Albatron, a supplier of computer components and also some consumer electronics devices, on Wednesday announced its new graphics card that is positioned for media playback, but not video games. The board comes with an array of connectors and will allow to build cost-efficient home theater personal computers (HTPCs). But despite of juicy features the destiny of the product is uncertain.
Albatron "Blue-ray decoder card" is a low-profile graphics card based on Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT graphics processing unit and equipped with 256MB of GDDR2 memory. The board features dual-link DVI, HDMI as well as HDTV outputs. Even though Nvidia positions its model 8500 GT as a low-cost DirectX 10-compatible gaming solution, Albatron primarily aims its ?Blue-ray decoder card?at high-definition video market.
Given that Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT chip can decode H.264 and VC-1 encoding, Albatron boats that its ?Blue-ray decoder card?can ensure CPU utilization under 20% during high definition video playback.
It is unclear why Albatron decided to utilize the G86 graphics processor, which powers GeForce 8300, 8400 and 8500-series graphics cards, but not the G84, which is used on GeForce 8600-series graphics cards. Nvidia's G84 has a little more advanced video processing engine, which provides lower CPU utilization as well as somewhat better HD video quality. Even though the G84 graphics chip is more expensive compared to the G86, end-users who can install a $200 - $500 Blu-ray or HD DVD optical drive into their system would hardly complain about a slightly more expensive graphics card.
Albatron has not announced pricing of the product.
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