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[thane108]

I'm running an older system with Intel Core I7 920 cpu and 6 gig of ram with a ssd.  I'm going out via hdmi to my entertainment center using the hdmi out on my amd radion hd 5770.  It has 1024 Mbytes of memory.

Works OK though my monitor on my desktop does quite a dance when I turn on the TV in the other room.  Occasionally I get audio distortion and have to exit JRiver and come back in.  Someone suggested my issues might be cacheing issues.

I"m not a gamer.

I'm considering upgrading the graphics board - thinking that more memory on graphics board would improve performance.

Worth it?  If so, suggestions?

[glynor]

I don't think the Radeon has anything at all to do with the audio distortion.  If you haven't you could try making sure the drivers are up-to-date for that card, though if they're even remotely recent, the HDMI audio output should be working fine (as long as yours isn't broken).

Not sure why you're looking at that to upgrade.

You could get better performance in Red October HQ if you upgraded the card to a newer (even lower end) Nvidia card (or even a newer AMD card, but I believe MC's video engine tends to prefer Nvidia hardware because that's what Hendrik runs, and their APIs are a bit nicer than AMDs).

But, it isn't clear that is what you're going for at all.  If the goal is to solve the audio distortion, replacing the GPU in your computer would be pretty far down on my list of possible fixes.

[thane108]

Caught me!  I just have the upgrade bug and am trying to optimize performance on an old system.

It would be nice to get rid of the occasional audio distortion - mostly happens when I exit Theater view without first stopping whatever is playing.  Or when music is playing and my wife goes on the desktop for email.  I have updated all the drivers - I stay on top of that.

The HDMI handshake when I am on the desktop and my wife turns on the television is interesting - desktop video blacks out - comes on - blacks out - then becomes stable.  Again, no big deal - just irritating when it happens.

I was thinking my graphics card was the weak link in all this.

If I were going to go with a new graphics card what would be your suggestion?

[glynor]

I'd be trying to decide between the Radeon R7 265 and the GeForce GTX 750.  Leaning slightly towards the latter, even though I'm a bit of an AMD fanboy for graphics (my machines at home both have Radeon HD 6870s currently).

AMDs current architecture has some issues though.  It looks like they're on the path to fixing it now, but that stuff hasn't trickled down to the lower end cards (and they're still way less power efficient, which is essentially the opposite of the situation when the 57xx/58xx/67xx/68xx series cards were out).

[thane108]

Thanks - I'll watch for upcoming sales.

I'm still considering one other option - purchasing an inexpensive desktop with a 4th generation I5 processor.  It's my understanding that the new Intels have an HDMI out and that the refresh rate matches televisions so they work great as a HTPC.  No graphics card needed.  I'm thinking I could salvage some parts from my current PC (SSD, HD, power supply, and memory) and have it up and running for under $600.

So - $130 or so for a new graphics board and live with a first generation I7 cpu or spend the $$s to get a current generation I5 with no graphics card?

Comments?

[InflatableMouse]

It would be nice to get rid of the occasional audio distortion - mostly happens when I exit Theater view without first stopping whatever is playing.  Or when music is playing and my wife goes on the desktop for email.  I have updated all the drivers - I stay on top of that.

This sounds like buffer underruns. Try increasing buffering under Audio/Audio Device, Device Settings.

If that doesn't help, increase Prebuffering (under Audio as well).

You may also want to try enabling play from memory instead of disk.

Don't change them all at once, change one thing at a time (in the order I listed them). If a setting doesn't help revert to the previous setting.

Generally you'd want buffering as low as possible, but obviously if things start to distort when there's even a minor load on the system, its set too low.

[thane108]

OK - I'll try the buffering first.

I pushed it up to the next option (250 milliseconds).

I can't replicate the problem on command so I'll just have to sit back and wait.

Thanks!

[BartMan01]

I am running a fan-less 5570 on my primary HTPC and have no issues with video or audio.  Unless you plan on doing anything graphics intensive or need a feature from a newer chipset (HDMI version/3D/etc), that 5770 should be more than enough.  Been a while since I researched it, but when I got the 5570 it was to replace the on-board Intel card and it replaced the nVidia card I sent back (I was a diehard nVidia fan at that point).  At the time, the AMD cards were the only ones that could properly handle 24/25/30/50/60 FPS content at their native framerates and didn't cause me major issues with color space on my old DVI based Mitsu RPTV.