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Sapphire HD5770 Viper-X: high GPU utilization watching HDTV
Just a question...
I recently upgraded my hardware because of a replacement for my old 21" CRT 1280x960 monitor with a new 24" LCD 1920x1200 monitor, being used as Monitor #2 in a 2-monitor setup. Monitor #1 is also a 24" LCD 1920x1200 monitor and remains unchanged.
To properly support the second digital monitor, I upgraded the video card from a DVI/VGA HD4850 to a DVI/DVI HD5770.
When I was using the HD4850 card in the machine Aida64 reported about 20% GPU utilization when I was watching 1080i HDTV (in a window on monitor #1). Now, with the HD5770, Aida64 reports much much higher GPU utilization... around 65%. GPU utilization is lower when watching 720p, so I'm certain what I'm seeing is a reasonably accurate representation of true hardware utilization related to HDTV.
It's hard to tell about ordinary CPU utilization when watching these HDTV programs, as it was and is relatively low. So if it's now lower (because the HD5770 hardware is taking on the load), it's not that obvious. Even with the HD4850 there was not a high CPU utilization when watching HDTV.
I don't know if this is anything I need to be concerned about, or whether this is good or bad, or whether this is simply an indication that the HD5770 hardware is actually performing much more of the HD-related processing whereas with the HD4850 that same required processing was handled by software in the drivers.
So... can anybody enlighten me as to whether what I'm seeing is perfectly normal and to be expected? Could this simply be a different way that Aida64 sees "GPU Utilization" from the HD5770, and is perhaps just more accurate than it was with the HD4850?