-Fran-
Glorious
[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]My GMA 950 IGP of my 2GHz Pentium-Dual Core computer (on-board IGP) from 2007 or so would disagree with you. It handles 720p excellently and 1080p well and even my Pentium 4 630 from my 2004 desktop can handle 1080p excellently once I gave it a Radeon 5450. It's CPU is only a 3GHz P4. My old Dell 2.4GHz P4 laptop with an Intel IGP (I'd have to check to make sure which one it is) can't handle 720p very well, but the CPU has not trouble with it, just the GPU. Heck, my Atom netbook (1.6GHz single core from around two years ago, I'd have to check the model to be sure of it's GPU and CPU model number) can play 480p just fine and 720p/1080p also don't tax the CPU much, just the GPU.My whole point is that weak CPUs have no trouble with video, only weak GPUs have trouble with video. You'd have to find an extremely slow CPU to be unable to watch video on it so long as the rest of the computer, such as the graphics, are good enough. Even low-end GPUs like my GMA 950 can handle video playback decently, so having a GPU should not be much of a problem except with extremely weak systems such as some Intel netbooks or a very old notebook/desktop without a decent video card.[/citation]
While I agree on the bottom line that CPUs aren't needed to play videos nowadays, I really don't trust the GMA thing you say. I tried to play videos, on several notebooks with Intel up-to-date drivers and MPC, VLC and even Youtube with horrible quality. From Celerons from 2002 to Core 2 Duos and even i5's first gen with the video on package, the videos were a lot cause.
I'm sure Intel has advanced somewhat offloading things to the CPU, but "play" a video is not enough. You have to play it smoothly and get decent quality resize (I've only seen blocky from Intel regardless of algorithm). Adding filters is another world, though. And trust me, that 5450 won't be enough for a full Hi8P plus filters in 1080p.
Atom on ION platform: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2688/2
About the 5450: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4263/amds-radeon-hd-6450-uvd3-meets-htpc
Cheers!
While I agree on the bottom line that CPUs aren't needed to play videos nowadays, I really don't trust the GMA thing you say. I tried to play videos, on several notebooks with Intel up-to-date drivers and MPC, VLC and even Youtube with horrible quality. From Celerons from 2002 to Core 2 Duos and even i5's first gen with the video on package, the videos were a lot cause.
I'm sure Intel has advanced somewhat offloading things to the CPU, but "play" a video is not enough. You have to play it smoothly and get decent quality resize (I've only seen blocky from Intel regardless of algorithm). Adding filters is another world, though. And trust me, that 5450 won't be enough for a full Hi8P plus filters in 1080p.
Atom on ION platform: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2688/2
About the 5450: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4263/amds-radeon-hd-6450-uvd3-meets-htpc
Cheers!