[Canozzie]

I'm looking to upgrage my HTPC from watching movies to watching movies and playing games. I'm ok with moderate noise volumes whilst the FPS are high from gaming (it's warranted) and i can work on reducing that noise through the use of silent pc parts, i just dont want the GPU spinning up and creating huge noise and temp levels whilst im simply watching movies.

Am I correct to assume that if i installed something like the Galaxy Titan 750 Ti Slim into my HTPC, (My case is the Silverstone ML03 so i will need a Low profile card) this GPU would create more heat and noise and consume more power than my current GPU - ATi Radeon HD5450? Or does this GPU scale up its cooling fan dependent upon the load its under, and I need not worry about any of this?

Because if it's the former, I got to thinking an easy solution would be to simply take use of the Video Acceleration settings within my media player.

My video library is played solely through XBMC (Kodi) and i always use the latest stable version (currently Gotham 13.1) The (XBMC) Video Acceleration settings suggest i can simply set my software (CPU) to decode/render the video content. I watch mostly x264 Bluray rips ie: 1920x800 ( 23.976fps ), 8851Kbps with DTS audio.

Would utilizing these settings be the best way to isolate the GPU from performing tasks below its pay grade, so to speak? And if so what dependencies would that create for the MB/CPU?

My current motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-H61M-USB3 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product...id=3905#ov which does not have a HDMI port on it which would preclude the option of running Software decoding and using my CPU to render video that is packaged with HD- DTS Audio I believe (HDMI is required to bit stream DTS-HD I think)

I should add that i use a Yamaha RX-V675 AV Receiver which is capable of DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD.

Is Software Video Rendering what the advanced HTPC Gamers are using here? Or am I off the mark?

Any advice will be grateful.

Cheers
Steve

[teeedubb]

I've read that the 750ti's are very power efficient and low power generally equals low noise. Im not sure if using software rendering would make a difference with noise as the cpu would ramp up instead. And yeah gpu's scale up depending on load. I have a 660ti and during video playback (I use Linux for media and windows for gaming) the temps are around the 35' mark, but to be honest even after long gaming sessions noise or temps arent a problem, and my htpc has 7 or 8 running fans in total (some are using low noise adapters). Buy a quality GPU and coolers/fans and connect up as many as possible to your motherboard so it can regulate the speeds - I use noctuas and I highly recommend them, pricey but worth it. Up until I replaced it, the old 7200rpm HDD was the loudest part.

[Canozzie]

Hey thanks, you've made lots of great addons, ideally i will use a windows os for gaming and openelec for media, I'll have to give your reboot2os a try when im all setup.