Would a new graphics card make any difference?

[vice86]

Hi folks...i was about to pull the trigger on building an i5 2500 rig tonight but after reading that IvyBridge is coming beginning of 2012 I'm TRYING to wait.

My dilemma is that I'm trying to squeeze every last ounce of power out of my old 2004 Dell XPS Gen III system to play 1080p files. I have a WDTV Live which plays them just fine but I would love to also be able to play them straight from my PC if I wanted to.

My specs are:

P4 3.4ghz CPU
4GB ram
X800XT GPU
Windows 7

To hold me over till Q1 '12 for IvyBridge...do you think just replacing the old X800XT with say a Radeon HD65XX to HD67XX would make any difference at all? Or is my single-core CPU still just crap and I wont get much better results out of a new card?

720p plays pretty fine using VLC or MPC...its the 1080 that stutters. I tried all the tips but still is stutters and audio is off sync on some movies.

 

[Youngmind]

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?s=faf84a52a13f72f6edb13e3c1a8912a5&t=65253&page=2

According to that link, if you're using windows, the CPU is the one doing the work, and therefore the GPU will not help, unless the program you're using to watch the files support that specific function. If you do get a program that supports using the GPU to decode videos, an entry level videocard or higher would help, although your processor is also holding you back too. Try overclocking your CPU, and see if that helps.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

if you ONLy want to play 1080p video, you do not need a very powerful pc, you dont need to wait for ivy bridge. I'd say dont wait for ivy bridge, just upgrade your cpu/motherboard now. Its not going to be much faster than sandybridge. If you are planning to have this PC for gaming, then wasting money on a low end 65xx or 67xx card is a bad idea. better to spend more on the vid card and get something decent and less on the cpu.

 

[vice86]

if you ONLy want to play 1080p video, you do not need a very powerful pc, you dont need to wait for ivy bridge. I'd say dont wait for ivy bridge, just upgrade your cpu/motherboard now. Its not going to be much faster than sandybridge. If you are planning to have this PC for gaming, then wasting money on a low end 65xx or 67xx card is a bad idea. better to spend more on the vid card and get something decent and less on the cpu.

Yeah, i kinda want the best of both worlds....smooth 1080p playback but able to play some games at a decent res. I'm using my Samsung 63" Plasma as a monitor hooked up thru VGA...with a new graphics card I can do HDMI then.

I really don't feel like waiting so I was thinking an i5 with whatever graphics card will be good for playing stuff like BF3 or MW3 at a decent framerate. That's a whole new research thing to do since I have no clue what card to get in that case. I don't really want to spend more than 300-ish on a GPU

Ugh

 

[vice86]

if you ONLy want to play 1080p video, you do not need a very powerful pc, you dont need to wait for ivy bridge. I'd say dont wait for ivy bridge, just upgrade your cpu/motherboard now. Its not going to be much faster than sandybridge. If you are planning to have this PC for gaming, then wasting money on a low end 65xx or 67xx card is a bad idea. better to spend more on the vid card and get something decent and less on the cpu.

after reading that seems I'm better off just not spending any money to upgrade my old computer, use WDTV Live, be happy and just build a new rig.

 

[vice86]

Best answer selected by vice86.