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RedDwarf1
5th February 2008, 01:37
I am thinking of rebuilding my PC as I built it over 3 years ago and it is now not really up to the job of video encoding. It is an Mobile Athlon XP 1800 which I can overclock to 2.4GHz but anything demanding such as x264 encoding is extremely slow.

So I am considering rebuilding it with a Quad Core 2 CPU. What I am uncertain about it the Graphics card.

My PC's power usage is a concern. It can really drive up my electricity bill when it is on 24/7 so that is also a reason to rebuild my PC as newer PC's are more power efficient when idle. I am considering the new Gigabyte motherboards with Dynamic Energy Saver feature but I want to see some reviews before purchasing to make sure they perform and overclock well.

With all this in mind the power usage of the graphics card is a priority as they can use more power than most other things, even when idle.

I am planning on moving to x264 encoding from XVid and re-encoding some high Def satellite broadcasts which are 1080p down to 720p and a smaller filesize. These are broadcast in H264 format so I believe I could do with something that can assist decoding to leave the CPU free to re-encode it and give good speed. That is the only real use I have for the graphics card as I do not play games.

So I would like to know whether a suitable graphics card would be an advantage when re-encoding Hi Def Videos, to help decode it as it is being re-encoded. Recommendations on suitable Graphics cards would be helpful and I would like to know whether you have used your graphics card in this way while encoding x264 video.

So I would like some graphics card recommendations, something like 8500GT, 8600GT, 8600GTS, ATI 2400 models and 2600 models etc.

I would also like to know what types of video the graphics card is capable of decoding.

Okay it's Toms Hardware and not all that reliable but is the only one showing the actual graphics card power usage. It's the idle power usage that is what is important.
http://i27.tinypic.com/33pehrq.png
neuron2
5th February 2008, 04:49
Better fix your title per forum rule 9 before you get struck.
Reimar
6th February 2008, 15:09
I am planning on moving to x264 encoding from XVid and re-encoding some high Def satellite broadcasts which are 1080p down to 720p and a smaller filesize. These are broadcast in H264 format so I believe I could do with something that can assist decoding to leave the CPU free to re-encode it and give good speed. That is the only real use I have for the graphics card as I do not play games.


Do you actually know of any encoding program that can use the GPU (even if only for the decoding part, though if you encode with high quality decoding speed should not really be relevant anyway)?
I certainly do not, and by the time such programs come up those graphics cards have become much cheaper and use less power.
If you do not play the newest games, I can't see why you should by anything better than something fanless for under $50 (i.e. previous generation)...
Blue_MiSfit
6th February 2008, 20:53
Do you actually know of any encoding program that can use the GPU (even if only for the decoding part, though if you encode with high quality decoding speed should not really be relevant anyway)?


It may be possible if you set up a decoding chain manually in GraphEdit.

[EVO Source] -> Haali Splitter -> Cyberlink H.264 decoder

Save that as a GRF, and use DirectShowSource("movie.grf")

Might work... I usually use CoreAVC and don't worry about it :) Decoding should be a tiny piece of the overall work your CPU is performing. Still, every little bit counts :)

~MiSfit
RaynQuist
6th February 2008, 20:59
I'm pretty sure it's impossible right now to feed GPU-accelerated decoded pictures into x264. Once the GPU finishes decoding it sends the pictures out to DVI. The pictures never make it back to main memory.
burfadel
7th February 2008, 05:30
hmmm, what core 2 quad cpu are you looking at? you might be interested to know the more mainstream qx9xx0 cpu's are coming out shortly, I have my eye on the qx9450. I feel it would be more beneficial through the much refined architecture quad core wise than using a q6600 or q6700. Not to mention also that it would be much better in terms of encoding speed!
Konrad Klar
7th February 2008, 11:02
I'm pretty sure it's impossible right now to feed GPU-accelerated decoded pictures into x264. Once the GPU finishes decoding it sends the pictures out to DVI. The pictures never make it back to main memory.
...that is completely false.
I've made small AVS script:
DirectShowSource("VTS_01_4.VOB")
In this case NVIDIA Video Decoder is used. After opening the AVS script in MCP, NVIDIA Video Decoder's icon appears in traybar and when I make changes in NVIDIA Decoders properties window, displayed video changes too.
Unfortunately GraphEdit cannot display chain of filters used by AVS.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention that NVIDIA Video Decoder uses GPU for decoding of MPEG2.
swaaye
9th February 2008, 08:08
FFT3DGPU noise filter is the only GPU accelerated video encoding software I know of.

Radeon HD 3850 is as power efficient when idle as a 8600GT but is much, much faster. I believe it is the most power efficient high-performance GPU out there.