ATI's All-In-Wonder X1900 Performance And DVD Decoding Quality
by Josh Venning on February 10, 2006 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
HQV Benchmarks
The HQV Benchmark DVD is made by Silicon Optix and has become a standard for testing the quality of DVD decoders. The tests were made to showcase the capabilities of very high end DVD hardware, and it just happens to make a very objective series of benchmarks for testing more moderately priced DVD players. The DVD contains numerous video clips to test how well the decoder handles some common problem-areas for some of the lower quality players. The videos test things like picture detail and noise reduction, and points are scored for each test according to how well the video processor does.
ATI recently came out with some new drivers which were meant to improve the score on these tests, and today we are testing them against the latest version of NVIDIA's PureVideo decoding. It should be noted that while ATI's DVD decoder is free with an AIW card, the PureVideo decoder adds additional cost to NVIDIA products.
Many of the functions tested in HQV aren't limited in application to DVD decoding. Things like deinterlacing need to happen on the AIW when tuning TV signals as well. This way we can also get an idea of the quality of video the AIW will be capable of in general.
Color Bar/Vertical Detail
The first test on the HQV DVD is the Color Bar/Vertical Detail test. This basically tests how well the video processor tells if something is moving or not, to ensure proper deinterlacing. We found that ATI did slightly better than NVIDIA in this test, as there was some minor flickering that was evident on NVIDIA's side. ATI scored perfectly here.
The HQV Benchmark DVD is made by Silicon Optix and has become a standard for testing the quality of DVD decoders. The tests were made to showcase the capabilities of very high end DVD hardware, and it just happens to make a very objective series of benchmarks for testing more moderately priced DVD players. The DVD contains numerous video clips to test how well the decoder handles some common problem-areas for some of the lower quality players. The videos test things like picture detail and noise reduction, and points are scored for each test according to how well the video processor does.
ATI recently came out with some new drivers which were meant to improve the score on these tests, and today we are testing them against the latest version of NVIDIA's PureVideo decoding. It should be noted that while ATI's DVD decoder is free with an AIW card, the PureVideo decoder adds additional cost to NVIDIA products.
Many of the functions tested in HQV aren't limited in application to DVD decoding. Things like deinterlacing need to happen on the AIW when tuning TV signals as well. This way we can also get an idea of the quality of video the AIW will be capable of in general.
Color Bar/Vertical Detail
The first test on the HQV DVD is the Color Bar/Vertical Detail test. This basically tests how well the video processor tells if something is moving or not, to ensure proper deinterlacing. We found that ATI did slightly better than NVIDIA in this test, as there was some minor flickering that was evident on NVIDIA's side. ATI scored perfectly here.
- ATI: 10
- NVIDIA: 5
- (highest score: 10)
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CleanBoot - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link
As one who has been waiting for you to revisit this issue----I'm glad to see ATI back on it's feet, after falling down so clearly, though unexpectedly, when you last compared it's "entertainment video" capabilities against Nvidia's.
However, I'm unclear under what restrictions --if at all-- these results can be extrapolated to other ATI offerings.
I understand you were testing "ATI's latest drivers," but is the improved digital video processing ONLY a function of the new drivers (as opposed to new drivers taking advantage of new or improved silicon on the AIW X1900 PCB...), and if so, what other recent vintage, non-AIW, ATI cards will yeild the same improved performance, using the same new drivers?
Or, if the improved results are a matter of BOTH new drivers AND new hardware, what other non-AIW cards in the ATI pipeline will provide both of these elements, and when and at what cost will they become available?
Thanks & Keep up the PFEGL work.
("performance_far_exceeding_grade_level")
ianken - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
...I have the HQV test DVD and the results are somewhat different on an X1800.Anyway...
Noise Reduction: Unless you're watching analog TV you don't want this enabled at all. Is the ATI decoder actually doing noise reduction or is it just mangling the video?
Wacky film cadences: This I find amazing that the card passed all of the funky cadences. Want a real test: watch the re-runs of Star Trek: TNG on Spike. They are time-compressed. If they are nice and smooth on the ATI solution they have a real winner there.
I'd alos like to know if all of these tests pass when the DVD is run within Media Center.
PrinceGaz - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
One of the main features of the new cards from S3 is the video decoding features. Obviouslly they can't compete with the high-end nVidia and ATI cards for gaming performance, but they are supposed to be good for DVD playback and the like.How about getting hold of an S3 Chrome S27 (their "high-end" card) and putting it through the tests comparing video playback quality, and also how it compares performance-wise to equivalent nVidia and ATI cards (6600, 6600GT, X700, X1300, X1600 sort of price-range). There are more than two companies that manufacture graphics-cards after all.
ianken - Sunday, February 12, 2006 - link
...of course applying noise reduction to a clean DVD just means you are removing detail. Unless the ATI decoder has the ability to disable this feature I wouldn't call it a bonus. On the other hand it looks like the NV decoder is actually preserving all detail in the MPEG2 video rather then smearing it around.A alos seriously doubt the ability of the ATI decoder to lock all of those cadences.
aggressor - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
I have an X1900XT, and I'm wondering how to tell if I'm actually using the AVIVO capabilities. I use (retail) PowerDVD6 which includes it's own software decoder, and I'm using the Catalyst 6.2 drivers. Anyone have any ideas?Innovato - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
Any idea if the new core will support crossfiring with the AIW? I've read beyond3d's explanation w.r.t. 1800's. Xfiring would probably help out with the slower gpu/memory benches?multiblitz - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
I think this is a great test. Nevertheless if you want to benchmark their DVD-performance, conpare them as well with benchmark: zoomplayer with dscaler5 with ffdshow in VMR9 with activated scaling, denoise and sharpening.And as many users use a HTPC because they have have a high-resolution plasma or projector and want to have a DVD-player with a build in hig-end-scaler: TEst the scaler ability as well, please.
Bottom line will be at the current stage that the lanczos 4 sclaing of ffdshow in combination with the great sharpening capbilities are unbeaten.
So, if someone is not watching TV, but DVD and want the best quality, he can forget the latest cards as they still cant compete. Instead, you should invest in a nice dual-processor CPU and a not so fresh card like the X800 to get superior performance (for DVD) for the same / less money.
yacoub - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
Any update on the G80 release schedule? Still looking like May/June? Want to see what NVidia responds with, both to see how it performs and to see how ATI's X1900 series card prices come down.Humble Magii - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
The Nvidia 7900 demolishes the X1900 which is why ATI got it out the door asap. ATI can't compete with an old solution from Nvidia the 7800 so they put out a x1800 which was half a year late therefore a new release then the x1900 even newer and it still can't literally demolish every Nvidia product. ATI did get the hardware out en masse which is good but I hope they sort out their driver quality problems not to mention ATI IQ which alot think is better is showing to be worse in alot of cases. ATI does alot of things which make you think you are getting high quality but aren't not that Nvidia is innocent here either.Nvidia really doesn't need to release anything since the X1900 isn't much of a king of the hill line ATI still can't beat 7800GT 6800GS cards and the top of the line doesn't really run that much faster but the price? Only card that is overpriced for Nvidia is the 512mb card and it's still a better design overall than the ATI counterparts.
We have to wait and see what the DX10 capable cards are like because when Nvidia decides to let the 7900 loose the x1900 is history. Think 512mb GTX but gets double the rates and you can conjure an image of how strong that card is. The x1900 isn't much of a step up from a x1800 only reason to buy an ATI card is an AIW card honestly.
Any ATI card under a x1800XL or x1900 is crap ATI wise.
z3R0C00L - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
Humble Magii,So you're one of those Fanboys who get's nVidia hardware in exchange for comments like this huh...:p
Stop with the fanboy crap.. seriously.. it's gettng old.