need help, video card for htpc: 6570, 6450, 520, 430, or something else

[meanmoe]

I have a 1156 i3 sitting around that I'd like to put into an htpc. I need a video card.
I plan to run xbmc on ubuntu linux.

I'm looking for a video card recommendation. It must play full HD 1080p video seemlessly over hdmi from my server/NAS or from bluray (with makemkv). lower tdp is better.

I've read articles about the amd 6570 working well in windows but I understand that amd has had problems with linux drivers. Anandatech has a article in which they state that they will not recommend the nvidia 520 due to stuttering issues.
Anyone run something similiar and happy enough with it to make a recommendation? Also, I'd like something low profile.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Hell Hound]

GT530 > GT430
HD7670 > HD6670
OEM is using less power w/ similar performance but might cost more.

[meanmoe]

do you know of driver issues with linux on the amd side?

There's also a pretty big price difference between the 430 and 630. And I haven't seen a 7670 yet.

Also reviews say 7670 == 6670. Is that true?

[zanzabar]

do you know of driver issues with linux on the amd side?

There's also a pretty big price difference between the 430 and 630. And I haven't seen a 7670 yet.

Also reviews say 7670 == 6670. Is that true?

on amd anything below the 77xx is just a rebadge, so they are exactly the same.

and for an HTPC you would want to go amd since they have better audio over HDMI

[Hell Hound]

I think you can get more performance per dollar ($100usd/GT630) if you get a 100/125w card.What about a 550ti or HD6850.

[meanmoe]

on amd anything below the 77xx is just a rebadge, so they are exactly the same.

and for an HTPC you would want to go amd since they have better audio over HDMI

Thanks. That's what I thought, but I was worried about the support under linux.

I think you can get more performance per dollar ($100usd/GT630) if you get a 100/125w card.What about a 550ti or HD6850.

550 and 6880 are complete overkill, plus I can't find a low-profile version - it's a pretty limiting constraint. I really just want someone to tell me that I won't be sorry later if I pick up a 6570. What would be better is if someone told me that a 6450 would be adequate. I run crossfire 6950s (ref, flashed) on another rig, they're great cards.

[itznfb]

I would personally avoid AMD/ATI cards in linux. The proprietary drivers cause tons of issues within all gnome variants and unity. You'll be stuck with the limited gallium drivers to keep your DE from constantly crashing.

edit: Further explanation of gallium limitations.
http://www.x.org/wiki/GalliumStatus
http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature < the big reasons to avoid AMD/ATI in Linux especially for HTPC are found here. No decoding and no HDMI audio on most cards.

[CrazyNutz]

^^ this

If you're considering linux then Nvidia is the way to go.

[zanzabar]

I would personally avoid AMD/ATI cards in linux. The proprietary drivers cause tons of issues within all gnome variants and unity. You'll be stuck with the limited gallium drivers to keep your DE from constantly crashing.

edit: Further explanation of gallium limitations.
http://www.x.org/wiki/GalliumStatus
http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature < the big reasons to avoid AMD/ATI in Linux especially for HTPC are found here. No decoding and no HDMI audio on most cards.

so the reason why with windows and osx that amd is better than NV is completely shot down with linux. that is ty.

[itznfb]

so the reason why with windows and osx that amd is better than NV is completely shot down with linux. that is ty.

Yup.
Nvidia isn't much better with the opensource community though. It's just that Nvidia provides proprietary drivers that don't crash the DE.

edit: In their defense.... I'm guessing in order to stay competitive with each other they would have to keep such information away from the opensource community as to not reveal their "secrets".

[meanmoe]

ok so that link says that audio over hdmi for Cayman is "TODO"meaning "means that someone needs to write the code. The required knowledge to write the code may or may not be known. Please ask on #radeon if you want to get your feet wet on this."

That can't be right... is it? EDIT: ok, so this is with the open source drivers.


Edit: so over the 2 days of no responses to this thread, I actually did go ahead and buy a HD6570. I got a good deal for memorial day so I bit. I'll report back issues.

[itznfb]

ok so that link says that audio over hdmi for Cayman is "TODO"meaning "means that someone needs to write the code. The required knowledge to write the code may or may not be known. Please ask on #radeon if you want to get your feet wet on this."

That can't be right... is it? EDIT: ok, so this is with the open source drivers.


Edit: so over the 2 days of no responses to this thread, I actually did go ahead and buy a HD6570. I got a good deal for memorial day so I bit. I'll report back issues.

I would suggest installing the ATI/AMD drivers and using something like gnome classic or lxde. That should eliminate the or at least minimize the crashing. I haven't done any testing with XBMC though so I'm not sure if you'll see any crashing there. The opensource drivers will pretty much be useless to you.

[Shocker003]

so over the 2 days of no responses to this thread, I actually did go ahead and buy a HD6570. I got a good deal for memorial day so I bit. I'll report back issues.

I have a HD6570 in my HTPC and am happy with it. 1080P Blu-ray playback is no problem with Powerdvd 12 ultra. The only headache i got from it is while playing music with the tv switched off makes my receiver to lose audio signal the from the graphic card.(win 7 64bit + xbmc) I don´t know how it will fare with xbmc on ubuntu linux.

[meanmoe]

So far so good in Linux and Windows with proprietary drivers. Not a beat missed streaming HD video from a server on my LAN.

[fr0wn3r]

The new player is GT640 (non OEM version), just launched today and looks really promising for HTPC usage. At 99 bucks MSRP it looks even better...