h.264 High-Definition Playback

For h.264 playback we again used PowerDVD Ultra and played the files from a hard drive instead of disc. The 720p trailer we used was for the movie, Fantastic Four, with a bitrate of 6,217kbps and two channel AAC sound at 189kbps. For 1080p playback we used the Serenity trailer which is encoded at a bitrate of 7,998Kbps and two channel AAC sound at 192Kbps.



There's virtually nothing in it at 1080p – the results are pretty much identical between GeForce 8200 and AMD 780G. For the 720p playback however the GeForce 8200 noses ahead with a very low minimum and a few percent drop in its average power use.

MPEG-4 (AVI) 720p High-Definition Playback

For MPEG-4 (AVI) playback we again used PowerDVD Ultra and again played the files from a hard drive instead of disc. The 720p trailer we used was for the movie, Ray, with a bit-rate of 3,336kbps in DivX 5 and two channel MP3 sound at 191kbps. For 1080p playback we used the Elephants Dream movie-short which is encoded at a bitrate of 9,998kbps and six channel AC3 sound at 448kbps.



The 1080p playback of Elephants Dream is not accelerated because we can only play it in VLC – this uses the CPU-driven ffdshow / ffmpeg engine. While all the other boards, even those from the previous generation, handle it with ease and a reasonably low minimum, the GeForce 8200 on the Jetway board clearly doesn't like this and uses close to 50 percent CPU usage compared to just a quarter from the AMD 780G. This is worth bearing in mind if you prefer to use VLC, Windows Media Player Classic, or even Windows Media Centre because none of these can use the PureVideo HD (or UVD) engine to accelerate video like PowerDVD can.

720p playback performance is acceptable though, with only a few percent higher performance than the AMD 780G.

WMV9HD Playback

For WMV9HD playback we again used PowerDVD Ultra and again played the files from a hard drive instead of disc. The 720p trailer we used was for the movie, Doom 3, with a bitrate of 6,790kbps and two channel WMA3 sound at 440kbps. For 1080p playback we used the The Living Sea trailer which is encoded at a bitrate of 9,847kbps and six channel WMA3 sound at 384kbps.



WMV9HD playback suffers a bit at 1080p for the GeForce 8200 with its high minimum CPU usage and average performance above that of even the previous generation GeForce 7100 that didn't even have the PureVideo engine built in. AMD's 780G is lower again by several percent CPU usage. At 720p, however, the GeForce 8200 almost matches the AMD 780G – the minimums are both identical, but the AMD 780G again noses ahead in average performance by a few percent.