NVIDIA and ATI HDCP Compatible Graphics Cards Roundup
by Josh Venning on November 16, 2006 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Sparkle Calibre 7950 GT
Sparkle is the next contributor on our list, and for this review they provided us with an interesting looking HDCP card, the Sparkle Calibre 7950 GT. Sparkle has impressed us in the past with some of their high GPU overclocks, and this card continues that tradition, albeit with lesser overclocks than other models we've seen. Ours came with a factory overclock of 575MHz on the core and 720MHz on the memory, as compared to the reference 550/700 clock speeds for the 7950 GT.
The Calibre 7950 GT has an interesting design, with a somewhat artistic curve to the edges of the HSF, and a matte black coloring with a nice-looking silver horse and the word "Calibre" on it. This card design is allegedly not just for good looks, but part of Sparkle's "Cooling System Technology" which will supposedly allow for greater overclocking. The card has a standard PCIe power connector, as well as two DVI outputs and a component/analog connection port. Like all 7950 GTs, this card comes with 512MB of memory.
Sparkle is the next contributor on our list, and for this review they provided us with an interesting looking HDCP card, the Sparkle Calibre 7950 GT. Sparkle has impressed us in the past with some of their high GPU overclocks, and this card continues that tradition, albeit with lesser overclocks than other models we've seen. Ours came with a factory overclock of 575MHz on the core and 720MHz on the memory, as compared to the reference 550/700 clock speeds for the 7950 GT.
The Calibre 7950 GT has an interesting design, with a somewhat artistic curve to the edges of the HSF, and a matte black coloring with a nice-looking silver horse and the word "Calibre" on it. This card design is allegedly not just for good looks, but part of Sparkle's "Cooling System Technology" which will supposedly allow for greater overclocking. The card has a standard PCIe power connector, as well as two DVI outputs and a component/analog connection port. Like all 7950 GTs, this card comes with 512MB of memory.
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DerekWilson - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link
To be honest, this article was a very long time in production ... we got a hold of the drive almost two months ago iirc. It just took a whole lot of time and energy to get the tests done and the article written. We did go back and add the 8800 and 256mb 1900xt, but the x1950pro seemed to slip through the cracks.Sorry about that. We didn't exclude it on purpose, and we will try to include it in any future articles we write on HDCP protected content and high definition movies.
photoguy99 - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link
If the article was done a while ago, does that mean it's now possible to playback h.264/vc1 Blu-Ray on a PC?It would be good to know what the missing link is to make sure we get it if we want to get playback on our own systems.
DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
All BD movies are currently MPEG-2 -- and probably will be for a while.HD-DVD movies use VC1.
peternelson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link
Wrong, the initial BR moves were mpeg-2 encoded content.
There now exist BR discs with content in the other two main formats.
Also discs with dual layers while original releases were single layer.
The wikipedia page for bluray contains titles, launch dates of the non-mpeg-2 discs.
DerekWilson - Saturday, November 18, 2006 - link
I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.balazs203 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
Thanks for the great review.At this link in the review of the new Panasonic BR player they mention a few non-MPEG2 BD titles they like quality wise:
http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...">http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...
I would be very much interested in an extension of your review with non-MPEG2 titles as obviously I would like to buy a computer which can play back all these titles and MPEG2 is the easisest type. Info about the other types is much more important for me when I consider what parts I want to buy.
JarredWalton - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link
The article wasn't *done* a while ago - it was *started* two months ago. It took that long to get to this point, which says something about the state of the technology.lujack26 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link
I was looking around the web for HDMI video cards after I read this article and came across this website E-bargainz.com. They seem to have great prices, a large selection, and reasonable shipping. Here is the direct link to their selection of HDMI video cards http://www.e-bargainz.com/index.php/cPath/143. I also found a coupon code "Thank You" for $5 off your first purchase. I'm going to try them out. Anything to keep from putting another dollar in Jeff Bezos pockets.