Born for HD: first review of G98-8400GS
PAGE 1: The Beginning of PureVideo HD
PAGE 2: PureVideo HD Gen2 still not perfect
PAGE 3: G98：PureVideo HD Gen 3
PAGE 4: Comparing the Die
PAGE 5: Frequency of G98
PAGE 6: Test bed and remarks
PAGE 7: VC-1: 1080P, King Kong
PAGE 8: VC-1 1080P De javu
PAGE 9: H.264 1080P X-MAN3
PAGE 10: H.264 1080P The Prestige
PAGE 11: MPEG-2 1080P Pioneer DEMO2006
PAGE 12: HD video data summary
PAGE 13: 3DMark06
PAGE 14: Final thoughts
G98：PureVideo HD Gen 3
Today NVIDIA unveils their latest product G98-8400GS(aka D8M,Desktop 8 Mainstream). The integrated PureVideo upgraded to Gen 3.Some few of you maybe barely know what’s D8M. It is NVIDIA’s new naming scheme: D means what market it focus, the number stands for product’s generation, and M is the product level (for example M for mainstream, E for enthusiast). In NVIDIA’s next gen 9, they will only using the new naming scheme and drop the Gx0 scheme.
New spec of G98 D8M, finally supports full hardware decoding.
As PureVideo Gen 3, it finally got the ability to fully takeover CPU’s decoding work and can compete with its rival Radeon HD 2000 & 3000 series.
New Spec: 65nm GPU
Except PureVideo HD, G98 continue with G92′s 65nm GPU processing. With the new processing helps GPU lower the TDP and power consumption. G98-8400GS’total TDP is 25W, and GPU TDP is 15W.
New Spec: PCIe Gen2
Like G92 D8P, G98 supports PCIe Gen2. PCIe Gen2 means double bandwidth, from PCIe Gen1′s 2.5Gbps to Gen2′s 5Gbps. Also PCIe Gen2 can provide more juicy power, up to 300W.
Of course G98 is an entry level VGA card so it won’t have bandwidth problem or power issue. Supporting PCIe Gen2 or not won’t affect it much.
New Spec: Native HDMI
G98 supports Dual Link HDCP and HDMI now. This is great news for HTPC builders, now they won’t be afraid of the data translation in the NVIO will reduce quality.
New Spec: weakened 3D performance
Same of the old 8400GS, G98 have 64bit memory interface. And from the info in hand and our further benchmark, G98 only have 8 Stream Processors, 4 Texture Filtering Units, 4 Texture Addressing Units and 4 ROPs. The core frequency is running at 567MHz, memory frequency goes at 500MHz and shader frequency at 1400MHz.
The new 8400GS have a high frequency but only 8 Stream Processors will certainly weaken the actual 3D performance.
G98: born for HTPC and HD video playback
G98 is very cheap. The whole card spends only for $50. NV will put on more pressure on high end and low end market with highly cost-effective products: in the high end market, NV unveils G92-8800GT, focus on 3D performance , in the low end market,they roll our G98-8400GS, aiming HD video playback ability. This plenty explains why NV weaken G98-8400GS’s 3D performance: NV wants to lower the cost and make G9-8400GS as a HD playback card.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:21 am
D8M has released? H.264 Decoding CPU utilization rose Instead, the not ideal.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:40 am
@ Guilit
that’s only a few percentage @ celeron 430 so that’s nothing to worry about.
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:18 pm
[...] GPU is a 65nm processing chip. We already seem this tech on G92/D8P and G98/D8M. G80 and G86 have been EOLed, and G84 will also be EOL when the valentine’s day [...]
January 14th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
[...] With the bandled different I/O metal backboard, users can change the video output slot posittion to fit their pc cases. Full review of G98-8400GS can be found here. [...]
January 14th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
[...] With the bandled different I/O metal backboard, users can change the video output slot posittion to fit their pc cases. Full review of G98-8400GS can be found here. [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 1:20 am
In the sentence “With the bandled different I/O metal backboard…” the third word should be “bundled.”
I’m sure it’s a artifact of translation, but I’d like to suggest using “CPU intensive” instead of “CPU sucking.” In the USA “sucking” has some rather vulgar connotations; i.e. when someone says something ‘sucks,’ they’re not offering polite criticism.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Thanks for your suggestion! you konw, i saw some other reviews write like that, so i followed..
anyway, i am going to fix the words. Thanks Fred.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Nvidia can take the purevideo HD and EAT IT! It is clear in these tests that the nv cards require 300% more processor cycles than ati’s humble 2400. So i wouldn’t be so sure that nv can attack ati in the video department. As for mpeg2 you must really be the king of jerks to encode anything in mpeg2HD.You need 3 times more bandwidth for the same quality. And yes atis hd capabilities kick in whatever player you use. At least with bsplayer and klite megacodec pack i run hd 1080p videos with an ati2400pro and an intel E2160@2700mhz with just 1% cpu.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:40 am
[...] Born for HD: first review of G98-8400GS – Expreview.com (1) this review should be all you need it’s a shootout between the G98 and G86 8400′s , and the Ati [...]