AGP vs CPU!!!

[Mini-Me]

Hi everyone!
:)

I have just finished putting an AGP card in my media-player box.

The box is built on an ASrock K7S41GX mini-ATX board, Sempron 2200 CPU(1.5GHz clock speed), 256MB DDR RAM, 250GB 7200RPM Seagate, 160GB 7200RPM Seagate in an external USB2 case, GeCube Radeon 9250 AGP 8x graphics card(ATi VPU).

When running on the on-board VGA(before I installed the AGP card), CPU usage as reported by both Task Manager and Everest, was around 40%, when playing DivX, which sounds about right.

When I installed the AGP card, video playback is just fine, but CPU usage as reported by Task Manager and Everest is 100% all the time.

:confused:

Now the interesting thing is, the maths don't seem to work out, cos if the CPU is running 100%, then general things like mouse movement should be jerky and sluggish, but it is not.

You can crank up other apps while a DivX is playing, and the video does not drop out, and the sound is fine, and the other app you are loading loads very quickly, and you can access it, and work with it, with the DivX playing in the background...

Everest reports that CPU temp is 42'C, which sounds like it is not getting hot-and-bothered...

Too me, the system is running just fine, but it is a curiosity!!!!
:rolleyes:


MM.

[Mini-Me]

What is it with AGP cards?!?!!!(rhetorical)
Why do you never have any problems with on-board VGA, but when you try to use AGP cards, something is ALWAYS wrong?!?!!

Nothing has changed that much since my 1st post, but I used to be able to jump and skip around in DivX player anywhere within the movie I liked, but now I have the AGP card in, if I try to skip, the program crashes. It does not give you any warning, and it does not give you any notice on the screen - you try to skip, you see the hour-glass cursor-icon for a second or so, and instead of skipping to where you want, the program just exits...
:mad:
Grrrrrrrrrr...
I'm using the DivX player 2.6, but am downloading the "DivX Play" bundle now, and will see if this improves the issues.

I think that perhaps DivX player simply does not like AGP cards, which would be a programming bug, as EVERY PCI based system I test DivX files on, it plays perfectly every time, but when you try to play movies on a PC with an AGP card, the player always seems to crash...

Seems to suggest software problems, which is why I will try the new bundle from DivX. I'll post here, if I have any luck.

This is not the 1st run-in i've had with AGP cards - the last was with an nVidia 5500 on an MSI board. This time, I tried ATi on an ASrock board, and am seeing some of the same problems.

Are all my attempts to work with AGP going to be as frustrating?

Perhaps it's just as well that AGP is on the way out in favour of PCI-E...

Will go now, and calm myself a little, but it is so annoying.
*sigh*


MM.

[Mini-Me]

Just a quick update:

- I took two double-vodkas, and went to bed. Installed DivX PLAY package, and this seems to be working so far with respect to the sudden exit of the player program.

- We still have 100% CPU usage though, which is very strange. I thought that the purpose of an AGP or any graphics card, was to releive the CPU of some of the workload??? In my case, it appears to be ADDING to the CPU workload...

*sigh*

BTW - I am joking about the double vodkas!!!
:p


MM.

[Mini-Me]

Hi everyone.
:)

Well, i've calmed down a little, and have solved my problems.

I hunted and hunted, and found a program called Zoom Player, and they offer a free version for personal use - this player is one to rival MS Media Player, in my opinion.

The player is brilliant.
Very VERY customizable.
Only around 1MB download
:)
<www.inmatrix.com>

Extremely fast loading, and nice large screen text/bars.

The official DivX player still runs at 100% CPU with the AGP card for some reason, but Zoom Player runs about 46%, with the same movie and settings, so I have adoped this player.

Unlike DivX player, Zoom also plays a wide variety of other video and audio formats.

...and it also plays DVD's...

So, administrators can decide what to do with this thread, but I think I have fixed the problem.

Sorry about the semi-rant earlier in the post, but I was annoyed, and it was about 1:30am!!!


MM.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I've heard bad reviews on DivX Player and personally have problems with it on my pc. I'm glad you found an alternative. It is downloading right now.

Thanks for the link. Hopefully I like it better too.

[Mini-Me]

I think you will be impressed.
I REALLY am...
:eek:

The player is beautiful.
You can customize so much of it, and what I really like, is you can make the full-screen OSD as big as you like, so that it is clear and easy to read, after going through the VGA-TV converter.

Please do post back and tell me what you think of it once you have tried it.

Also, a wonderful feature of Zoom, is the ability to pan-and-scan or zoom the video - this is something you can't do with DivX player(yet).

I copied my DVD of CASINO to DivX using a 1300kbps bitrate(the file is about 1.9GB), and the video is that weird 2.35:1 ratio(or something like that). The picture is a silly little narrow band across the middle of the screen. Using DivX player, you could do nothing about that. Using Zoom player, you can use the [+] and [-] keypad keys to zoom in or out, allowing you to bring the picture up to a more enjoyable viewing size.

...or you can press [R] key, and change the aspect ratio of any format!!!
:eek:
What an excellent bit of code-writing on their part.
:)

I am right on the verge of buying a copy of the Pro release, to further support the project, i'm so happy with the free version.

I'm a big supporter of Shareware - there are some brilliant minds out there writing stuff like this, and I think that people who use hacks/cracks to avoid paying, what usually is, a quite reasonable asking price, should be banished from the computing world!!!
:p

These people(the shareware writers) put a hell of a lot of work into writing these apps for us to try for free.


MM.

[saphalline]

Are you in some sort of weird anti-AGP Burmuda Triangle!? :eek: You have the oddest problems with vid cards!

Seriously, though, I don't know what's going on with your systems. They don't work like they should. My systems all work fine, even the various franken-puters that I've disected and rebuilt over the years. Games and videos, all work fine. Yet there's quite a few people here on the forums whose systems just don't work. Am I just lucky or something?

I don't mean to rant, this is just something I realized right now. Why don't I have any problems? (Of course, now that I've said that... :p)

[Mini-Me]

To be perfectly fair here, I must come clean and state that: There is nothing wrong with the AGP card I installed, and it works just fine.

My problem was(still is) with the DivX player software.

Once I installed the aforementioned Zoom Player, CPU usage is back to the 45% or so it should be with a 1300kbps DivX 5 file...

When you use DivX player, CPU is still 100%, and after peeking in the forums of DivX player, it would seem this is a common problem for many people using the official DivX player...

It would seem to be a software bug, and only effects AGP cards.
On-board VGA m/boards using the official DivX player only use 45% or so of CPU.

I think that as far as the AGP card itself is concerned, all is working just as it should, and graphics are definetly zipper with the AGP card, then with the on-board VGA, so everything's cool in that respect!
:cool:


MM.