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Media Performance is important to analyse as this will be a primary feature of the card so we started by analysing HQV results. We used a few other cards as comparisons with the HQV benchmark.
This HQV Benchmark from Silicon Optix are great tests of the playback quality of HD DVD, DVD and Blu-Ray movies. We used Catalyst 9.5 and Forceware 197.77 for our testing. It is worth pointing out that these tests are in some ways very subjective and are tied into not only the hardware, but the drivers. We have noticed some improvements lately with the recent Catalysts and the HD5770 was included for the sake of being thorough.
| HQV Test |
Radeon HD5770
|
Asus Bravo 220
|
Geforce 9800
|
Geforce 9600
|
Geforce 9400
|
|
Deinterlacing
|
|||||
| Color Bar/Vertical Detail | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Jaggies Pattern 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Jaggies Pattern 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Waving Flag | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
|
Image Enhancement
|
|||||
| Detail Enhancement | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
|
Noise Reduction
|
|||||
| Noise Reduction | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Motion Noise Reduction | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 5 |
|
PullDown Detection
|
|||||
| 3:2 Detection | 10 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 2:2 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 2:2:2:4 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 2:3:3:2 Cadence | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3:2:3:2:2 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5:5 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 6:4 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 8:7 Cadence | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 3:2 Cadence | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
|
Mixed Film and Video
|
|||||
| Horizontal Scrolling Text | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| Vertical Scrolling Text | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| Total Score | 120 | 106 | 111 | 111 | 85 |
The Asus Bravo gives a very strong result of 106 and although we have seen some recent improvements in the Forceware drivers we still notice a few issues with antialiasing and random artifacting with noise suppression algorithms. To be fair this noise can be adjusted which therefore affects the overall level of detail throughout.
All things considered the IQ results are high which is verified by real world use. I would be very happy using this card in a low powered media PC full time.
We then played back the Bluray disc of AVATAR to judge CPU load.
nVidia's DX 10.1 compatible graphics cards can offload the CPU when decoding VC-1 and the PureVideo engine is considerably better than previous generations. The average CPU load is around 10percent but we noticed a peak of around 24percent in a few locations. As a reference point we played around with a Geforce 210 model and we noticed around a 10-15 percent increase with these figures.
Wow that software looks bad. the card seems good though, I like the cooler, seems powerful enough for the situation to handle without fan
Very detailed and fair review I think. the card seems solid for media work but the bundle might end up annoying quite a few people.
Interesting product and quite competitively priced. Certainly isnt for gaming, being an underpowered 220. temps are good and no noise is a bonus. ideal for a bedroom environment.
Well, not the usual perfect product on KG then, seems we have a semi winner, but if they removed all the junk. Wonder if they will sell the card on its own, bound to drop the price a bit.
Seems pretty much of a turd of a product. Id like to see a review of the Sapphire HD5550. bet its better.
Nvidia boards arent ideal for media, I think ATI have the edge. dont you ?
Thanks, just finished my daily KG news and reviews lunch break 🙂 Id still buy that card to be honest, the hardware seems decent and it looks wicked.
Asus software has ALWAYS been crap, no doubt about it.
good review, seems fair and all points covered. I actually just bought this for my media center as I have a really old Nvidia board in it and the fan is starting to omit a noise.
Wont have this issue 🙂
IT doesnt actually seem that bad when you look at the product overall. the software sucks, and its a shame its such a big focus for Asus cause the card would have scored higher otherwise. Liked the intro Z, didnt know you were into bikes.
I think that is seriously one of the fucking most cool looking silent boards ive seen, its almost Zalman like by design. Shame about the software but its not the end of teh world, shame they dont sell a straight card version. If you are making a media center at least do it right, that just seems like a remote control, front layer. rather than a suite.
Im quite surprised Asus didnt actually borrow the code of Windows Media Player and just ‘plug into it’ from the front end. It seems quite messy the way they have their own suite popping up and minimising into the task bar. Not sure what they were thinking really, thats a little bit surprising
I liked that review, balanced, good intro, nice testing. fair result. Its not a bad card really, just a shame the suite sucks balls.
It’s not worth buying. Pure and simple.
Give em a few months to create an ATi version and maybe it will be ok.
ATI do generally make better media cards, its pretty well known. something like the 5550 would be wicked.
BRAVO 220 SILENT/DI/1GD2(LP)
Experience Visual Enjoyment in a New Light!
– ASUS Exclusive 0dB thermal solution: enjoy a silent environment no matter playing game or watching movies – ASUS Exclusive Splendid plus: with ambient light sensor to fit different user scenario – ASUS Bravo Media Center: with remote controller for easy entertainment access – Up to 21% power savin
http://in.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=HLK4Pmu9lXkm0Q8o&templete=2