For something like a media center NVidia's video, etc is very good. For something like an OS developer's test machine, I'd take Intel's onboard graphics (with very good documentation for both graphics and the rest of the chipset) any day...
Cheers,
Brendan
Last edited by kmcguire on Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
For all things; perfection is, and will always remain, impossible to achieve in practice. However; by striving for perfection we create things that are as perfect as practically possible. Let the pursuit of perfection be our guide.
I agree with nVIDIA's graphics systems being excellent for a media center. In my case, I have a D945GCLF2 with a 8400GS PCI in it. Other than an OpenSolaris PCI/PCI-E bug (Which I need to submit to their tracker...) It's been painless - download latest driver from their website and compile mplayer; it detected vdpau automatically.
Only thing to remember if you're going to be stressing the card (Playing back 1080p or particularly 1080i, especially if downscaling) is to turn all desktop compositing options off. The cards (And embedded graphics - which IIRC are slower) only just squeak in with it. I imagine more powerful cards (My most powerful one is an old 8800GTS hot air blower which doesn't have PureVideo HD) can do multiple streams at once, but the low end media center oriented cards can't.
