ATI vs Nvidia?

[rewindlabs]

So i recently hooked up my 260 GTX system to my 1360x768 50" plasma....and using coreavc with cuda enabled and comparing it to stock codecs its a HUGE improvement when running some medium quality 720p anime...colors are much richer and animation is a hell of alot smoother...a world of difference compared to stock codecs

Anyways what im wondering is how exactly does cuda help and improve the picture....and what is ati's equivalent to cuda? and what exactly does ati do that gives this supposed edge for htpc's of using an nivida card for htpc use? and the supposed better picture quality from ati cards iv heard about? are there any nvidia AND ati owners who have compared there systems that can comment?

And is cuda pretty much decoding and recoding? im not sure but i had a guy suggest to have the graphics card decode to improve quality...i don't have the messages so im just guessing on decoding...anyone care to lead to a guide or is coreavc and cuda enabled exactly that?



Sorry for so many random questions but i figured i would ping for s response...now going to google cuda...

 

[daedalus685]

ATI has stream to nvidia's cuda. Stream sucks at this moment in time.

To teh best of my knowledge the supposed supperiority of the ATI cards in htpc's comes from the performance of thier lower end cards (4650 and so on) to produce far better movie playback and the included realtek audio.

I was unaware of there being any substantial differnce at high end. I have not ever been able to tell a differnce in blue ray playback with my 4890's when comapred to my brothers 8800gtx's. I also was unaware of a cuda improvement to video playback, does coreavc without cuda enabled look as bad as other lesser codecs?

Cuda does transcode video substantially better than stream right now. While stream does sort of work, it sucks, is slower, and introduces a lot of errors, though they seem to be working on it a lot lately...

 

[xaira]

stream has alot of potential, but is far too young and inexperienced to challenge cuda, the reason y it is said that ati cards are better for htpcs is because there is an audio device embedid in avery ati card for easy hdmi audio, wereaz nvidia has to pull audio from a spdif connector.

 

[daedalus685]

Stream does have a lot of potential.. by the time openCL is all around us you wont be able to tell the difference.. but for now it is clearly a bit behind.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

I have both a 4870 and a GTX260 and you know what? the only difference I see is in High end games. so yeah. lol. I have to go to way high resolutions for it to matter.

 

[rewindlabs]

stream has alot of potential, but is far too young and inexperienced to challenge cuda, the reason y it is said that ati cards are better for htpcs is because there is an audio device embedid in avery ati card for easy hdmi audio, wereaz nvidia has to pull audio from a spdif connector.

Hmmm it would seem what i was hearing was the normal internet bullshit then....i guess those ati owners had to justify there purchase or something?

I knew ATI cards had there audio on board but i read alot of posts about ATI having some slightly better picture quality etc...

And im about to do some tests on the difference with and without cuda but i can definitely tell when im somewhat Stretching my anime episodes to full screen.....maybe it will help with those 700mb movies

And as to if its actually cuda and not coreavc i will have to see...i know for sure that the new codecs are a hell of alot nicer...it would seem cuda also helps with lifting some of the load off of the cpu...

http://www.cccp-project.net/forums/index.php?topic=3356.0

 

[wh3resmycar]

I knew ATI cards had there audio on board but i read alot of posts about ATI having some slightly better picture quality etc...

nah, ati having some "slightly" better picture quality is typical ati fan boy crap. and most of it comes from ati users that never had an nvidia card at all. they did their comparison by sheer will of mind.

i do watch animes, too and "hajime no ippo" (720p h.264) looked exactly the same with an 8400gs, 4870 1gb, gtx260. though some monitor calibrations within their respective driver control panels are needed to suit your taste.

picture quality is subjective.

 

[rewindlabs]

I was starting to figure as much...mmm...i just need to get Xam'd in 1080p and test it out now

Thanks for all of the input guys...

 

[Mousemonkey]

Hmmm it would seem what i was hearing was the normal internet bullshit then....i guess those ati owners had to justify there purchase or something?

That's the standard MO and yet appears to surprise you, why? [:mousemonkey]

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

It used to be true, in the 7xxx and 1xxx days. Its no longer true. The only thing that can be said is, it appears ATIs default settings are more agreeable to most, but its no big thing, since you can change the defaults on nVidia cards, and match them