simisimisimi Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 hello! quick question: i want to use my hackintosh to playback 1080p videos (e.g. h264 and x264 files and such), but with my current system (gma950, add2 card, and pentium D805@3ghz) the video stutters. 720p plays back fine though. what graphics card should i get? thanks, simon Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted December 22, 2007 Author Share Posted December 22, 2007 anyone? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-547065 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiranofice Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 i don't know, but i dare say the 8800 gts and gtx wont"t have any problems with them Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-547084 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 If you're going for cheap, a 7600 will play hd content at 1080p just fine. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-547151 Share on other sites More sharing options...
delish Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 playback of video (including HD) on a mac is mostly all done by cpu power on a mac. You can look at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/recommendations.html Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-547154 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiJKa Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 HD Rendering is done mostly by the CPU on ANY machine that doesn't have a Graphics Card with the appropriate hardware hardwired onto it. That was the whole hype that went along with most of the last generation graphics cards. That, lo and behold, all of a sudden, playing FullHD Video didn't put an end to any possibility of doing ANYTHING else at the same time with your CPU. (For that matter, especially concerning 1080p movies, the Apple QuickTime recommendations page actually says that PCs will require LESS ram on their graphics cards than macs. Which means that, logically, MACs need more Video-Card-Love to get the job done, no?) Anyway, I suppose it depends on what your definition of cheap is. For instance, I can get my hands on an ATi 3850 (*cough* here in greece....) for under 140 euros. Which, while not bottom of the barrel, is still inexpensive, considering it'll also play a small army of games at insane resolutions bla bla bla. But you can pick up an ATi HD2400 or an NVidia 8400 for under 50 euros here, and, while I wouldn't ever want to GAME on one of them, at high resolutions, to the best of my knowledge, they're both semi-decent to fine for HD movies.... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-547399 Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted December 23, 2007 Author Share Posted December 23, 2007 guys, thank you very much for your answers, expecially MiJKa who wrote a lot! however, there are still some things i don't understand: 1) if HD rendering is done mostly by CPU - and my pentium d805 CPU is not good enough for 1080p - why would it help to add a stronger graphics card then? 2) i heard some cards are able to hardware decode 1080p (like the ati hd 2600 series). now, if i got to get such a card working on my hackingtosh, could i also take full advantage of that hardware decoding? or in other words: are the kexts that are currently available to make the graphic cards work on hackingtoshs using the full potential of these cards (e.g. regarding HD playback) when compaired to their windows drivers? best, simon Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-548410 Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted December 25, 2007 Author Share Posted December 25, 2007 anyone? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-551641 Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 guys, thank you very much for your answers, expecially MiJKa who wrote a lot! however, there are still some things i don't understand: 1) if HD rendering is done mostly by CPU - and my pentium d805 CPU is not good enough for 1080p - why would it help to add a stronger graphics card then? 2) i heard some cards are able to hardware decode 1080p (like the ati hd 2600 series). now, if i got to get such a card working on my hackingtosh, could i also take full advantage of that hardware decoding? or in other words: are the kexts that are currently available to make the graphic cards work on hackingtoshs using the full potential of these cards (e.g. regarding HD playback) when compaired to their windows drivers? best, simon anyone? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-557310 Share on other sites More sharing options...
netkas Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 2600XT(not a pro) is cheap enough and has UVD for HD video, drivers knows about UVD, but dunno does it really use uvd. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-557329 Share on other sites More sharing options...
socal swimmer Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 I'm using a 7600 GT ($75) on a hackintosh, and it plays 1080p perfectly. Also, cpu loading from quicktime (which was what was playing it) was negligible (maybe 1% or 2% of one core) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-557388 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paranoid Marvin Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 My Hackintosh has a 2.0ghz C2D and video runs smoothly on my ultra cheap 7100GS. Only cost me £20 - it's better than the GMA950 on my mobo Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-557397 Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted December 30, 2007 Author Share Posted December 30, 2007 2600XT(not a pro) is cheap enough and has UVD for HD video, drivers knows about UVD, but dunno does it really use uvd. netkas, thank you very much for your answer. does that mean you think the 2600xt is able to playback 1080p stutter-free, even if the driver doesn't use uvd? what driver should i use for this card? i think i'm either getting the 7600gt or the 2600xt then. are there drivers for those cards that work with the dual-dvi models, so i can attach 2x dvi monitors (not with dvi-->vga adapter)? do the currently available hackintosh drivers have no mouse tearing or other artifacts? simon Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-557608 Share on other sites More sharing options...
simisimisimi Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 you gotta listen to this: i installed kalyway with a asus en7600gt (dual dvi) and with the included natit drivers....and it doesn't playback 1080p. it stutters so much, it's unwatchable, and i get a picture once every 30 seconds. (i "watched" a shrek x264 1080p mkv file). also, what's weird is that in menu meters, the processor cores easily have a usage of 40-50% when i'm moving over the dock with my mouse and let the icons magnify - just as it was before with the GMA950. it doesn't seem to have any improvement over the gma950. i ran xbench and the overall score was 2 points less than with the gma950 at 92 vs. 94. how come? also, quartz graphics test was 118 on the gma950 system and 127 on the gforce 7600gt, but openGL graphics was 206 on the gma 950 but only 114.55 on the gforce! it seems to me that the system now with the gforce is slower than it was before with the gma 950. does anyone have an explanation why? i bought this so i could playback HD content...but no way, even with the 7600gt! best, simon Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/77176-cheap-graphics-card-to-playback-1080p-files-h264-x264/#findComment-604573 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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