Part 4: Avivo HD vs. PureVideo HD

Graphics Memory Benchmarks: 256MB vs. 128MB

We decided to do a simple experiment to see if the amount of system memory allocated to graphics would affect HD video playback performance.

The minimum amount of graphics memory allowed by the BIOS was different between the two platforms. The Radeon 3200 allowed as little as 64 MB to be reserved for graphics memory while the GeForce 8200 allowed a minimum 128 MB. For comparison purposes we tested both platforms with all three codecs using 128 MB and compared those to the baseline 256 MB results:

As you can see, the amount of memory reserved for graphics use appeared to have no appreciable effect on playback performance on the Radeon motherboard. Let’s see if the GeForce motherboard is any different:

It looks like the GeForce tells the same story—allocating 128 MB or 256MB appears to make no performance difference for HD playback.