NVIDIA and ATI HDCP Compatible Graphics Cards Roundup
by Josh Venning on November 16, 2006 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Cards
For this HDCP roundup, we have a large number of cards, both from ATI and NVIDIA. NVIDIA is a little more well-represented here, but the final cards we ended up with are the result of the companies providing us with cards they had available for this review. We invited as many companies as we could to participate in this review, and we were pleased with the turnout of cards we received. As we mentioned, we have a total of 20 cards from the following companies: Gigabyte ASUS, MSI, Sparkle, XFX, EVGA, BFG, PNY, Leadtek, Powercolor, and finally Sapphire. Below is a rundown of the cards, prices and their clock speeds.
As is often times the case, several of these cards weren't available for purchase at the time of publication, so in place of their price, we put a general dollar amount that you would expect to see these cards if and when they become available. Also the NVIDIA 8800 GTX and GTS, as well as the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256 and X1650 XT are included for reference, so the listed prices are what you should see on the different versions of these cards currently on sale (in the X1650 XT's case, when it becomes available). Cards that are not currently available are marked with an asterisk.
Now let's take a look at the cards we have, starting with those from Gigabyte.
For this HDCP roundup, we have a large number of cards, both from ATI and NVIDIA. NVIDIA is a little more well-represented here, but the final cards we ended up with are the result of the companies providing us with cards they had available for this review. We invited as many companies as we could to participate in this review, and we were pleased with the turnout of cards we received. As we mentioned, we have a total of 20 cards from the following companies: Gigabyte ASUS, MSI, Sparkle, XFX, EVGA, BFG, PNY, Leadtek, Powercolor, and finally Sapphire. Below is a rundown of the cards, prices and their clock speeds.
| Graphics Card Prices | |
| NVIDIA Gigabyte GeForce 7600 GS HDMI 400/400 | $150* |
| NVIDIA ASUS GeForce EN7600 GT HDMI 560/700 | $200 |
| NVIDIA MSI GeForce NX7600 GT Diamond Plus 560/700 | $195 |
| NVIDIA MSI GeForce NX7600 GT 580/750 | $160 |
| NVIDIA Albatron GeForce 7900 GS 450/660 | $160 |
| NVIDIA EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS KO 500/690 | $180 |
| NVIDIA Leadtek WinFast PX7900GS TDH Extreme 520/700 | $295 |
| NVIDIA MSI GeForce 7900 GS 450/660 | $220* |
| NVIDIA MSI GeForce NX7900 GT 500/765 | $180 |
| NVIDIA EVGA e-GeForce 7950 GT KO 560/725 | $245 |
| NVIDIA Gigabyte GeForce NX7950 GT 550/700 | $250-300* |
| NVIDIA PNY GeForce 7950 GT 550/700 | $289 |
| NVIDIA XFX GeForce 7950 GT HDCP 570/730 | $295 |
| NVIDIA Sparkle Calibre 7950 GT 575/720 | $300-400* |
| NVIDIA BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 500/600 | $525 |
| NVIDIA EVGA e-GeForce 7950 GX2 500/600 | $511 |
| NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (reference) | $650 |
| NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (reference) | $480 |
| ATI Powercolor Radeon X1600 PRO HDMI 600/500 | $115 |
| ATI Sapphire Radeon X1950 XTX 650/1000 | $400 |
| ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256 (reference) 625/725 | $280* |
| ATI Radeon X1650XT 575/675 | $150-250* |
As is often times the case, several of these cards weren't available for purchase at the time of publication, so in place of their price, we put a general dollar amount that you would expect to see these cards if and when they become available. Also the NVIDIA 8800 GTX and GTS, as well as the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256 and X1650 XT are included for reference, so the listed prices are what you should see on the different versions of these cards currently on sale (in the X1650 XT's case, when it becomes available). Cards that are not currently available are marked with an asterisk.
Now let's take a look at the cards we have, starting with those from Gigabyte.
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LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - link
Behind Enemy Lines? Explains why Blu-Ray adoption is so slow.NullSubroutine - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
I think ATi er AMD had been working on the drivers for GPU accelration for HD movies longer than Nvidia is all. You only have so much resources in a given department, it would make seense that Nvidia put more focus in other things (like Linux drives) where as Ati was working on this and Folding @ home stuff.dickie1900 - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
Do you think the results will change for the 8800s when DX10 rolls out with Vista or are we going to have to wait for games to be developed that use some of the newer instructions?DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
I would doubt it. I don't believe Blu-Ray/HD-DVD decoding has anything to do with DirectX.DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
Dude, it's a unicorn. :-)
phusg - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
First off, thanks for the great review.Why not? Many people just look at the graphs and this way they would miss out on the 2 quietest cards.
Also (unrelated), it's a shame there was no mention of AGP cards. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking to stretch the life of their AGP HTPC.
And one more thing (unrelated), aren't there initiatives that are looking to handle the HD decoding in software? I'd love a review of these. What is the slowest CPU you can decode HD content with?
mino - Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - link
I second that.EVERY noise measurement should include reference of the bacground (system without the thingie which noise one measures).
As those 0dB would would not be 0dB. There would be the noise of the system without the noise of the card - hence the bacground noise.
Try to consider that in the future. No much work required for MUCH information added.
Spoelie - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
coreavc is the fastest h264 software decoder, no competitionTheir cpu-only implementation is most of the time faster than the competition WITH gpu support, but they're working on gpu support as well.
It is payware tho.
http://coreavc.corecodec.org/">http://coreavc.corecodec.org/
NullSubroutine - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
I originally had written this up in response to an artical that MS Office has mandatory authentication checks when doing updates. However, I think the idea of what the "intellectual property" industry is putting consumers through is rediculous.....this just in, cars now 'phone home' to validate the vehicial is authentic prior to fixing factory installed parts.....refridgerator units must now be activated via phone call before the cooling units will work....lotion now comes with EULA, which is automatically agreed to at time of purchase (information is inside the bottle)....desk drawers will now automatically lock after free trial period has ended....fees must now be paid to bacteria colonies each time a user flushes the toilet....due to people stealing food, the price has increased 1000x, if the food is not authentic it will tell you, via voice, that your food is not real food, and where authentic food can be purchased if you give the food companies the information on where your not real food was purchased; when asked about the policy, supporters claimed that food was an optional luxery, paint companies now produce super ultra high quality paint products - but can only be applied with a special paint brush on special surface (microchips installed) or else the paint looks like normal paint - when cosumers were asked about the new paint they said it looked great but unless they wanted to buy all new everything, it was all meaningless...
shecknoscopy - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link
Wow... the Blu-ray era's off to a stunning start, eh? No more complaining about the poor game options for the Wii launch, when the stunning new world of BLU-RAY is kicking off with "Click."
Lawdy, help us.
-Sheq