High definition is the future entertainment standard of tomorrow's video's. Playing high definition content on current generation PCs can boggle down even the fastest processors because there is more data to handle. Similar to the need for DVD accelerators a few years ago, nVIDIA PureVideo enables computer users to view MPEG-2/DVD and WMV HD formats without slowing the PC to a crawl.

The PureVideo standard incorporates a hardware accelerator for the afore mentioned MPEG-2/DVD, and Microsoft Windows Media HD Video standards (WMV HD). According to nVIDIA's documentation on PureVideo, the GPU (GeForce 6 and 7 series GPUs) takes on video decoding tasks from the CPU, and the end result is smoother, shutter free HD playback. nVIDIA PureVideo also supports most current and future high definition formats. The system seems to be built with a good degree of future proofing for upcoming standards.

PureVideo is more than just a media accelerator; it also includes features to improve video picture quality. If you believe the marketing; DVD, cable and satellite video provide poor crispness, clearness and smoothness that consumers have been desperate to be "saved from." nVIDIA's PureVideo technology applies spatial temporal de-interlacing to apparently deliver a better image than traditional de-interlacing can muster. PureVideo also fixes the 3:2 pull down problem that can arise from 24 fps video being converted to 30 fps for viewing on TVs or monitors. By recovering the original 24 frame content, PureVideo apparently allows for a clear crisper image.

Another neat feature of PureVideo is its ability to scale videos to any resolution, while maintaining a relatively detailed picture. This means users can view lower resolution videos at a high resolution without suffering too much from blocky or blurry pictures.

To test PureVideo's HD accelerating capabilities, we decided to play one video through Windows Media Player 10, which was downloaded from Microsoft's WMV HD Content Showcase. The Discoverers (IMAX) video is available in both 720P and 1080P formats. CPU utilization was monitored through Task Manager.

Loading up the 720P version of "The Discoverers" there was an immediate load of 100% on the system, but that fell quickly to 30%. After playing the video for two minutes, the CPU usage jumped between 15-33%.

The 1080P version of the Discoverers video is a lot more demanding, and here CPU usage jumps between 33-42%. With a videocard that does not offer HD acceleration, CPU usage is stuck at 100% and there can be brief moments when video playback is even choppy. Looks like PureVideo is not simply marketing hype.

Skipping Over Overclocking

Unfortunately, after a bit of testing the Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT experienced instability with our attempts to overclock it, and it really just turned out to be unfeasible for a product such as this. Anyway, with twin GPUs who needs to overclock?

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: amd athlon64 4000+ clock speed: 12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz motherboards: gigabyte ga-k8n ultra-sli (nf4-sli) videocard: ati radeon x850 xt pe msi rx850xt-td256e msi rx800xt-vtd256e ati radeon x800 xl powercolor x700 pro msi nx7800gtx-vt2d256e (single mode) msi nx7800gtx-vt2d256e (sli mode) asus en7800gt 2dhtv/256m/osp/a (single mode) asus en7800gt 2dhtv/256m/osp/a (sli mode) msi nx6800gt-t2d256e msi nx6800-td128e (single) msi nx6800-td128e (sli mode) msi nx6600gt-td128e (single mode) msi nx6600gt-td128e (sli mode) gigabyte gv-3d1-68gt (single) gigabyte gv-3d1-68gt (sli mode) memory: 2x 512mb mushkin pc3200 l2 v2 hard drive: 74gb wd raptor 10k rpm sata hdd cdrom: aopen 52x combo powersupply: pc power & cooling turbocool 510 sli heatsink: stock athlon64 4000+ hsf software setup windowsxp build 2600 nforce4 6.53 catalyst 5.10 detonator 78.01 benchmarks 3DMark03 3DMark05 AquaMark3 Halo FarCry Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Doom 3 FEAR Quake 4