Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra

[TotalChaos]

This new card from nvidia is supposed to implement a dedicated programmable video processor. Would anyone like to speculate what FPS this card could produce in DivX 5.1.1 encoding.

I've read in other hardware forums about people wanting to modify code to offload the encoding tasks from CPU to GPU. It would seem that a video card would produce MUCH faster results then even our fastest CPUs. They have much more memory-to-proccessor bandwidth. GPUs are generaly set up for performing many operations in parallel.

Just a Thought........ bye!

[The Belgain]

I was wondering that too. The drivers nvidia have realeased to testers at the moment don't support this yet, but nvidia claim that the card can be used to do hardware MPEG4/WM9 encoding.

I'd love to see this card be able to do, say, HDTV WM9 encoding in hardware. It's soooooo slow on my PC (getting about 4 fps on a Barton 3200+). A speed boost would be much appreciated.

Also, does anyone know if they will they be including this in their next-gen budget cards too or not?

[TotalChaos]

According to the articles I read on this card, all NV4x cards will have the same basic structure. Just having some parts disabled. (pipelines...ect) Seems that encoder/proccessor, being part of the GPU, would have to be included in lower cards. (hopefuly not disabled)

curious what settings are you using to drop yourself to 4FPS. That IS slow even for a 3200+.

[The Belgain]

This is for encoding a 1280x720p 60 fps Transport Stream to a 1280x720p WM9 clip at 24fps. Using AviSynth with SelectEven, the decimate.

Is this too slow? Even though it's dropping most of the frames, it still has to decode them all initially, which means it has to decode 60 fps, and encode 24fps, both at 1280x720. What speeds are others getting for this?

[el divx]

Originally posted by TotalChaos
It would seem that a video card would produce MUCH faster results then even our fastest CPUs. They have much more memory-to-proccessor bandwidth.

Well, there was this guy from a US university that madr a "port" of C to a graphics processor, a high-end model if I remember it correctly, and after running some code that at least looked like a normal app, he said that its performance was equivalent to a Pentium 4 of about 20Ghz.

[TotalChaos]

@The Belgain
Honestly I can't speak from experience with WM9. I do know that the resolution your using is huge, and can imagine this having alot to do with your encode speed. You are captureing AND encoding at the same time at 1280 X 720. Seems you'd be better off with multi CPUs ,even if of slower speed, then ONE doing all that. All said 4FPS may be just fine!?

@el divx
From What I've read about vid cards and this encoding idea, Vid cards would be perfect for encoding. It's the architecture of a GPU that allows for such high proccessing power. They proccess data in parellel. Each proccessing unit being mediocre, but together they produce alot of calculations. They say this is bad for CPUs as they want to run only ONE program as fast as they can. Also I read that video encoding is very repetitious. These things sound made for each other. Having many "pipes" to send data through and each having the same job to do (encode) sounds like a super encoding machine!?
((20GHz CPU... mmmmmmmmmm I can taste it!! Throw in 1GB L1 cache and we may have somthing!!))

Anyone else have some more input??? This is very interesting!!!

[larsc]

I'm really excited about this card, even though I stopped being a nVidia fanboy long time ago. :)

The encoding-part of the card will apparently require specific software support though.


No changes to any program or video files are necessary to take advantage of the acceleration decoding features, as the driver intercepts all DirectX calls and forwards them directly to the video processor. In the case of MPEG 1/2/4 encoding, however, special software is required. Adobe has already announced support in upcoming versions of the After Effects suite.


http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040414/geforce_6800-16.html

Hopefully nVidia will have proper driver support for it, so someone can actually test this.


As for using GPUs for other tasks, I believe there are several particle simulators and thermal analysers that run spectacularly well on end-user spec graphics cards. I remember reading an article on it some time ago, I'll see if I can find the link.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Can anybody confirm, what TV output connections this card has please?

Is it just the usual: composite and S-video. Or is there RGB TV output too?

Cheers

[larsc]

Dual DVI and MiniDIN. I'm guessing a dongle like ATis HDTV-adapter or whatever they call it will be offered for videophiles.

I can't find a review that goes into detail about it's VIVO-capabilities, and the driver isn't fully complete anyway, so I guess you'll have to be patient. :)

Specs at nVidia.com:

Advanced Video and Display Functionality


Dedicated on-chip video processor
MPEG video encode and decode
WMV9 decode acceleration
Advanced adaptive de-interlacing
High-quality video scaling and filtering
Integrated NTSC/PAL TV encoder supporting resolutions up to 1024 × 768 without the need for panning with built-in Macrovision copy protection
DVD and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i resolutions
Dual integrated 400 MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including 2048 × 1536 at 85Hz
Dual DVO ports for interfacing to external TMDS transmitters and external TV encoders
Microsoft® Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) supports multiple video windows with full video quality and features in each window
VIP 1.1 interface support for video-in function
Full NVIDIA® nView™ multi-display technology capability


http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20040406661996.html