Hardware.Info posted The best HTPC platform for the future: video quality tested of current CPUs and GPUs A quote from the article:

Which current hardware is the best choice for a living room PC and will be able to handle all future formats as well? Hardware.info tested 11 platforms, both dedicated graphics as well as CPUs with integrated graphics. In this test we do not only look at Full HD and the current codecs such as H.264, but we also look at 4k (Ultra HD) and the new HEVC codec.

It has been quite some time that we have looked at the possibilities and image quality offered by dedicated graphics cards. A few years ago there were some issues, as there were big differences between ATI/AMD and nVidia graphics cards, and also between cheaper and more expensive GPUs. More recent cards, regardless of pricing, all sport an excellent H.264 decoder and all have decent possibilities for post processing.

We did decide to revisit this test because of two reasons. There are now a lot of affordable and efficient platforms and more are coming, all an interesting base for a decent HTPC. Secondly the new Ultra HD standard (4K) is up and coming, new TV sets are being introduced regularly and the new H.265 (or HEVC codec) designed for this resolution is becoming more popular as well. One conclusion we can draw from this test is that if you are looking at building a HTPC that can handle this resolution and codec, it does come at a price.

 The best HTPC platform for the future: video quality tested of current CPUs and GPUs @ Hardware.Info