Zotac GT430 Zone anyone?

I'm looking for a fanless card which is capable of deinterlacing 1080i content. I know that the GT220 series should be capable of doing it, but most of these cards do have a fan. I was thinking about getting a Zotac 430 GT Zone, as it has a lower TDP than GT220 cards.

Does anyone already own this card and tried to watch 1080i content? I really don't want to buy it until I know it is capable of postprocessing 1080i content.

Target OS is Linux.

A 430GT is more powerful than a GT220 so there should be no problems at all with using the advanced VDPAU deinterlacers.

That said I have no idea if driver support is good for the 430GT yet, since it's brand new. Usualy it takes a while for drivers to support new hardware perfectly, if I were you I would buy a passive 220GT, there are a few around.

But where did you read that a 430GT has a lower TDP than a GT220?
AFAIK the GT220 has a lower TDP.

ion_man Wrote:That said I have no idea if driver support is good for the 430GT yet, since it's brand new. Usualy it takes a while for drivers to support new hardware perfectly, if I were you I would buy a passive 220GT, there are a few around.

Hmm, good point. But the 400 series also has the HD audio chipset onboard. Besides I'm a bit worried that a fanless GT220 will have problems postprocessing 1080i content. After all a fanless GT220 usually runs at lower frequencies and is therefore pretty close to a GT210 - which does have problems postprocessing 1080i content.

Quote:But where did you read that a 430GT has a lower TDP than a GT220?

GT220: 58 Watts
GT430: 49 Watts

That's why it should be easier to build a fanless 430 which runs at nearly the same speed as one which does have a fan.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geforce_200
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_400

Temar Wrote:Hmm, good point. But the 400 series also has the HD audio chipset onboard.

The 210 and 220 also have HD audio onboard.

Temar Wrote:Besides I'm a bit worried that a fanless GT220 will have problems postprocessing 1080i content. After all a fanless GT220 usually runs at lower frequencies and is therefore pretty close to a GT210 - which does have problems postprocessing 1080i content.

The GT220 has 3 times the number of shaders (48) than the GT210 (16). It's the number of shaders that matters for deinterlacing not the frequencies, even the lowest frequency GT220 is miles ahead any GT210.

Temar Wrote:GT220: 58 Watts
GT430: 49 Watts
That's why it should be easier to build a fanless 430 which runs at nearly the same speed as one which does have a fan.

Hmm, I read higher figures for the GT430 in a review somewhere (maybe it was an overclocked version, cant remember), but in any case the difference is small, in either case you need a good case fan blowing at them to keep hem cool.
Don't assume they can run truly passive (without the airflow from a case fan).

P.S: those TDP figures on wikipedia look bogus, why is the GT420 with half the number of shaders quoted at 50W TDP (more than the GT430)?

ion_man Wrote:The 210 and 220 also have HD audio onboard.

The GT220 has 3 times the number of shaders (48) than the GT210 (16). It's the number of shaders that matters for deinterlacing not the frequencies, even the lowest frequency GT220 is miles ahead any GT210.

So do you know any fanless GT220 which deinterlaces 1080i content for sure?

Quote:P.S: those TDP figures on wikipedia look bogus, why is the GT420 with half the number of shaders quoted at 50W TDP (more than the GT430)?

I read some other reviews, which also mentioned 49 Watts for the GT430. Might have to check the specs on the Nvidia page.

EDIT:
Nvidia confirms the 49W.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-gef...30-us.html

EDIT2:
And the 58W for the GT220
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...20_us.html

EDIT3:
And just for the sake of completeness:
They also confirm the 50W for the GT420: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-gef...em-us.html

Temar Wrote:So do you know any fanless GT220 which deinterlaces 1080i content for sure?

I have heard that the Zotac one does from someone I trust.

With that said, I want a GT430 very badly so I can play full side-by-side 3D content on my tv. I am personally waiting for Linux driver support though.

poofyhairguy Wrote:I have heard that the Zotac one does from someone I trust.

With that said, I want a GT430 very badly so I can play full side-by-side 3D content on my tv. I am personally waiting for Linux driver support though.

What is side-by-side 3D?

I think I'll go for the 430 too as it should produce less heat. After all I don't want to touch my HTPC anymore for a long time and I really want to be sure that everything works perfectly. However the driver problem worries me a bit.

Does the latest Linux driver not yet support the 430 GPUs?

Temar Wrote:So do you know any fanless GT220 which deinterlaces 1080i content for sure?

AFAIK ALL GT220 deinterlace 1080i content with the advanced deinterlacers without problems, they have all more than enough power for that.

Temar Wrote:I read some other reviews, which also mentioned 49 Watts for the GT430. Might have to check the specs on the Nvidia page.

EDIT:
Nvidia confirms the 49W.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-gef...30-us.html

EDIT2:
And the 58W for the GT220
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...20_us.html

EDIT3:
And just for the sake of completeness:
They also confirm the 50W for the GT420: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-gef...em-us.html

Hmm, I guess the TDP data is correct then, I just wonder how Nvidia managed to screw up the GT420 so badly to use more power with half the number of shaders... (maybe they put the binned chips on the GT420...)

Temar Wrote:What is side-by-side 3D?

http://www.best-3dtvs.com/what-is-side-by-side-3d/

The upshot for me is the GT430 is HDMI 1.4, which supports 2 1080p streams (3840x2160) while my ION box only supports half side-by-side which is the normal 1080p.

Quote:Does the latest Linux driver not yet support the 430 GPUs?

No, it does:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=ar...nlin&num=1

But its out of stock at Newegg. Next month it seems:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

poofyhairguy Wrote:http://www.best-3dtvs.com/what-is-side-by-side-3d/

But its out of stock at Newegg. Next month it seems:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

I just purchased this card a couple of days ago from buy.com & it was $5 cheaper with free shipping. Havent had a chance to use it yet as it just came in the mail this afternoon.