AVIVO HD vs. Purevideo HD Part 3: Midrange and Low-end Card Performance

Film Resolution Loss Test - Stadium: Out Of 10 Points

This test simply shows video of a stadium captured on film. If there are no visual artifacts, there is no resolution loss.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Film Resolution Loss test 2Windows XPWindows Vista
Radeon 2600 XT1010
Geforce 8600 GTS010
Radeon 2400 PRO00
Geforce 8400 GS00

More of the same, with the 2600 XT and 8600 GTS in Vista offering much better film resolution than the cards with no post processing at all.

Now that we've examined the specific tests, let's have a look at the totals:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
HQV Benchmark TotalsWindows XPWindows Vista
Radeon 2600 XT105105
Geforce 8600 GTS095
Radeon 2400 PRO00
Geforce 8400 GS00

The numbers speak for themselves here. The 2600 XT has proven itself to be a fantastic choice for displaying quality HD video across both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The more expensive 8600 GTS does a great job in Vista - only losing a few points for a noise-canceling algorithm that's not quite as good as the 2600 XT's - but completely falters in Windows XP, where it offers no image quality enhancements whatsoever.

The 2400 PRO and 8400 GS are write-offs in these tests, without enough horsepower to post-process the HD video on their lower numbers of DX10 shader units.