Coming to the business end of the review, it must be quite clear by now that we can't recommend the GT 520 or the AMD 6450 with full confidence. They are probably doing well in the OEM market by getting incorporated into generic systems (not geared towards HTPC use). A discerning buyer building a HTPC system, having perused the various sections in this piece, would do well to avoid these two products.

Both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs suffer from a host of driver issues for the discerning HTPC user. Catalyst releases have been known to break GPU decoding in applications like VLC (something AMD has promised to fix in their next WHQL-certified driver). Supported refresh rates disappear from Catalyst if GPU scaling or ITC post processing is enabled. Different refresh rates default to different pixel formats on AMD cards. The HDMI audio driver maps the surround sounds in a 5.1 track to the rear surrounds in a 7.1 system on both NVIDIA and AMD cards. Both NVIDIA and AMD cards have been known to suffer from the silent stream bug at various points of time. Issues with RGB output levels and dithering resulting in banding artifacts on some displays have been reported on cards from both the vendors. The frustrating issue is that these problems get resolved in a particular driver release only to reappear in a later release. Unfortunately, issues like these are part and parcel of the HTPC experience. Both GPU vendors have a lot to learn from each other also.

If you prefer only AMD cards, the 6570 is the perfect HTPC card. The set of post processing options provided is very broad compared to what is provided by NVIDIA. All post processing options are enabled irrespective of ESVP, even for 60 fps videos. It has the highest HQV benchmark score of any HTPC-oriented GPU that we have evaluated so far. We didn't encounter any bitrate limitations with video playback. The pesky 23.976 Hz refresh rate may be a hit or miss depending on your setup, but it is way better than Intel's implementation. The lack of support for open source software developers and pricing relative to the NVIDIA GT 430 are probably the only complaints we can file against the 6570.

If you prefer only NVIDIA cards, the GT 430 is the perfect HTPC card for which you can obtain a passively cooled model. For enthusiasts, the ideal card would be one having more shaders than the GT 430 (for better madVR processing) and also the new VPU engine. However, there is no card fitting those criteria in the market right now. Our first impressions of the GT 430 last October were not favorable. However, driver updates have finally brought to fore the capabilities of the GPU. NVIDIA's support for the 3D ecosystem is better compared to AMD's. Support for custom refresh rates is a godsend for the videophiles and advanced HTPC users. The extensive support from open source applications is a definite plus. It is no wonder that most of the multimedia application developers swear by NVIDIA cards. The video bitrate limitations (not something one would encounter in real life), lack of comprehensive post processing options and the post-processing results when compared to the AMD 6570 (quite subjective) are probably the only complaints we can file against the GT 430.

If you are not in either camp, I would suggest going with the GT 430, if only for the price. Just last week, Newegg had a deal for the GT 430 at $20 after MIR. At that price, the card is simply unbeatable. At $70 without rebates, it is a more difficult decision to make. The 6570, retailing around $75, is probably a more future-proof card and has a better out-of-the-box HTPC experience. If you are the type of person who likes to constantly tinker with your HTPC and get excited by software tools which expose the HTPC capabilities of your GPU, go with the GT 430. If you are the install-it-and-forget-it type, a DDR3-based 6570 is the right card.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Andrew Van Til, Hendrik Leppkes and Mathias Rauen for their inputs to this article.

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  • ganeshts - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link

    PotPlayer apparently doesn't have support for hardware deinterlacing, and has a host of other issues [ Search for PotPlayer in this page and then read the next set of posts about it : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20... ].

    Of course, if it works for you, it is great :) (probably it is a good solution for people watching progressive material only).

    The author of LAV CUVID talks in that thread about how renderless DXVA mode works with madVR at the cost of deinterlacing.

    Btw, there is no decode of DTS-HD in any open source software now. Both ffdshow and PotPlayer can decode only the core DTS soundtrack. DTS decode has been around for a long time, though.
  • NikosD - Saturday, June 18, 2011 - link

    Indeed, I was referring to progressive material only - interlaced material is rare - but the page you mentioned says PotPlayer has CPU deinterlacing.

    I don't see where is the problem.

    Hardware Deinterlacing is less important - for most users - than Hardware Decoding (DXVA) and less important than the UNIQUE capability of using DXVA + madVR at the same time.

    The cost of hardware deinterlacing is nothing compared to the cost of DXVA and madVR.

    For the audio part of your answer, I have to say that because of my AVR (Pioneer VSX-920) decoding inside a PC, BluRay, Media Player or any other decoding capable device of multi-channel audio is never an option for me.

    I always prefer the bitstreaming solutions for multi-channel audio - as most of the owners of AVR do - like those provided by FFDshow and PotPlayer which both are more than capable of providing them.

    That's why I wrote "decoding and pass-through", I had to write "splitting and pass-through".

    One last word.

    For every piece of software out there, there is always a list of changes, bugs, things to do.

    That doesn't mean we don't use it or like it.
  • PR3ACH3R - Friday, June 17, 2011 - link

    @Ganesh T S,
    This is some NICE work.
    In fact, I cannot recall when was the last time I have seen such an in depth article on the HTPC GPU subject in Anandtech.

    The balance between the technical issues, the background, & the effort to honestly report all issues known to you in this article, is spot on.

    If it is missing something on the issues report, it misses on the ATI/AMD DPC Latency spiking issues.

    As this is still remains unnoticed in Anandtech even in this excellent article, here is a link to the AVS post describing it.

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=12...

    (Ignore some of the discredit attempt posts in this thread, this problem exists to this very day.)
  • NikosD - Thursday, June 23, 2011 - link

    Well, I did some further tests and found out that PotPlayer does have hardware deinterlacing.

    Have you done any tests by yourself to see if the player supports Hardware Deinterlacing ?
  • ganeshts - Saturday, June 25, 2011 - link

    NikosD, I will definitely try PotPlayer out in the next GPU review. Till now, my knowledge is limited to what is there in the AVSForum thread.
  • flashbacck - Friday, June 24, 2011 - link

    I know HTPCs are even more of niche these days than ever, so I appreciate you still doing these tests very much.
  • wpoulson - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link

    I really appreciate this guide and have been stepping through it

    I just registered the ASVid.ax file from TMT5 but the filter is not showing up in the External Filter section of MPC-HC. At first I thought it might be because I registered it on the 32 bit side and I'm using 64 bit MPC-HC, so I unregistered the file from System 32 and registered it on the 64 bit side.

    I registered it by going to Start>CMD>Cntrl-Shift-Enter and using the "Regsvr32" command to register the file. I put the file along with the checkactivate dll in a folder in the root directory of my C drive and pointed the Regsvr command to the ASVid.ax file. After hitting enter, I received a "dll successfully registered" message.

    Can someone help me to get the filter visible for MPC-HC?

    A question...While it's considered beta, will the new LAV video decoder do the same thing the arcsoft video decoder does?

    Thanks

    Warren
  • stuartm - Friday, January 20, 2012 - link

    I am aware the gt 430 is a good choice to work around the infamous WMC 29/59 framerate bug. Can you comment on whether or not the 6570 will stutter or not when playing content with 29/59 framerate problems? A very important consideration for those of us using ceton or HDHR Primes (or the new Hauppauge box) for cable TV Live viewing and record/replay.

    Thank You
  • MichaelSan1980 - Saturday, January 21, 2012 - link

    I'd use my HTPC for DVD's and BD's only with an Full-HD TV. Since i have a rather strong CPU and wouldn't use Hardware Deinterlacing for DVDs, i wonder, if the GT520 is ~that~ bad, in terms of image quality?
  • drizzo4shizzo - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link

    Old guy here.

    In the market but I need confirmation that these cards can do component output to "old guy" HDTV.

    NONE of the marketing materials suggest that any recent card can.

    Meaning they either come with a component video breakout or at least are compatible with a known 3rd party product, and that they can do the RGB -> YUV thing.

    This ancient EVGA 7600 GT I have does it... with an "svideo lookalike" 7 pin -> component breakout.

    Anyone? Beuller?

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