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    Broadcom Crystall Video Decoder

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by desone, Jan 7, 2013.

  1. desone

    desone Notebook Guru

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    I have a spare PCI EX spot in my laptop and was wondering if these units are worth installing. The unit I had in nmind is the BCM970015, which is the latest upgrade for these cards.

    They can be purchased for about $40 so the outlay isn't great.
     
    desone, Jan 7, 2013
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  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    If you don't have issues playing videos then it won't help you. I think you would need an Atom CPU to benefit. Not to mention your GeForce card already has a video decoding circuit built in - not that you need to use that one either.
     
    namaiki, Jan 7, 2013
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  3. desone

    desone Notebook Guru

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    I was thinking of putting one in my XPS M1330 which I have only just purchased. The 8400GS video card built in is fairly basic. I have a spare PCI EX spot in the M1330.
     
    desone, Jan 8, 2013
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  4. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    The 8400GS seems to have a VP3 chip which would be fine for standard 720p and 1080p H.264 video. The Core 2 Duo chip would generally be fine by itself as well.

    edit: by the way, be careful of the 8400/8600 chips which are known for heating up and failing.
     
    namaiki, Jan 8, 2013
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