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
Test bed and remarks

G98 is a product aiming at entry level, so in our review we just focus on its HD video playback ability.

Celeron 460, a nice partner of G98-8400GS
For better simulating entry level and lighting user’s platform, we use Intel Celeron 460(2.4GHz,12*200MHz), it is also the same entry level product.
Cyberlink PowerDVD is a high quality DVD playback program. The latest version 7.3 can fully support ATI Avivo HD and NVIDIA PureVideo HD, so as well as Blu-ray & HD DVD. What’s more, PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 also supports direct play .ts file. Also open graphics card hardware decoding is an easy job, only few steps.

If your card supports PureVideo HD, then a small icon will show.

Just tick this option and hardware acceleration is enabled.

DirectX VA (in use) means already enabled graphic card’s hardware accelerator.

Using Vista Resource Monitor to monitor PowerDVD’s CPU usage.
Due to no HD DVD and Blu-ray selling in china so the only way to have the card tested is using DEMO, trailers and movie scene cuts. We have two VC-1 video: De javu, King Kong; two H.264/AVC: X-MAN 3, The Prestige; one MPEG-2: Pioneer DEMO2006. All five videos are 1080P.

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 [...]