from a podcast: hardware accelerate AVC ENCODING. Can someone explain?

[ellesshoo]

So in the various podcasts I listen to on the way to work, one of them (not sure which), mentioned a card that will accelerate h/x.264 encoding. I missed much of the details b/c I had to take a call and then I was already at work. I think I caught the info that it was made by Nvidia.

Are there any details on this around here? What about software compatibility? Is this just the first step and now this feature may become more common on other video cards? Are there any cards currently out that do this (link)?

One final question, are headed to a point where top of the line CPU's aren't necessary when you can get an average consumer CPU and a video card that supposrts this and is actually faster?

Forgive my lack of knowledge. Been away from the scene but when I heard this little tid bit I had to ask here.

[Audionut]

Are there any details on this around here?

Forum rule 1

Use the search function.

[Sagekilla]

I'd agree with Audionut here, as this is has been an.. extensively discussed topic. It basically boils down to GPUs can be faster than CPUs, but the quality is horrendous. And, if you bring x264 down to the GPU encoder's level (that's a feat in itself to get that low of quality) then it's faster/better quality.