E6400 and full HD TV playback...

Hey guys,

At the moment I am hanging back for a couple of weeks to see what 'Centrino 2' updates come from Dell in terms of their Studio/ XPS lines.... but to be honest am pretty much sold on the E6400/E6500 with its metal finish and thin form factor (compared to Centrino 2 releases from most other manufacturers so far!).

However, whilst I won't be doing any heavy gaming, I want to make sure that I make the right choice in terms of graphics card.

I will need to be running a 2007WFP at 1680*1050 regularly at my desk. I will also quite often be playing video files and working from a FullHD 40" TV @ 1920*1080. I will be running Vista 64-bit, and will likely have configuration with P9500, 4GB RAM (at least) and WLED.

How will the integrated 4500MHD handle these tasks?
How will the NVS 160M handle this?

Lastly.... I think the answer to this is no (from my own browsing of the service manual, think it may be soldered...), but do you think the graphics card (assuming I go with 160M) could be upgraded to that in the precision equivalent down the track if needed a bit more grunt? I would be looking at the precision except they haven't released pricing for it in Australia yet and I don't like the back of the LCD!

Cheers!

 

no.


Also, I think both the integrated and discrete graphics offer HD acceleration.

 

I downloaded 720p and 1080p HD samples from Microsoft and my E6400 (Intel GPU) played both with no difficulty. More details in my review.

John

 

Thanks John. But will the integrated actually output at that resolution (1920 x 1080) to an external TV/ monitor? I recall reading somewhere that its max output was less than that but I may have been mistaken....

Stu

 

This comment suggests it should be able to handle 1920 x 1200. Could Intel put this in the datasheet unless the chipset can output the required resolution?

BTW, I was only able to test on the internal (WXGA+ display).

John

 

I've got it configured with P9500, 4GB RAM and NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M and I can confirm it runs 1080p without any problems.

 

Thanks Jorisa

 

As far as i know, HD playback needs a fast processor and is not highly dependent on the graphics card as much as it is on the cpu.

 

The 4500MHD has a built-in decoder capable of 1080p HD formats. So if Intel is true to their word, the video decoding should be offloaded to the GPU.

 

The unsolved problem is how about Audio. Will E6400's DispalyPort carry sound too?