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Raspberry Pi has something less than decent hardware and is still able to output an HD stream (that's what I have read, correct me if I am wrong). A 700 MHz ARM processor, a not-so-great GPU, but it still manages to have an HD output.

Which parts of the graphic processing are handled by different subsystems (CPU, GPU, external monitor)? What is the load of generating a HD output on different subsystems as compared to the older analog output? Additionally, if Raspberry Pi is attached to a big HD screen, will the output be bad (as more number of pixels have to be processed)?

Some reference to the Linux graphic stack (I think I can handle some amount of technicality) will be appreciated.

Peter Mortensen
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pareshverma91
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1 Answers1

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Raspberry Pi has something less than decent hardware and is still able to output an HD stream (that's what I have read, correct me if I am wrong). A 700  MHz ARM processor, a not-so-great GPU, but it still manages to have an HD output.

The Raspberry Pi has an incredibly powerful GPU, especially for its price. Sporting a VideoCore IV GPU in the BCM2835 SoC, it can easily output HD 1080p video. And because the chip is cost-optimized and designed for power efficiency, it was the perfect choice for the Raspberry Pi.

Chips like these are being used in many higher-end devices today (such as smartphones), some being the SoC of choice for companies such as Apple.

The reason you might think that the Raspberry Pi has less than decent hardware is because few applications actually use hardware acceleration with the Raspberry Pi (it actually uses the CPU to process graphics right now). One program I know does use hardware acceleration and runs very well is OMXPlayer. Try it out, and you can see how powerful the Raspberry Pi can actually be when properly used.

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syb0rg
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