GTX 950 same launch window as Nano?

[VirtualLarry]

This seems like an odd product that would cannibalize the sales of the current 750/TI... unless that gets rebadged as the new "GT 940" or something.

Not really. 750Ti doesn't have HDMI2.0, and I don't think that it has H.265 decode in hardware either.

 

[Madpacket]

Do any of the newer AMD GCN cards have HDMI 2.0 or H.265 decode in hardware?

This may be the new defacto HTPC card especially if it can drive 4K @ 60Hz for smooth video playback. Drop down to 1080P for causal gaming.

I just sold my 750 Ti. Maybe I'll pick one of these up for my G3258 NAS/HTPC.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Do any of the newer AMD GCN cards have HDMI 2.0 or H.265 decode in hardware?

This may be the new defacto HTPC card especially if it can drive 4K @ 60Hz for smooth video playback. Drop down to 1080P for causal gaming.

I just sold my 750 Ti. Maybe I'll pick one of these up for my G3258 NAS/HTPC.

AMD dont have any cards with HDMI 2.0.

GCN 1.2 (285/380/Fury) cards are the only ones that can handle 4K video decode with partial HEVC support for Fury. A bit like the GTX750/TI.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Not really. 750Ti doesn't have HDMI2.0, and I don't think that it has H.265 decode in hardware either.

750/TI got HEVC support, but only 8bit 4:2:0 seems to work right.

 

[shady28]

750/TI got HEVC support, but only 8bit 4:2:0 seems to work right.

AT has an article on this, but it really only covers Nvidia cards and is short on benchmark / performance numbers. It's very good on explaining 4k decode and the new codecs though.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9152/futureproofing-htpcs-for-the-4k-era-hdmi-hdcp-and-hevc

Pretty much everything has partial HW support, but from when I ran some 4K h.265 videos on my 750Ti, well you'd best have a powerful CPU. IIRC I was running ~20% CPU (on 8 threads, 4 cores) while watching a 4k 24FPS h.265 sample video with hybrid HW acceleration on the 750 Ti.

That said it was perfectly capable on h.264 4k and Google's VP9 4k codec. h.265 from what I've seen is significantly better in IQ than the others.

I haven't found any decent benchmarks on the GCN stuff with h.265, nothing on if its support is full or hybrid.

 

[ShintaiDK]

AMD writes abit about Fury here with partial support:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9390/the-amd-radeon-r9-fury-x-review/8

Surprise that Tonga is broken with HEVC.

 

[shady28]

AMD writes abit about Fury here with partial support:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9390/the-amd-radeon-r9-fury-x-review/8

Surprise that Tonga is broken with HEVC.

Interesting, would still like to see benchmarks with 15.7 though. 15.15 was known to identify and leave out r9 2xx series for 3d performance enhancements, which 15.7 quietly corrected. Stupid marketing gimmicks.

Outside of IQ for 4k, this is h.265's big win over the older standards for 4k, if anyone was wondering. Less bandwidth, higher IQ (a lot to this including colors), and resulting higher framerates. Streaming 4k with the older codecs is too much for most internet connections.

 

[shady28]

Here's a nifty comparison.

GTX 980 Hybrid decode :

SamsungNX1.Leaves.2160p@30fps-80Mbps using the hybrid decoder on a GTX 980:
LAV x86 DXVA2 Native, Decode, 22 fps
LAV x86 DXVA2 Native, Playback (scaling to 1080p), 17 fps

LAV x64 DXVA2 Native, Decode, 24 fps
LAV x64 DXVA2 Native, Playback (scaling to 1080p), 21 fps



GTX 960 Hardware decode :

SamsungNX1.Leaves.2160p@30fps-80Mbps

LAV x86 DXVA2 Native, Decode, 118 fps
LAV x86 DXVA2 Native, Playback (scaling to 1080p), 116 fps

LAV x86 DXVA2 CopyBack, Decode, 115 fps

The 980 had one CPU core pegged @ 100%, while the 960 had ~1% CPU usage.

Source : http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1706902

Note: looks like the 980 Ti has the 960's Hardware h.265 decoder

 

[nvgpu]

GM200 does not have GM206's fixed function HEVC 8/10bit hardware decoder.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/352.21/README/supportedchips.html

GeForce GTX 960 1401 F

GeForce GTX TITAN X 17C2 E
GeForce GTX 980 Ti 17C8 E

As you can see, GM206 is Feature Set F while GM200 is Feature Set E like GM107 and GM204.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree...vdpausupport.html#vdpau-implementation-limits

VDPAU Feature Set F

GPUs with VDPAU feature set F support all of the same VdpDecoderProfile values and other features as VDPAU feature set E. Feature set F adds:

VDP_DECODER_PROFILE_HEVC_MAIN:

 

[shady28]

GM200 does not have GM206's fixed function HEVC 8/10bit hardware decoder.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/352.21/README/supportedchips.html

GeForce GTX 960 1401 F

GeForce GTX TITAN X 17C2 E
GeForce GTX 980 Ti 17C8 E

As you can see, GM206 is Feature Set F while GM200 is Feature Set E like GM107 and GM204.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree...vdpausupport.html#vdpau-implementation-limits

Yeah, i saw a couple of references to decode in 980 Ti reviews saying it was new. But you are correct, it doesn't have it.

What a bizarre thing for Nvidia to <not> do.

 

[Pwndenburg]

Fearful Spartan, despite myself being part of the problem in buying Nvidia chips, I'm now fearing for the future of AMD. People really do fall for the Nvidia hype machine. I was at one of the major gaming sites and people were talking about how this would crush the consoles in power. Also, dismissing AMD options that gave double the amount of memory and better speed. I hope no one actually listens to them and makes their first pc build with 1080p and a wide variety of games with a card such as this. I'm certain they would think "what's all the the fuss about" when comparing their 2 gig card to their consoles in running these modern games. Sure, they may get about the same performance overall, but isn't the point of pc to do better? Perhaps I'm underestimating the card.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Yeah I agree, I have considered nvidia options before and still do as I plan to upgrade in the next few months but generally I end up leaning towards amd mainly because of price to performance. At this point the only thing that would make me choose a gtx 960 over a 380 is if nvidia bundles fallout 4 with their cards which is not impossible and it appears amd cant afford to bundle games anymore with their cards. Nvidia just has a much better brand perception because of much better marketing and amd having pretty bad drivers for a period of time leading to a more negative image.

 

[Elixer]

Hmm, and now, here comes another AMD card...
http://www.techpowerup.com/214671/amd-readies-radeon-r7-370x-to-counter-geforce-gtx-950.html

AMD is reportedly giving final touches to the Radeon R7 370X, to preempt launch of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950. The card will be based on the "Trinidad XT" silicon, and will max out components physically present on the chip. This means that the card will feature 1,280 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB or 4 GB of memory. Leaked screenshots that disclose these specs suggest that AMD will carry over clock speeds from the R9 370X, working out to 1180 MHz core, and 5.60 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory, working out to a memory bandwidth of 179.2 GB/s.

So, we are going to see the Nano, the 270X, and the 950 all being released in a few weeks.

 

[SPBHM]

Hmm, and now, here comes another AMD card...
http://www.techpowerup.com/214671/amd-readies-radeon-r7-370x-to-counter-geforce-gtx-950.html


So, we are going to see the Nano, the 270X, and the 950 all being released in a few weeks.

another old AMD card you mean... that's the 7870 from early 2012, against GM206... even if the 950 is slower it will not be by much since full gm206 easily beats the 270X, and you add HDMI 2.0, HEVC into it and it will have a hard time...

unless the 370X 4GB is cheaper than the 950 2GB or something.