AwesomeMachine => Clearly you don't understand the question, which is perfectly clear. Hardware acceleration support for MPEG decoding and H.264 decoding are features completely independent of the normal GPU functions ... and are not included in all video cards.
narmi2 ==> Yes, it's possible. Almost any modern processor can decode MPEG2 DVDs at 1080p without any assist from the GPU.
H.264 (HD content on BluRays and HD DVDs) is even more CPU-intensive, but it can also be decoded without GPU assist with modern core architecture chips ==> there was a lot of discussion about this capability on the AVSForums when the core-architecture chips were first released a few years ago. H.264 requires a CPU with the performance level of an E6600 or better. An E6600 will approach 100% utilization on high action scenes, but can fully decode H.264 content without any stuttering as long as the computer isn't being used for other activiites during the playback. The E6600 scores just over 1500 on PassMark's CPUMark, so any CPU with a PassMark score of 2000 or better should easily be able to playback video without hardware acceleration in the GPU.
Some player software allows you to disable hardware acceleration, which will keep it from using the hardware decode assist features on the GPU (if present). For example, PowerDVD has a checkbox for "Enable hardware acceleration" ==> by default this will be checked if your GPU has hardware accelerated support, but you can uncheck it if you want to see the effect on your system.
