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ATI Radeon™ HD 3450
High Definition HTPC for the masses
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Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................. 3 Video Benchmarking Checklist ..................................................................... 7 How To Evaluate Video Playback Performance............................................. 8 Video Playback Performance...................................................................... 13 Appendix A: ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 based HTPC ......................
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Introduction High Definition (HD) content is gaining in popularity, driven by the increasing availability and affordability of HD-capable televisions, new releases of movies on HD TM media (Blu-ray & HD DVD) and a desire by consumers for a more immersive entertainment experience. It may be possible for consumers to upgrade their current PCs by adding new HD TM DVD and/or Blu-ray optical drives; however, the remaining PC components might lack the required processing capabilities
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Unified Video Decoder (UVD) To enable the largest number of consumers to playback HD content on their PCs, from thin notebooks to entry-level PCs, AMD introduced the Unified Video Decoder, or UVD. Initially featured on the ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series, ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series, ATI Mobility Radeon ™ HD 2300, ATI Mobility Radeon ™ HD 2400 and the ATI Mobility Radeon ™ HD 2400 XT, UVD is a dedicated video decoding block that facilitates the full, bit accurate, decoding process of VC-1 o
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TM TM The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series and ATI Radeon HD 3000 series are designed with a comprehensive approach to provide exceptional quality video playback for HD 2 content and carefree HDCP support for easy playback of protected HD content from TM TM TM Blu-ray and HD DVD. The ATI Radeon HD 2000 series and ATI Radeon HD 3000 series supports HDCP on all DVI (single-link or dual-link), HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces, up to the maximum desktop resolution supported by that interface. T
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Summary The emergence and popularity of HD has created high expectations from consumers looking for a unique and immersive video experience, and this includes consumers choosing to use a PC as the hub of their entertainment center. But as a relatively new technology, HD brings new challenges related to the large quantity of data needed to be processed in HD, as well as its computational complexity, power consumption and need for content protection. GPUs can play a critical role in
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Video Benchmarking Checklist Here is a list of hardware and software tools AMD recommends you use to evaluate a graphics card’s video playback capabilities: Test system with Windows® XP or Windows Vista® (32-bit or 64-bit) operating system HDCP compliant monitor or HDTV with native resolution of at least 1920x1080 DVD Optical Drive HD DVD Optical Drive TM Blu-ray Optical Drive System monitoring software such as Windows® Reliability and Performance Monitor P
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How To Evaluate Video Playback Performance While video image quality is paramount in choosing the right solution, playback performance is of equal importance. This applies especially to PCs that are set up as media centers where multi-tasking is a necessity. Here are some guidelines on how to properly measure video playback performance: Step 1: Make sure that there aren’t any unnecessary tasks running in the background. End all unnecessary tasks using Windows Task Manager.
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Step 4: Once Windows’ Reliability and Performance Monitor application launches, configure it to record CPU activity for at least 120 seconds (2 minutes). You can do so by first activating the Performance Monitor window: Proceed to the Action Properties menu where you can change the duration and frequency of the CPU activity logger to the amount of time you plan to test each scene/clip in a movie: AMD believes that 120 seconds of playback is sufficient for obtaining an ac
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scenes with high bit-rate to evaluate how the system will perform under heavy workload from decoding video streams. Step 5: Launch your software player of choice and make sure that hardware acceleration is enabled for each test. You can enable and disable hardware acceleration by going to the Configuration Video menu: ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 - Video Review Guide 10 ©2007 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD, The AMD arrow, Athlon, ATI, the ATI logo, Avivo, Catalyst, The Ultimat
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Step 6: Start the movie and navigate to the scene that you want to use for your testing. Right before the scene begins, switch to the Reliability and Performance Monitor window (by pressing alt-tab) and start the CPU utilization logger by pressing the “unfreeze display” button or by pressing ctrl-f. Return to the movie by choosing the Cyberlink window from the task bar or by pressing alt-tab again. ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 - Video Review Guide 11 ©2007 Advanced Micro Devices, In
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Step 7: After watching the movie for the amount of time you set in the Performance Monitor, alt-tab to the Performance Monitor and press the Freeze Display button. You can obtain the average CPU utilization in the information box near the bottom of the window. ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 - Video Review Guide 12 ©2007 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD, The AMD arrow, Athlon, ATI, the ATI logo, Avivo, Catalyst, The Ultimate Visual Experience and Radeon are trademarks of Advanced Micro
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Video Playback Performance In the following section, AMD has provided sample CPU utilization measurements during video playback of several high definition movies. Please use these scores as reference to verify that your platform is performing as expected. Here are the exact specifications of the platform AMD used for its testing: PLATFORM Radeon System GeForce System CPU AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (2.0 GHz) Chipset 690G Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H Memory 2 x 1024MB o
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1080p Video Content Playback Performance 1920x1200 8400GS (G86) HD 2400 PRO HD 3450 25.6% Casino Royale H.264 (BR) 24.4% Chapter 9 24.4% 24.5% Déjà Vu VC-1 (BR 25.2% Chapter 10 35.9% 27.4% King Kong VC-1 (HD) 28.1% Chapter 30 42.5% 26.5% MI:III MPEG-2 (BR) 41.3% Chapter 18 21.8% 28.4% Transformers H.264 (HD) 29.3% Chapter 20 32.0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% CPU Utilization * Lower is Better ** BR = Blu-Ray *** HD = HD-DVD System specifications on page 13 ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 - Video R
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As noted previously 1080i VC-1 and H.264/AVC as well as HD MPEG-2 content still fall-back to fully software based decoding on the ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 PRO whereas the ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 can provide lower CPU utilization with hardware accelerated decoding 1080i Video Content Playback Performance 1920x1200 8400GS (G86) HD 2400 PRO HD 3450 22.0% Sabra Super Extra VC-1 (HD) 57.7% Title 4 41.2% 37.0% NIN VC-1 (BR) 86.5% Chapter 17 46.5% 22.6% Yozakura H.264 (HD) 97.0% Chapter 11 26.6% 0% 10%
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Appendix A: ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 based HTPC This is an overview of the cost of a home theater PC (HTPC) based on ATI Radeon™ HD 3450, enabling both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats. PRDOUCT MSRP Retail URL GPU ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 $59.00 * CPU AMD Athlon™ X2 BE-2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz $99.99 Newegg Memory CORSAIR 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz $67.00 Newegg Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H $79.99 Newegg PC Case Antec Minuet 300 $79.99 Newegg Hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160G
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DISCLAIMER The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. AMD MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS HEREOF AND ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS INFORMATION. AMD SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT W
