Zotac GeForce GT 640 DDR3 Review: Glacial Gaming & Heavenly HTPC
by Ryan Smith & Ganesh T S on June 20, 2012 12:00 PM ESTHTPC Aspects : Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks
We introduced our HTPC decoding and rendering benchmarks in the ASRock Vision 3D 252B review, and also used it in the 4K decode and display section of this review. In this section, we will look at how the system responds to the various test streams under various renderers and decoders. You can roll the mouse over the various entries in the first / last rows of the table below to compare the resource graphs.
Resource Usage Comparison - Software Decode vs. DXVA2 vs. LAV CUVID / EVR-CP vs. madVR
The GT 640 can be made to effectively work with madVR without issues. Unlike GT 540M, it is not necessary to carefully configure madVR to avoid dropping frames. With the queue sizes at the maximum, we were able to go through our rendering test suite in both full screen exclusive and full screen windowed modes without dropping frames.
Starting with this review, we also want to look at the power consumption profile of the system when subject to the rendering benchmarks.
| Zotac GT 640 HTPC Testbed Power Consumption (W) | ||||
| Idle | 51.4 W | |||
| Benchmark Stream | CUVID | avcodec | ||
| EVR-CP | madVR | EVR-CP | madVR | |
| 480i60 MPEG-2 | 67.5 | 70.9 | 58.9 | 69.3 |
| 576i50 H.264 | 67.5 | 67.1 | 58.8 | 57.7 |
| 720p60 H.264 | 69.9 | 74 | 67.9 | 77.8 |
| 1080i60 H.264 | 74.5 | 77.2 | 80.4 | 83.1 |
| 1080i60 MPEG-2 | 73.9 | 76.2 | 71.6 | 77.7 |
| 1080i60 VC-1 | 73.8 | 77.1 | 80.5 | 84.6 |
| 1080p60 H.264 | 72.7 | 76.3 | 74.3 | 85.7 |
madVR does carry a bit of a power penalty. As expected, software decode is more power efficient for lower resolution streams (up to 720p60) / MPEG-2 encodes. CUVID based hardware decode turns out to be more efficient with the 1080i and 1080p streams. Note that the benchmark streams were played off the local primary hard drive. The power consumption (measured at the wall outlet) also includes the hard drive activity.
As our coverage of the Zotac GT 640's HTPC aspects comes to a close, we would like to underline the fact that it is one of the best HTPC cards available in the market right now if madVR capability is a must.
For the general consumer, Intel's HD 4000 based system should be more than enough. However, in terms of looking into the future as well as current software infrastructure available, it is hard to go wrong with the GT 640. If it were not for the shortcomings of the NVIDIA drivers, we would have had no hesitation in crowning the GT 640 as the next undisputed HTPC king.
We are aware of the fact that AMD 7750 is a competitor to the GT 640 in more ways than one. We already covered AMD 7750's HTPC performance here. However, we will shortly be carrying out a review of the Sapphire Ultimate 7750 passively cooled edition using the same metrics considered in this review and the latest drivers from AMD.
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HighTech4US - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
At least hen the GT240 was released it came in both DDR3 and GDDR5.UNhooked - Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - link
I wish there was some sort of Video encoding benchmark. I have been told AMD/ATI cards aren't very good when it comes to video encoding.mosu - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
who told you that kind of crap ?Please check the internet.Rumpelstiltstein - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
Did this low-end offering really manage to pull off these kind of numbers? I'm impressed. Not something I would buy personally, but I would have no problems recommending this to someone else.Samus - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
DDR3....ruined a perfectly good chip.Deanjo - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
Noooooo! Come on, post some benchmarks as it is right now. Some of us do not want to wait for AMD to get their VCE in order. People have been waiting for VCE for months and there is no valid reason to hold off NVENC waiting for their competitor to catch up. When and if VCE support comes out then run a comparison then.
ganeshts - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
NVIDIA indicated that official NVENC support in CyberLink / ArcSoft transcoding applications would come in July only. Till then, it is beta, and has scope for bugs.Deanjo - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
So? That didn't prevent them benching trinity and it's encoding capabilities despite it all being beta there.http://www.anandtech.com/show/5835/testing-opencl-...
drizzo4shizzo - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
So... do these new cards still support HDTV 1080i analog signals for those of us who refuse to give up our 150lb 34" HDTV CRTs?ie. ship with a breakout dongle cable that plugs into the DVI-I port? If they don't ship with one can anyone tell me if they are compatible with a 3rd party solution? For it to work the card has to convert to the YUV colorspace. My old 7600gt *did* support this feature, but none of the new cards mention it...
Upgrading my TV also means buying a new receiver for HDMI switching to the projector, fishing cable in walls, and all manner of other unacceptable tradeoffs. Plus monay.
Thanks!
philipma1957 - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
I have a sapphire hd7750 ultimate passive cooled card.This card seems to be worse in every case except it is 1 slot not 2.
The passive hd7750 is 125 usd this is 110 usd.
I am not sure that I would want this until they make a passive version.