Onboard + GPU compatability for HTPC

[sailormonz]

Hello, i am considering building a new HTPC. The motherboard ive selected has onboard HDMI which is good since i want to watch blu-ray movies on this pc, however i feel that onboard video might not be enough power for the machine to handle high quality MKV files. Will dropping in a graphics card such as a nvidia geforce 8500 allow me to utilize its processing power while i use the onboard HDMI to output?

links to what im talking about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150245


Thanks ahead of time!

 

[batuchka]

Go to AVS forums, HTPC subforums: that IGP is fine for blueray Toms did a test on it in its heydays IIRC
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-3.html

 

[sailormonz]

Thanks for the advice, from the article it seems to get the GPU acceleration i want i can utilize hybrid crossfire. If anyone knows specifically which cards can be used for hybrid crossfire please post, I am considering a radeon 4650.

 

[batuchka]

Err hybrid CF is not a must to play blue ray but the more attractive application (at least for me) is the ability to drive up to 4 displays when in hybrid crossfire as shown in that link when most people would think a quad display set up would cost ya an arm and a leg hehe. To date here is the list of hybrid crossfire capable GPUs

HD 2400 Pro/XT
HD 3450 / HD 3470

Anything else won't work like that HD4650 but if i were to ever fork out green for a discrete GPU if on a 780G/790GX chipset it will be minimum HD4670

 

[AKM880]

You don't need another video card to do decoding and just the onboard to do output. One GPU will be fine. I have a 8400GS that I use to occasionally playback HD files, like H.264 encoded Blu-ray files. It plays it pretty smooth even though you have a single core CPU. What CPU are you planning to use?

My other custom machine has a HD 3650 in it, it'll accelerate Blu-ray files, H.264 .MOV HD files, VC-1. But when playing WMV HD it doesn't accelerate at all. That GeForce 8500GT can output HDMI using the adapter, but it won't carry sound. But if the video card has a SPDIF input then you have to use this as the sound. THe onboard HD3200 can handle the job.