I got an 8500 gt and I got to tell you it plays movies superbly. I'm waiting on my new quad until I encode my DV videos to DvD so I can't answer that question. Most games play very nicely also. "Not Crysis", but Call of Duty 4 is sweet.
the 2600XT is hands downthe best decoder here in both XP and Vista. I believe THG even did a review of these features and included all the low from 2600XT to the 2400XT/PRO and the 8600GTS to the 8400GS.
I had a 2600pro(just got a 3870 today) and it was great for watching movies, didn't do much encoding though. The built in audio for the hdmi was a great feature imo.
Video cards has no impact on encoding, it is CPU bound.
Yes, ATI did release AVIVO a few years ago, but video encoding was done thru Catalyst's proprietary encoding program which merely hints at the potential. That encoding program was very, very limited.
------------------------------Q9450 |Corsair XMS 4GB DDR 800 | ABit IP35 Pro | HD 5850 | Audigy 2 | Seasonic S12 550 | Cooler Master Centurion 532 | NEC LCD2690WUXi and Planar PX2611w | WinXP
Peace on Earth by means of the destruction of all life on Earth.
Reply to jaguarskx
I can't seem to find the review, but the 8600GT and HD2600 generally outperforms their younger siblings in HD decoding. That means lower demand on the CPU.
------------------------------Q9450 |Corsair XMS 4GB DDR 800 | ABit IP35 Pro | HD 5850 | Audigy 2 | Seasonic S12 550 | Cooler Master Centurion 532 | NEC LCD2690WUXi and Planar PX2611w | WinXP
Peace on Earth by means of the destruction of all life on Earth.
Reply to jaguarskx
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