SPCR

The X550 currently residing in my HTPC seems to be causing nothing but trouble (occasionally causing a reboot when my HDTV is turned on!) so im pretty much forced to replace it even though i was planning(considering) to upgrade the HTPC to a Merom based system when motherboards become available with X3000 IGP(assuming the X3000 provides the necessary video playback features), but this is probably ~6 months away.

Therefore im looking for a really cheap replacement. I wont have anything to do with ATi, i hate their drivers and associated software and have had nothing but problems with video playback. So i want to get an Nvidia card.

The 7300LE/TC and 7100GS cost about the same and have the same video features.
I have 2 questions:
1. Which one uses least power?
2. Any other things to watch out for HTPC purposes?

Thanks.

ziphnor wrote:The 7300LE/TC and 7100GS cost about the same and have the same video features.
I have 2 questions:
1. Which one uses least power?
2. Any other things to watch out for HTPC purposes?

According to the Wikipedia article called comparaison Nvidia GPU <insert here general warning about Wikipedia>, the main differences are :
7100GS : 110nm core, 350 MHz frequency
7300LE/TC : 90nm core, 450 MHz frequency, open EXR HDR

They have the same purevideo support according to Nvidia (look here )

You can also check the Wikipedia article specifically about GeForce 7 graphics cards.

The 7300 may consume a bit more power, being clocked at 450MHz (although the 90nm technology will make up for that a bit).
HDR is for gaming, generally the 7300 is more powerful for gaming.
But if you never play graphics intensive games that's useless to you.

The 7100GS should be a little cheaper than the 7300LE.

Assuming they both offer the same video connectors and have the same bundle, to sum up I think the respective advantages are :
7100GS : price, power
7300LE : gaming performance

EDIT: the 550MHz clocked 7300GS consumes 16.1W (peak 3D) according to XBitLabs, so anyway the 2 cards will be in the 10-15W range, close to each other.

Le_Gritche wrote: 7100GS : 110nm core, 350 MHz frequency
7300LE/TC : 90nm core, 450 MHz frequency, open EXR HDR

They have the same purevideo support according to Nvidia (look here )

I know, this is exactly why i was considering them. The only higher card worth its salt seems to be 7600GT for advanced HDTV features but i only have a single HD channel and with my upcoming upgrade plans id rather not spend the money required for the 7600GT.

A HDMI enabled 7600GT costs about 4-5 times as much an 7100 / 7300 and then you have to add a fanless heatsink to the mix as well

The 7300 may consume a bit more power, being clocked at 450MHz (although the 90nm technology will make up for that a bit).

You can always underclock the 7300 i suppose, if it uses less power at the same clock it would be the better choice. I cant help noticing though that the heatsink on the 7300 seems quite a bit beefier than on the 7100:
7300LE : http://www.computerne.com/p/157580.htm
7100GS: http://www.itbutikken.dk/i/169689/1.htm

The 7100GS should be a little cheaper than the 7300LE.

Thats the overall picture, but the cheapest 7300 i found cost less than 1$ more than the cheapest 7100.

If you have a slow processor the extra 100mhz on the 7300LE will help it decode high def H.264, mpeg4, and WMV files. I have a 7300LE in my HTPC and it works well. The 7100 is just a 6200 core. I would worry about the 7100's ablility to deinterlace 1080i material. I got some tearing on my 7300LE with 1080i so I overclocked it to 525mhz. This was with an older driver though that supported the spacial temporal deinterlacing. I think they disabled it for the 7300LE in the latest driver because of these problems. I use the older driver still. I can't tell the quality difference though so I may be talking out of my a**. I'm just basing it on the changes they made to the purevideo support page after the new driver came out. They they took spacial temporal off the 7300LE. I'm waiting for the 7600GT in HDMI to come down in price or an 8300GS.

Are you saying the 7300LE can handle highdef spatial temporal deinterlacing if you OC it? My old X550 must be set manually to 'bob' to work without stutter.

The biggest problem with the 7600GT apart from the cost is that no fanless versions exist with HDMI

Le_Gritche wrote:The 550MHz clocked 7300GS consumes 16.1W (peak 3D) according to XBitLabs

That's peak 3D power. Peak 2d power is about 10W.

And my vote would definitely go to a 7300.

Well, the 7100 is out, but im beginning to get uncertain as to whether i should spent a bit more of even give up on the pending upgrade and just buy something 'final' now.

Its either:

7300LE costing ~340 DKK with shipping [1€ ~ 7.5DKK]

7300GT costing ~680DKK with shipping (256MB DDRII onboard, Component output, HD Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing)

7600GT/HDMI ~ 1400DKK with shipping + price of fanless heatsink ( adds HD bad edit correction & inverse telecine, HDMI(can pass audio digitally to TV along with video))
( i do have an old Zalman ZM80A-HP lying around somewhere though, can that handle a 7600GT?)

Arghh, its so hard to choose, i hate buying crappy stuff, but i also feel that the 7600GT is a rip-off

I suppose if i could live with another ATi card i could go with an X1600Pro with HDMI for 880DKK (also needs a replacement heatsink), however ATi is not very good at indicating video features of individual cards and according to XBitLabs it uses about +6-8W more power across the board.

Btw, the CPU in the HTPC is an S939 A64 3000+ (venice).

Are you saying the 7300LE can handle highdef spatial temporal deinterlacing if you OC it? My old X550 must be set manually to 'bob' to work without stutter.

What I am saying is that it used to be supported according to the Purevideo features chart. Users have complained about the list constantly changing. That can either mean two things, first the purevideo features chart is constantly wrong and needs to be updated, or the purevideo features supported by each card are changed with driver updates.

I don't know how to tell if spacial temporal deinterlacing is on or not. I could probably not even tell the difference anyways. In the Nvidia decoder properties I have deinterlacing set to smart. All I can tell you is that with the old drivers I have to overclock my card to get good performance. With the new drivers I don't have to overclock to get smooth playback. When the new drivers came out they changed the purevideo chart to not include spacial temporal deinterlacing. I switched back to the older drivers and left it. I can't tell any difference in picture on my 720p 55" samsung DLP. I wish they actually told you what features where actually working and at what resolutions.

As for the 7600GT, it is the best card for 1080i material. Bad Edit and Inverse Telecine are important for 1080i/60 fps material so the card can completely and accurately deinterlace it to 1080p/24. Since I have a 720p television set and don't really care that much I got the 7300LE. I just think it is stupid that I need that much gaming power to deinterlace some TV. If I don't know what I'm missing, I will never miss it.

Oh, also, Nvidia cards only work in high def with FSE (full screen exclusive mode) enabled. All attempts to run without FSE are choppy on just about any Nvidia card.

HDMI is not required for HD movie playback yet. I plan on using the VGA port on the 7300LE for HD movies as soon as I get a software decoder for it. I challenge you to tell the difference b/w HDMI and VGA from the couch. Right now I use my XBOX via component for HD-DVD and it looks fantastic.

In the US some 7900GS cards with HDCP are cheaper than any of the 7600GT cards with HDCP. I watch a lot of 1080i HDTV that I record, and I find my AGP 6600GT's deinterlacing for 1080i to be lacking. Most HDTV shows are shot on film, so they can be IVTC'd, The 6600GT can't do IVTC on 1080i material and it really shows.

Shortly I will be going to an AMD AM2 based system for my HTPC and I plan to get a HDCP capable 7900GS and put a Zalman VF-900cu on it for quiet cooling.