where the focus shifts to what the HDTV can do in terms of refresh rate, pixels, definition, etc.

RSawdey · 03-06-2005, 02:11 PM

The graphics card also helps a lot with the MPEG2 decoding on an entertainment PC... but the raw pixel power is massive overkill... HDTV is only 60 Mpixels per second, so the card is 50 times faster than it needs to be.

3D modeling features are unused for TV.

02-16-2005, 11:35 AM	#1
19lbGordon My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 9	Video & Games: Same display processing? Video Graphics cards are typically marketed towards "gamers" in their product descriptions. Does displaying a movie or recorded program from a PC to HDTV go through the same functions as displaying a game? In other words, does a better video processor benefit the playback of video files as it does games?

02-16-2005, 07:20 PM	#2
shinings My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 9	speedwise, a 3-year-old card could run DVDs and normal AVI movies (not those HDTV high-bitrate format video files) with no problem. newer cards improves picture quality a tiny little bit, i believe. Gaming is different because in most cases, they are on-the-spot rendering, meaning a lot of calculation burdens on the GPU. the faster, the better. It's like you could easily drive a shitty car on highways, while you need a 4x4 truck to go into mountains, because it's a much tougher task.

02-16-2005, 09:57 PM	#3
19lbGordon My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 9	Thanks for the reply. So, take the ATI Radeon 9800XT & the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, for example. 9800 XT: 256, Memory: DDR1/365mhz, Engine: 412mhz, Fillrate: 3.40Gpixels/sec 9800Pro: 256, Memory: DDR2/350mhz, Engine: 380mhz, Fillrate: 3.04Gpixels/sec When using an HDTV as the display, which of these figures are no longer relative? I'm assuming this is the point where the focus shifts to what the HDTV can do in terms of refresh rate, pixels, definition, etc.

03-06-2005, 02:11 PM	#4
RSawdey Mr. Wizard Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Ferndale, Michigan Age: 61 Posts: 5,981	The graphics card also helps a lot with the MPEG2 decoding on an entertainment PC... but the raw pixel power is massive overkill... HDTV is only 60 Mpixels per second, so the card is 50 times faster than it needs to be. 3D modeling features are unused for TV.