Recommendations as at July 2013

AMD Trinity A6-5400K CPU FM2 Socket

Probably the sweet spot in terms of performance and price.  If you move up to the A8-5600K then it uses more power (100W vs 65W).  As explained earlier integrated GPU performance also depends on speed of access to the memory (RAM), so we recommend you pair the A6-5400K with dual sticks of DDR3 1600 or DDR3 1866 RAM. Most users go for 2x2GB or 2x4GB of RAM.  The RAM does not need to be expensive you can use the lowest price RAM available.

2012

AMD Trinity Series CPUs (AMD AX-5XXX)

AMD A4-5XXX Contains HD7480D graphics chip

AMD A6-5XXX contains HD7540D graphics chip

AMD A8-5XXX contains HD7560D graphics chip

AMD A10-5XXX contains HD7660D graphics chip

All of these onboard graphic chips should be fine for 1080p and 1080i Live TV in mediaportal.

AMD A6-5400K is probably the sweet spot in terms of price/performance/wattage.

The graphics chip generally performs faster than the equivalent Intel onboard GPU

Reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Fus..._32.C2.A0nm.29

Reference - http://www.bjorn3d.com/2012/09/amd-t.../#.UPtnzCce1uI

Reference - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/a10-58...iew-32463.html

Reference - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...-graphics.html

Article AMD Trinity: An HTPC perspective

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6335/a...pc-perspective

2011

AMD Llano Series CPUs (AMD AX-3XXX)

AMD E2-3XXX contains HD6370D graphics chip - Fine for 1080p, not recommended for 1080i Live TV

AMD A4-3XXX contains HD6410D graphics chip - Fine for 1080p, not recommended for 1080i Live TV (But might be ok)

AMD A6-3XXX contains HD6530D graphics chip - Fine for 1080p and might be ok for 1080i

AMD A8-3XXX contains HD6550D graphics chip - Fine for 1080p and 1080i

They generally perform slightly faster than the equivalent Intel onboard GPU

Reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Fus...832.C2.A0nm.29

Reference - http://www.bjorn3d.com/2011/06/amd-l.../#.UPtq5yce1uI

Reference - http://www.anandtech.com/show/4479/a...pc-perspective

Reference - http://www.anandtech.com/show/5906/a...ilders-guide/5

Article - AMD Llano HTPC Builders Guide

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5906/a...builders-guide

2008

AMD 780G/785G Chipset

The speed at which this onbaord graphics chip operates is dependent on the type of CPU.  If you have a Phenom CPU the gpu will run faster than one with an Athlon CPU.  This chip is fine for hardware decoding of 1080P in mediaportal.  However if you have an Athlon CPU then it will stutter with 1080i. With a Phenom CPU it is marginal at best, it may be ok, but as a result of this it can't be  recommended for 1080i decoding.  If you have one of these iGPU and want to improve it's 1080i performance then you need to overclock the front side bus (which increases the HT speed and allows the iGPU to access the shared RAM faster)