What are the best video cards to use with Scala 5?

Hardware FAQ Solution #24, Video Cards (last modified 11/30/2009):

PCIeX16

nVidia PCI-Express, (PCIeX16), Graphics Cards

The "very-low-end" and "low-end" cards generally have very poor Heat-Sink-Fan assemblies. Customers should be made aware that these devices are likely to be a future maintenance issue.

"Very-Low-end"/"Low-end" is viewed as single-output, <= 1360x768, three or less "Zones", Limited Video playback--no HiDef. [or dual output, <= 2x1024x768] "Mid-Range" with 512MB is viewed as single-output up to 1920x1080, or two 1360x768, displays with HiDef video clips.

"High-End" is two 1920x1080 HiDef displays, several "zones," multiple HiDef video clips.

ATi RADEON cards are best for 60 FPS Video, Single Output. Dual/Triple-Display is currently only practial with the use of a Matrox GXM. [DualHead2Go / TripleHead2Go--Digital or Analog--3840x1024 max]

NVIDIA GeForce cards are best for limited to 30 FPS video, Dual-Output. Dual-Display possible w/o a Matrox GXM.

Graphic cards, Low Profile:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187061

SPARKLE SX98GT512D3L-NM GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card - Retail

***NOTES:  This card is very wide and might not be appropriate for all

motherboard and chassis combinations!   While a low profile card, this

device requires 150W of PSU capacity—not appropriate for any normal machine with a less than 350W PSU.

Upper-Mid-Range/Lower-High-End:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162016

 Galaxy 96GFF6VIFCXX GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0

x16 SLI Supported Low Profile Video Card - Retail

***NOTES:  While a low profile card, this device requires 150W of PSU capacity—not appropriate for any normal machine with a less than 350W PSU.

Mid-Range:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187083

SPARKLE SP95GT512D2L-HP GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit DDR2 PCI HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

SAPPHIRE 100253HDMI Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0

x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Low Profile Video Card - Retail

Low-End:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102817

SAPPHIRE 100264HDMI Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0

x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Low Profile Ready Video Card - Retail

Full-Height Graphics Cards:

Very-High-End:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130496

EVGA 02G-P3-1187-AR GeForce GTX 285 FTW Edition 2GB 512-bit DDR3 PCI

Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131148

POWERCOLOR AX4870 1GBD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0

x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

High-End:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150357

XFX GS250XYDFC GeForce GTS 250 512MB Core Edition 256-bit GDDR3 PCI

Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127420

MSI R4830-T2D512 Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail

Mid-Range:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252

HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3

PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Requirement for "Dual-Link DVI-D

Many of the Very-Low, Low, and Mid-Range cards only support Single-Link DVI or only support Dual-Link DVI on the primary output.

None of the IGP solutions are really ideal for "High Performance" scripts. These are cheap embedded graphics core chipsets best suited for modest needs. Figure a single 1360x768@60Hz display with no more than three frames of which only one is a video file. Do not use Intel 800 or 900 series IGP for InfoChannel 5.

• Intel's G33 chipset has very good performance for an IGP on a par with NVIDIA GeForce6150 and ATi RS4## series. However the Intel Q35, while sharing many of the same performance attributes of the G33 it does not appear to permit the BIOS-selection of the size of the video memory allocation. On our single sample this appears to be set to 64MB. [We have checked the PDF's for two other Q35 systems, and none of them have the "32, 64, 128, 256 MB" options that I see in every G33 board's BIOS]. This means that while appearing to perform great the Q35 failed our stress test in under an hour.

NOTE: The G33/Q35 boards we have access to have considerable compatibility problems with some PCIeX16 Video cards, PCI TV-Capture cards and PCI RAID controllers [some of the problems have been fixed in recent BIOS updates].

Our view is that the G33 and the G35 will be good products for IC5 when the BIOS/chipset bugs are fixed. Reason: Intel appears to have seriously addressed the raw performance of their IGP. The faster FSB's and Memory Bus'es will raise the basic performance of the IGP solution into the territory of some of the lower end 64-bit graphics cards. The Q33/Q35 if it is true that they do not permit variations in video memory allocations are not options for use with IC5. THIS IS AN AREA THAT WILL LEAD TO SOME CONSFUSION AS INTEL CALLS THE "Q33/Q35" CHIPSETS "GMA3100", WHICH IS ALSO THE NAME OF THE "G33" [the "G35" gets the new fancy name of "GMA3500"].

• The NVIDIA GeForce 7050(AMD CPU) and 7150(Intel CPU) IGP's have excellent performance. These are actually "cost reduced" successors to the GeForce 6150, which was a very good chipset for IC5. They work, and work well.
  

• The ATi 690T/V/G. This is AMD/ATi's current IGP. Also known as the "RADEON Xpress 1200/1250". Stable. Using current board samples and drivers these chips are not performing as well as the previous generation ATi IGP product. This confuses us as by every other benchmark. The 3DMark/Sandra chipset should be performing about 7% faster than the RS4##'s, and considerably better than the Intel/NVIDIA chipsets. Its stable and worth watching.

• The VIA CN700. This is the IGP chipset of the current VIA EPIA/Mini-, Nano-, & Pico-ITX boards--as well as the VIA "VESA-Mount Digital Signage Engine". Totally worthless.

Regards,

Scala Technical Support