Do fast/slow graphics card matter at all when watching movies ?

[signatory]

I have a slow graphics card. My impression is that faster cards will not help playback (cpu load).. is this correct? I also noticed that it's possible to set MPC to "render video in 3D texture" would this setting reduce cpu load if I had a fast 3D card ?

rgds

[arch_angel16]

It will. Ati and Nvidia include mpeg2 hardware decoding/acceleration, and both companies are prepping mpeg4 (for hd-dvd and bluray) decoding and acceleration in their current products.

[signatory]

Sounds cool :) I guess it's googling time...

[markrb]

One note though.
Fast/Slow is relative as video cards have had hardware mpeg acceleration for sometime now.
So you will be fine with an ATI Radeon 7200 for instance, which would be considered slow by todays standards.
I would look up the specs of your video card first before spending money.
Also the CPU and memory still matter.
You could put a 9800 in a P3 and it would underperform an 8500 in a P4 3.2.

Mark

[Shinigami-Sama]

it's just the iceing on the cake as it were, it adds a bit of shine and sparkle but your cpu/mem does most of the work

[Arachnotron]

Various htpc apps are moving from overlay to VRM9. Older cards can have problems with that. Not really a speed issue, but it can matter.

The old ati rage 128 already had enough features to play DVD's smoothly on a celeron 500 MHz. But it would really struggle with mediaportal or xlobby.