New Graphics Card?

Darren Heal

Thinking about upgrading the graphics card in my HTPC from the current, either an EVGA GeForce GTX970 to a new GTX1650 card.

I've been having lots of problems with the existing graphics card trying to force its audio decoding on me, resulting in handshake issues with the AVR which in turn result in loud crackling noise during playback, especially of loud bits like the blast-off scenes in The Martian and Apollo 13.  That, and I'd like the HTC to do the upscaling and provide the 120 Hz (ideally) or 60 Hz (acceptable) frame rate at full 3840 x 2160 resolution.

The one I have in mind is the Gigabyte GV-N1650OC-4GD, 4 gigs of RAM and US$160-ish on Amazon US.

I am NOT looking for gaming or 3D, just playing 2D movies and TVs streamed over the HTPC.

Looking for the following:

(1) Higher refresh rates, ideally 120 Hz but will settle for 60, at full UHD 3840 x 2160 resolution, HDCP2.2, HDR10, WCG, etc. etc.  I'm in the US, where the mains frequency is 60 not 50 Hz, BTW, so things run at, 60 or 120 Hz not 50 or 100 like in the UK / EUSSR.

(2) Updated audio - either properly decoded Atmos and / or DTS:X / NeuralX or pure UN-decoded PCM and / or bitstream for the AVR to decode.

The PC is a home-built HTPC running Windows 10 Pro with a 3 GHz i5 CPU and 16 gigs of RAM, runs off a 120 gig SSD, with media files streamed via wired ethernet using Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra version 19.

The receiver is a Marantz 7010 hooked up to a 7.2.4 surround sound speaker system and an lg 86-inch 4K HDR10 TV.

Advice anyone?  Not looking to spend a fortune on features I don't understand and probably don't need.

Thanks...

ChuckMountain

Does the tv and amp actually support 120hz?

How are you files stored that got stream ?

Darren Heal

Either MKVs (mainly the old DVDs) or pure copied to disc (mainly the blu-rays and certainly all of the blu-rays with Atmos soundtracks).  Doesn't seem to matter.

And if you think I'm going to re-rip 300  DVDs and 150  blu-rays....

ChuckMountain

No was checking the client side requirements and was going suggest using a dedicated box to tick your requirements, something like the vero 4k  for example.  That runs Kodi though which I use but you might not want to.

ChuckMountain

Regular tv's don't run at higher than 60hz

Darren Heal

Fairy nuff. The TV I have says 120 Hz but that might be just internally.  What I can't live with is jerky motion or jitter due to lower refresh rates.  

Incidentally I found running the current card at 59 Hz seems to work better...

Darren Heal

Want to stick with HTPC so I can, if needed, use it as a really big screen PC as well

ChuckMountain

It could be software related your issues.

The content should be played back at the appropriate frame rate so most films will be approximately 24 Hz .  They won't be jerky unless you have something setup up wrong, converting to 60Hz normally results in extra frames etc which can look worse.

The 120hz is marketing bs ...

ChuckMountain

Have you tried Kodi which is free before you shell out?

Darren Heal

Not interested in different apps, boxes, etc.  Question was about graphics card.

If I told you I wanted to buy a car would you insist on trying to sell me a horse or a boat?