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Anybody heard anything about when entry-level 28nm GPUs are due out? I'm going to be repurposing my current machine as an HTPC in a little over a month (Ivy upgrade) and will be needing to buy a low-power GPU to make the switch. AMD has had their 7xxx cards out for over 3 months and dont be seeming to drop any lower than the 7750 which is more than I really need. Obviously Nvidia is a little behind AMD having just released the GTX680. I'm getting antsy.
I'm hoping we might get to see something around the AMD 6570 or Nvidia GT440 that offers lower power and temps like a 20W TDP 6450.

It's not 28nm, but it does have Nvidia's newest and most capable DXVA decoding block. Supports more formats and bitrates than any other chip on the market, IIRC. GeForce GT 520. It's pretty power-frugal and affordable, too.

I'm planning on upgrading my HTPC from a GeForce G210 to the GT 520 shortly.

It's VP5/Feature set D, same as the new GTX 680. Does 4K resolution hardware decode. Very sexy beast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Pur ... ature_Sets

I'm looking at these in particular;

Gigabyte passive-cooled, half-height version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125407

Asus passive, half-height: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121475

Looks like Anandtech did a pretty thorough HTPC review comparing a GT520, GT430, 6450, and 6570 and came away with the notion that a GT430 or 6570 are the minimum requirements for a decent HTPC. Both cards start around $50 after MIR.

...I might have to increase my budget a bit. On ther other hand, I have a friend running a GT210 that I got him for $7 after MIR and says it performs just fine for his HTPC needs. It's all a game of personal preference and how picky you are about video quality I suppose.

Also what you are playing. For bluray rips in x264 only, just about any halfway recent card is fine. For more esoteric stuff like VC1 encodes, 4k, etc, the newer the better.

I have BBC's Planet Earth on Bluray. Lovely VC1 encoding. Decodes in software only via my HTPC's G210. CPU can't handle it either. My main machine's GTX460 handles it perfectly via DXVA, almost no CPU load at all. Just a sample point to ponder.

BTW, both the GT 520s I listed were comfortably below 50$ as well.

According to fudzilla the GT520 will be rebadged as the GT620 for retail/e-retail. Let's hope AMD doesn't follow suit. Indeed the low-end discrete GPU market is going to go extinct soon with IGP's getting better and better with each new generation. Where that cutoff point will be for 28nm GPU's is still unknown to me.

@Forge: I referenced the Anand article above because it compares a few of the current most commonly used GPU's for HTPC's IMO. I didn't see however where/if Anand bothered to mention what their post-processing settings were. Indeed a stronger GPU can do more post-processing than a weaker one. And if you optimize PP for the stronger GPU and use the same settings on the weaker, its predictable that the weaker GPU will choke. (which seems to be what happened in the article) A GT520 could probably work just as good (smoothness) as a GT430 as long as you lower/eliminate the PP on the GT520. Like I said, it all depends on user preference and sensitivity to video quality. I found this article from tomshardware a while back that gives "optimal" PP settings for verious AMD and Nvidia cards at the time and found it useful. It also proves my point that you can't just use the same PP settings for every card and get the same smoothness of play.

I personally like to have a little GPU overhead to allow for some PP and/or different encoding formats. Aka, definetly something better than a GT520 and maybe even slightly better than a 6450.

There are several passively-cooled 7750s out or coming. They're more powerful cards than you seem to be suggesting, but some of us like to play games on the TV.

FYI, looks like entry level Nvidia 6xx GPUs will be rebrands up to the GT440 at least. I wouldn't be suprised if AMD doesn't plan on going any lower than the 7750 with its 28nm GPUs. My HTPC recycle project may turn into a new Trinity system.