Blu-Ray Performance - Intel X4500HD Versus Radeon HD 4830

[Apoptosis]

Blu-Ray Performance - Intel X4500HD Versus Radeon HD 4830

Now that HD DVD is a thing of the past all focus has turned to Blu-Ray playback, which is what LR will be taking a closer look at today. We take the Intel DG45ID motherboad with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD and compare it to a Radeon HD 4830 graphics card to see how it would impact CPU performance and use on a 1080p plasma display.

The question is, do you really need a discrete graphics card? To answer this question I grabbed an Intel DG45ID motherboard (BIOS v0081) from the shelf and built a system using an Intel Q9300 quad-core processor, 4GB of DDR2 CL5 memory and Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate. This board features the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD onboard graphics subsystem with integrated HDMI + DVI-I display ports and is the latest and greatest integrated graphics platform from Intel. I loaded up just the drivers on the platform and CyberLink Power DVD 8 Ultra v8.0.2021.50 and starting playing various Blu-Ray movies to see how the system performed. I then spent several days with the system and switched over to the Radeon HD 4830 graphics card with CATALYST 8.10 drivers to see how it would impact performance when used on a 1080p plasma display.

Article Title: Blu-Ray Performance - Intel X4500HD Versus Radeon HD 4830
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/812/1/

[martini161]

good read! from what ive read (and my first hand experiance) the gerforce 8200a chipset is awesome for HTPC, as alot of the boards have an HDMI port and it supports 7.1 right over the HDMI

[Apoptosis]

Just got this response from Intel about the Blu-Ray performance on the Intel DG45ID motherboard -

The Bluray HW acceleration in the G45 chipset does work when all of the appropriate ingredients are used (Application version, drivers, and BIOS). This is not unique to Intel's offering - all IGP require the right app, driver and BIOS to achieve the expected Bluray experience. Intel has successfully enabled many of our OEM customers to offer properly configured solutions in their product offerings that minimize the CPU load for Bluray playback. In the case of DIY, it is important to have all of the right ingredients to get the expected Bluray capabilities. In this specific case, there was a BIOS change on DG45ID that has had an unintended adverse impact on Bluray playback, and that is now being corrected and new BIOS posted. Your findings are not a reflection on the actual product capabilities and we are taking necessary corrective action to deliver a great Bluray playback experience for our customers.

It seems that BIOS 0079 and 0081 have some setting in the BIOS that breaks Blu-Ray hardware acceleration, but those have been out for over a month... Not sure what the delay is on getting a fix out. All the testing done for this article was done with BIOS version 0081 and all the latest Intel drivers were installed.

[DMB2000uk]

With the 4830 kept installed, which solution uses less power? The CPU decode, or the GPU decode?

Dan

[little_tea_pot]

I just built a system with the DG45FC and Enable Hardware Acceleration (Intel ClearView) is an option. Also the box remains checked thru-out video play back. This is with the most current Bios and Drivers found on Intels website (23-Oct-08)
I only have Iron Man on Blu-Ray and CPU usage averages about 50-60% with the multi down to 6 on an E8400(2.0GHz). The movie plays back flawlessly and smooth thru-out, even the hostage scene mentioned. CPU is kind of high though, the IGP is probably not off loading the stream properly.. or at all.

[Apoptosis]

I just built a system with the DG45FC and Enable Hardware Acceleration (Intel ClearView) is an option. Also the box remains checked thru-out video play back. This is with the most current Bios and Drivers found on Intels website (23-Oct-08)
I only have Iron Man on Blu-Ray and CPU usage averages about 50-60% with the multi down to 6 on an E8400(2.0GHz). The movie plays back flawlessly and smooth thru-out, even the hostage scene mentioned. CPU is kind of high though, the IGP is probably not off loading the stream properly.. or at all.

On the hostage scene there is a barrel of a rifle on the left side of the screen... when the camera pans out keep looking at the barrel of the gun... you should see if jerk a few times when the camera pulls back.

[gwolfman]

I've read that the intel gfx was having issues with PowerDVD 8.x. Does that particular build seems to be working flawlessly? Thanks.

[Apoptosis]

It plays Blu-Ray movies fine 99.5% of the time... There is a possible problem with hardware acceleration on the Intel DG45ID motherboard, but even with that issue it plays them very well.

[gwolfman]

very nice. thanks for the update

[little_tea_pot]

On the hostage scene there is a barrel of a rifle on the left side of the screen... when the camera pans out keep looking at the barrel of the gun... you should see if jerk a few times when the camera pulls back.

I watched that scene about ten times last night looking very carfully and everything was smooth that I could see on a 40" 1080p LCD TV. I even rewatched the first third of the movie looking for problems, everything seems fine.
My LG HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player did come with 7.3 Ultra, not 8.0. I only have it attached to my TV so I don't think I really need the improvements that 8 has to offer.

[Apoptosis]

On the hostage scene there is a barrel of a rifle on the left side of the screen... when the camera pans out keep looking at the barrel of the gun... you should see if jerk a few times when the camera pulls back.

I watched that scene about ten times last night looking very carfully and everything was smooth that I could see on a 40" 1080p LCD TV. I even rewatched the first third of the movie looking for problems, everything seems fine.
My LG HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player did come with 7.3 Ultra, not 8.0. I only have it attached to my TV so I don't think I really need the improvements that 8 has to offer.

Different board and different software, plus you said hardware acceleration was enabled... I think that is the difference. This board with the last few BIOS versions doesn't support hardware acceleration.

[Sapientun]

Not bad. It's nice to see Intel is improving their IGPs to play HD content better, but they are still lacking in the gaming department.
Once the Geforce 9300 chipset for the Intel platform is released, Intel's IGP will have a hard time keeping up.