endlesszeal
Senior Member
For those who are looking to use their current rigs to watch HD-media better get ready to pony up for upgrades or get a whole new system.
With the xbox 360 HD-DVD player hooked up to a PC with an Intel Core Extreme X6800 ($1k+ cpu) and 2GB of RAM, it used an average of 30.8 - 56.5% of the CPU~! Its even worst with the blue-ray system, averaging 66.6% and maxing out at 88.33!! However, using the 8800GTX ($500+) video card and hardware accelartion it drops to 17.7-40.1% and 40.6-59.4% respectively.
Watching HD-Media is so strenous that they recommend only using a Intel E6600 ($300+) processor or higher. That must be paired with a good graphics card, preferably the 8800series from Nvidia which cost $450+.
Finally, putting this into prospective, about 1 yr ago, the fastest processor avaliable was the AMD FX-62 (2.8ghz) for $980. This is easily eclipsed by the Intel E6600. So basically any 1 year or older will be struggling with HD and forget about using anything single-core.
Now aren't you glad you waited for the 8800 cards like I said B?
Oh yeah the HD-DVD drive cost only $200 while the Blu-Ray drive cost $500+, but the HD is only a ROm and not a burner like the Blu-Ray.
HD-DVD:
AnandTech: HD-DVD Playback - On the Xbox 360 & on NVIDIA GPUs
Blu-Ray:
AnandTech: HD Video Playback: H.264 Blu-ray on the PC
CPU War:
AnandTech: Intel's Core 2 Extreme & Core 2 Duo: The Empire Strikes Back
With the xbox 360 HD-DVD player hooked up to a PC with an Intel Core Extreme X6800 ($1k+ cpu) and 2GB of RAM, it used an average of 30.8 - 56.5% of the CPU~! Its even worst with the blue-ray system, averaging 66.6% and maxing out at 88.33!! However, using the 8800GTX ($500+) video card and hardware accelartion it drops to 17.7-40.1% and 40.6-59.4% respectively.
Watching HD-Media is so strenous that they recommend only using a Intel E6600 ($300+) processor or higher. That must be paired with a good graphics card, preferably the 8800series from Nvidia which cost $450+.
Finally, putting this into prospective, about 1 yr ago, the fastest processor avaliable was the AMD FX-62 (2.8ghz) for $980. This is easily eclipsed by the Intel E6600. So basically any 1 year or older will be struggling with HD and forget about using anything single-core.
Now aren't you glad you waited for the 8800 cards like I said B?
Oh yeah the HD-DVD drive cost only $200 while the Blu-Ray drive cost $500+, but the HD is only a ROm and not a burner like the Blu-Ray.
HD-DVD:
AnandTech: HD-DVD Playback - On the Xbox 360 & on NVIDIA GPUs
Blu-Ray:
AnandTech: HD Video Playback: H.264 Blu-ray on the PC
CPU War:
AnandTech: Intel's Core 2 Extreme & Core 2 Duo: The Empire Strikes Back