Does someone have a nVidia GT 520 and 3d Playback tested?
#1
Question 
Hallo,

Do someone have some hints about the GeForce GT 520 in an W7 / XBMC setup?

I am planning to upgrade my graphics with a fanless card, that is capable to playback Full-SBS 3D / BR 3D content.

nVidia advertizes the GeForce GT 520 to be able to play back / render Hi-Res 3D / BluRay 3D and uses only 30W.
It supports up to 2560x1600 pixels and Dual DVI (I don't care about that), DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1.

I read some comments about possible issues with 1080i de-interlacing of OTA (DVB-S2) content. Can someone confirm this,
and is there in this case a better alternative out there?

So does someone have check it out and can post some comments on it?
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#2
A good read on the subject here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4380/discr...shootout/7

I would choose the ATi 6450 (is in the same league/pricerange as GT520) or the 6570, which is only slightly more expensive than GT 520.

IMO nVidia cards should only be considered if you don't want to use Windows Big Grin
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#3
+1 LmmO Smile
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#4
Thank you for the link. I have read at the foot note of AMD radeon 6750, 6770 and all 5000 series does not support GPU decoding of 3D BR content...
is the 6570 superior to this cards in regard of 3D decoding?

Quote:Blu-ray 3D GPU Decode Acceleration is not supported on AMD Radeon HD 6770, HD 6750 and all ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series graphics. For CPU requirements for Blu-ray 3D playback visit software partner websites (i.e. Cyberlink, Arcsoft) for more information.

btw. thanks for the link to the great review...
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#5
let me put it this way...

as long as your GPU card has HDMI 1.4, its then FULL 3D ready.

My HD6450 has HDMI 1.4, and it plays FULL 3D
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#6
Just looked at amazon and found that one:

SAPPHIRE ULTIMATE HD 7750 1GB GDDR

it has a 4k support for full 3D SBS at 120Hz.

I just wonder, which one would better fit to my Panasonic P55VT30 display (600Hz refresh rate and latest 3D engine...) The 7750 is 2 times larger and more expensive than the 6750, also there are different sapphire 6750 on the market, the ultimate (fanless) is not advertized with the HD3D features, while the 2GB Fan -solution is. I am a little confused, which one would be a better investment for the 3D stuff...

The 7750 has a much higher resolution and frame rates, but I am not sure if my plasma can handle this or not. So the botlleneck should be the display and not the htpc graphics.

Does anyone have played around with the 7750 / xbmc and 3D content? Is it worth to go to the next level, or is the 6570 powerfull enough for the panasonic vt30?
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#7
a 7750 for HTPC use is overKiLL...
i dont think anyone here uses that GPU...

as i said,
as long as your GPU card has HDMI 1.4,
then, its FULL 3D ready!

My HD6450 has HDMI 1.4,
and it plays FULL 3D without a hitch!

all Radeon HD6xxx series are HDMI 1.4 ...
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#8
Sounds great.

I think I'll give the 6570 a try. Thank you for your help.

I have tried some linux xbmc versions, both the live CD and the ppa on ubuntu, also with PVR stuff etc on nVidia/VDPAU. But the Windows 7 drivers / compilations of xbmc were much smoother / look better and are easier to tweak so I am still on Windows, but check out from time to time the linux stuff just in case...

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#9
The gt 520 will play the 3d full sbs mkv files just fine - I use it eith my htpc
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#10
perfect xbmcg!
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#11
I just ordered a gt520 its not pitfall enough for games but for htpc it should be perfect it supports 2k4 and full 3d and its one of the only cards that support nvidias pure video 5 (Vp5) which has more hardware based codec decoding. I went for the gigabyte with passive cooling and 24k gold HDMI connector for excellent signal transfer and low profile.

I did also have a shappire ultimate 6670 passive but does not fit my new case and was also excellent and very powerful.

Once I received my gt520 I will test the speed and quality of the card.

Thanks
TV: Sony  65" A1E Surround: Yamaha RXA-3050 + ORB Audio Mod2 7.1.2 + SVS SB12-NSD Sub Processor: Darbee + DVDO iScan Mini Players: HDI Dune Solo4K + Apple TV4K + Vu+ Ultimo 4K NAS: Qnap TVS 871 Pro i7 16GB Ram 10GBe
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#12
Hi there!

I have done some serious testing with 2 cards: 6570 and the sapphire 7750 in an htpc with a 4-way AMD 705e processor.

Short result: return to sender.

The main idea behind was to replace a nVidia GT220 because it cannot play back 1080p 3d (only 720p as demo supported).

The summary of my findings:

Both cards from ATi worked "somehow". The catalyst software can tweak a lot of settings and xbmc too.
Best results were when turned off as much as possible of the "enhancements".

So I needed 3 days to check everything to find a working configuration.
I have used content from Europe, both ts streams from dvb-s/s2 (recorded and life streams) and media (dvd VOB, br & mkv streams).

The folowing encodings were used:

DVD SD content progressive, 576p PAL upscaled to 1080p 50Hz
DVB SD content interlaced, 576i PAL upscaled to 1080p 50 Hz
BR HD content 1080p 24Hz original / up 1080p 50Hz
DVB-S2 content 720p 50Hz
DVB-S2 content 1080i 50Hz

I tried also the options in xbmc to switch refresh rate on playback to match the encoding.

The issue is, that the drivers do not recognize the interlacing of the content at all.

if deinterlacing is on (Auto), 1080i plays well, when starting progressive content - you get breakdance on the screen.
If you turn off deinterlacing - progressive is OK, while interlaced contend plays awfull.
Upscaling looks ugly / you've got nonlinear scaling - looks not well.
Deinterlacing of running ribbons on some news channels stutters / jumps every 5 seconds or so (49Hz to 50Hz / 24Hz vs. 25Hz).

The 7750 has had another funny bug. After stopping playback and returning to the xbmc ui, there is sometimes a flickering of the screen for 2 or 3 seconds, before it locks the sync - never seen this on other GPU's - but this could be a hardware issue of the particular card - the 6570 has not shown this.

I also tried 1080p/60 - this was great for windows, but as expected was not that good for the video play back.

All in all there was no setting on the catalyst, that works for all content O.K, so xbmc auto setting can handle media.

My good old GT220 delivers a much better video playback results / upscaling
(Settings: deinterlacing:auto, DXVA2 on, default driver settings)
I tried 3 days and had no time to check out the 3d playback so far.

May be the card is great in the US with 60Hz / 30Hz content - in Europe the device drivers have issues.

Final verdict: the hardware is capable, but the software has still too many issues (AMD Catalyst on W7/64Bit)

So I will check the next generation nVidia - hopefully there is something out there with full-hd 3d support...

Many thanks to all for your hints!
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Does someone have a nVidia GT 520 and 3d Playback tested?0