Intel DG45FC mini-ITX motherboard

HQV

Silicon Optix, makers of HQV, provides an industry standard benchmark for looking at video quality by providing tests the cover all areas of video processing playback: (motion adaptive) de-interlacing, noise reduction, 3:2 Pull-down detection (Inverse telecine), Film Cadence and Film Resolution manipulation.

The tests are scored out of 130, where a score of 130 is considered "perfect."

We set the output at 1080p to test the video processing of the chipset, as opposed to the display. While we left the "performance settings" on auto, we did adjust the de-interlacing settings to find the best solution available from the drivers.


The Intel board hits a perfect score like we've seen before. Its ClearVideo just works in PowerDVD and it sets a clear benchmark the other chipsets have yet to attain. The biggest culprit elsewhere is jaggie removal and noise reduction which, while clearly available in the Nvidia drive for example, has far less effect than for Intel.

That said, remember jaggie removal only affects interlaced video, so pre-encoded stuff won't be affected, but noise reduction is important all round. Of all the things Intel's GPU products get ribbed for - being under performing and software limited, in HQV performance it actually leads the way.