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General discussion

Mac Mini - Video card supports DirectX 9?

May 23, 2007 12:41AM PDT

Hi Everybody, I'm looking to buy a mac mini as a head unit for a media center (I will be running MediaPortal under Windows XP) and one of the requirements is that the video card supports DX9 for video overlays. So, if I'm running windows via bootcamp, will the video card support DX9?

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Link, comment.
May 23, 2007 2:49AM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_mini

While it does have dx9 capable drivers in the dual boot mode, it is just a GMA 950 video solution which does not meet some game requirements.

Could you tell more?

Bob
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more info
May 23, 2007 3:08AM PDT

Thanks for the info! This machine will pretty much be just a video and music player. I have a large video library that is hosted on a server in the house and the mac mini will be streaming that video (and some music) over my local network (wifi). What I had planned was simply windows shares from the server. The server itself used to be an all in one solution, but it is very loud and my girlfriend has finally gotten fed up with the noise. So the idea is to put the server in a closet and have the mini be the head node for the media center. I am interested in seeing if FrontRow will be a viable solution to this and I am excited to check it out, but I could not consider buying a mac unless I knew that if FrontRow didn't offer everything I wanted, I could use the windows side to get everything. I have tested streaming Hi-Res video over my local network and it's worked perfectly and I know the mac mini's processor is more then enough to handle the video, it was just a question of the video overlay that is provided by DX9 (so I can browse menus and stuff, with the video playing behind it, one of my favorite features). I will not be using the mac min for games at all (thats what the 360 and wii are for). And yes I know the 360 can do a lot of this too, but then I have to be running WMP or some other app to do the sharing and i'd like to avoid that. Plus the 360's interface leaves something to be desired. By the way, if you've never heard of MediaPortal, it's a great open source alternative to Windows MCE.

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Didn't really explain why DX9 is required.
May 23, 2007 3:20AM PDT

Streaming certainly wouldn't need it. The display is not used for that.

That was one long paragraph so if I missed your new question it's because of the poor formatting.

Bob

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no more questions
May 23, 2007 3:25AM PDT

nah, no new questions, just excited to get a new setup up and running, so i rambled a little. plus, this will be my first apple purchase ever, so i'm stoked to play around with osX