[mythtv-users] What graphics card?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/14/2008 04:31 PM, Kevin Kuphal wrote:
> On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 3:17 PM, Sarah Katherine Hayes wrote:
>   
>> Considering the threads about XvMC, HD in all it's wonderous and bizare
>> formats, I was wondering which graphics chipset should someone be aiming
>> for if they wanted (eventually) full GPU acceleration?  So h264, mpeg2,
>> DivX and so on.
>>
>> I'm guessing Nvidia is, at the moment out with the lack of PureVideo in
>> their Linux drivers... but I know nothing of the new RadeonHD drivers or
>> Intel's latest offerings.
>>
>> So, what would people recommend for current and future capabilities?
> Current: Nvidia, hands down
> Future: I would take a serious look at Intel.  They've recently supported
> XvMC across their chipsets
>
> My gut tells me that Intel will have H.264 support on Linux before Nvidia or
> ATI since ATI can't even get XvMC support and Nvidia seems to consider Linux
> an afterthought much of the time.

And I'd guess that by the time we have H.264 decode acceleration, there 
will be no reason to use it (i.e. CPU's and software will have 
sufficient performance for software decode).  :)  Note that we're pretty 
much there, right now, too--the main difference is that when the GPU 
acceleration is available, the CPU's required for software decode will 
be dirt cheap.

Mike