G45 is great at HD video playback

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 9th April 2008
Comments (14) Stumble
G45 will be able to playback high bitrate Blu-ray movies with acceptable CPU utilisation.

G45 will be able to playback high bitrate Blu-ray movies with acceptable CPU utilisation.

Intel’s Taiwanese partners have expressed excitement for Intel’s upcoming G45 integrated graphics chipset, with several saying that it’s going to be a fantastic solution for HTPC builders.

If we go back to Intel’s G35 chipset, there were a number of problems with it – probably the biggest being its poor HD video playback performance, which was simply unacceptable for a modern chipset targeted at home theatre PC builders.

The second problem was the lack of support from motherboard vendors – only Asus delivered a G35 based board and it was simply too expensive to recommend over boards based on AMD’s now retired 690G chipset—never mind the newer and more feature rich 780G chipset.

With that said, sources inside Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers say that G45 is looking good. When we asked about CPU offload in high bit-rate Blu-ray movies, we were told that during their early testing, they’re seeing CPU load sitting at around 20 to 35 percent on a dual-core processor—or equivalent to AMD’s recently-released 780G chipset.

The sources didn’t talk specifically about video quality enhancements, but we expect this has been improved as well, because our sources said that it was a significant update over G35. In fact, it’s so significant that one source admitted that “[G35] was an incomplete solution from our perspective, and that’s why we didn’t release a G35 board.”

This will no doubt be a kick in the teeth for Intel, but given the lacklustre partner support G35 received, it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise for the chip giant. Are you looking to build a home theatre PC soon, or have you already bitten the bullet and opted for an AMD 780G-based solution? Share your thoughts with us in the forums.
Quote wuyanxu 9th April 2008, 10:48
i saw somewhere that they can also handle Dx10 pretty good.

i might buy G45 instead of P45 as my next upgrade, if Abit does a G45 Pro
Quote naokaji 9th April 2008, 11:02
now they just have to release it:D
Quote iwod 9th April 2008, 15:26
20 - 30% on a Dual Core System to watch is still too much. They should drop it down to a Single Digit.

I hope they get the drivers right this time around. Good thing G45 and G47 is coming out on Notebook this year as well so we dont have to wait another year. G3x Series was simply a disaster.

In fact every Intel iGFx was a Disaster.... I hope G45 improve their reputation.
Quote WildThing 9th April 2008, 19:19
I would like to get an AMD 780G chipset but I have only been able to find two, an Asus one and the Gigabyte one reviewed here on Bit-Tech not long ago. Does anyone know when we will see a bit more variety? I may just go for Gigabyte one, but it would be nice to have more of a choice.
Quote Mister_Tad 9th April 2008, 19:49
Out of the 780G boards that are slated to come out, the Gigabyte has the most bells and whistles (according to Anandtech anyway). Just picked one up myself, though its sitting idle until I can find a 4850e somewhere.
Quote r4tch3t 9th April 2008, 22:43
Damn everything, I was planning on a 780G and now the G45 is coming and I have to see what that's like.
Although I don't see how it can surpass the 780G, unless they have audio pass through for HDMI.
Quote Mister_Tad 9th April 2008, 23:20
Gigabyte's 780G board sends audio through HDMI... :|

I was going to wait around until 8200 and G45 came around until I decided to go for a new HTPC setup, but the 8200 doesn't look too impressive and the G45 is still ages away, so I plunged now.
Quote r4tch3t 9th April 2008, 23:31
Not full 7.1 though. Not much of an issue really, but that's all I could think of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 780G Article
What is missing still is the lack of full bitrate High-Definition 7.1 channel audio pass-through to HDMI – the onboard audio controller that can only cater for S/PDIF bandwidth that is limited to 5.1 channel DVD quality Dolby Digital or DTS, not 7.1 channel DTS MasterHD or Dolby TrueHD that is featured on Blu-ray and HD DVD media.
Quote Mister_Tad 9th April 2008, 23:36
Ah right, I'd be surprised if proper full-fat HD audio hit PCs in the near future tbh.
If it turns out it does come on G45, my time with 780G may be cut quite short indeed
Quote pumpman 9th April 2008, 23:46
are there any numbers on the G45 though or is this Intel PR releasing a story seeing how well received the 780g is and having the desired effect of making people think twice now of buying a 780g board.
My 780G board is on its way with a BE2400, was going to plop a phenom in there but it would be wasted
Quote Mister_Tad 10th April 2008, 01:00
Not only that, but it could have hosed your board... http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3279&p=2
Seems that the 3-4 phase power on the 780G boards isn't quite enough for the ridiculously hungry 125w phenoms.

Unless G45 brings some genuinely new features to the table, I don't see how it can be better than 780G. Perhaps it may have slightly better 3D performance, but nobody uses these for gaming. It either plays 1080p content or it doesn't.
Quote crazybob 10th April 2008, 04:49
Quote:
Originally Posted by iwod
20 - 30% on a Dual Core System to watch is still too much. They should drop it down to a Single Digit.
Why? The only possible reasons to use integrated video are for a media center, and for a non-gamer. Either way, it's unusual to be able to play high-def at all on an integrated chipset. This is going to save the cost of a low-end dedicated card in both situations. Is there some particularly good reason you can't run your CPU at 30%? My last computer, with a 2.2 GHz Sempron, pulled nearly that much CPU playing standard-definition movies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iwod
In fact every Intel iGFx was a Disaster.
How do you figure? You'll find Intel Integrated Graphics in the majority of the computers on the planet. Every school and office building is full of them, and most normal (i.e., not Bit-Tech) people are totally satisfied with integrated. In fact, the only people who aren't satisfied are gamers, and until recently, HD movie buffs. Integrated video now caters to everyone in the world except gamers, and you'll never get an onboard chip that's good enough to play games - it's a fairly large expense and most of them would never get used.
Quote Tim S 10th April 2008, 08:02
Quote:
Originally Posted by iwod
20 - 30% on a Dual Core System to watch is still too much. They should drop it down to a Single Digit.

Not exactly, encryption takes up 20% of load on a dual core system anyway... so the offload is almost as efficient as a discrete GPU.
Quote SpeedyJDK 11th April 2008, 14:15
I got a G35 chipset. I can only play Blu-Ray if i install Windows Vista...... Heh. Guess NOOOOOT.
I might not even sniff at the G45 at all, fcuk Intel. Idiots.
Got a 690G machine here, it plays Blu-Ray fine, and i just got a 780G motherboard yesterday, it's going for the tests tonight. I hope it works great, then all machines gonna be AMD ones here. A move i would NEVER had expected when i first bought the G35 motherboard.
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