AGP card that would boost x264

[caleb]

Hi

Im thinking of finally building a player for my cinema system. I dumped the hdd+xvid stuff becuase its going to be history very soon in favour of building a PC that would handle x264 up to 1080p.

For this Im considering multiple options and one of them is sticking with Nforce2 based board (NF7-S) with barton 2500+ cpu.
Reason for this is not only that I already have it doing nothing on a shelf but that this motherboard has the feature of hardware encoding into Dolby Digital which works very well.

Cpu overclocked is 'almost' enough for x264 but the only way to go is not to overclock and somehow accelerate it so the CPU stays cooler.
Is there any possible Video card with AGP that would help my barton do that x264 ?
I doubt there are hardware encoders for x264 so AGP is the only choice.

For playing I tried ffdshow/coreavc.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Welcome to the forums Caleb!

I'd recommend either a X1950 Pro, or a HD3650 and higher. Even though a HD2400/2600 are capable of x264 and HD stuff, you may find that it's [not] going to offer enough performance for you due to using a Barton.

You could always try the HD3450 if you're able to find one in AGP. After saying that, you'll probably only be able to find the X1950 Pro, HD24/2600 and the 3850 in AGP.

Hope that helps.

 

[eidairaman1]

Probably the Radeon 3850, possibly the X1950 Pro but who knows.

Hi

Im thinking of finally building a player for my cinema system. I dumped the hdd+xvid stuff becuase its going to be history very soon in favour of building a PC that would handle x264 up to 1080p.

For this Im considering multiple options and one of them is sticking with Nforce2 based board (NF7-S) with barton 2500+ cpu.
Reason for this is not only that I already have it doing nothing on a shelf but that this motherboard has the feature of hardware encoding into Dolby Digital which works very well.

Cpu overclocked is 'almost' enough for x264 but the only way to go is not to overclock and somehow accelerate it so the CPU stays cooler.
Is there any possible Video card with AGP that would help my barton do that x264 ?
I doubt there are hardware encoders for x264 so AGP is the only choice.

For playing I tried ffdshow/coreavc.

 

[W1zzard]

afaik there is no graphics card that will accelerate x264 _en_coding via normal codecs.

why do you need that anyway? a media pc has to decode and then probably output to hdmi ?
i am using a passive hd 3450 in my media pc, works great for stuff like bluray/hddvd. if you plan on using non-standard codecs a small c2d processor is a great choice. also you can slap any passive heatsink on it and the cpu will throttle down when it's overheating.

 

[caleb]

Welcome to the forums Caleb!

WTF? How dare you welcome me with my uber geek join date !


Back to subject. It was just an Idea with using good old nf7 soundstorm+barton if it goes down to getting such a gfx - ofcourse ill go with c2d as its my alternative plan.

Reason for Soundstorm was that Id rather use my decoders on Harman Kardon and get some of that CPU power to x264.
I havent tried running barton like that maybe it would handle it if there was no sound decoding will give that one a shot.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

WTF? How dare you welcome me with my uber geek join date !

Maybe it was welcome back, but hey, I'll take it back, no skin of my nose.

 

[caleb]

rotfl at the pic man hilarious.

So where do we go ? AGP video card or c2d ? Im too freakin lazy to install OS on that nforce just to try it

 

[candle_86]

C2D is a better option, that or get an X2 5400 or higher with a 780G mobo