Good Card for Encoding x264

[thedozer]

Hi

I tried some encodings on my new PC with a built-in graphic card and I noticed a big difference in quality!

Maybe built-in cards aren't good enough, I don't know, but now I want to install a new card.

I'm only concerned in encoding in x264 I'm not into games and 3D stuff

So does anyone have a suggestion for a good cheap graphic card?


Thanks in advance.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

x264 is CPU only! It doesn't use the GPU at all. If you don't care about games, any on-board graphic will be good enough for you.

Anyway, you may consider buying a CUDA-capable graphics card (Nvidia), so you are prepared for future GPU-accelerated encoders.

The CUDA encoders available (to consumers) yet are not competitive though...

[Blue_MiSfit]

/edit - Lord_Mulder beat me to the punch, but I'll keep my reply in anyway :)

x264 does not take advantage of GPU acceleration.

So, you will see absolutely ZERO benefit from installing a new graphics card, if all you do is pure x264 encoding.

If, however, you're into AviSynth, or ever have to deinterlace, that might be a different story.

neuron2 makes some very nice applications (that you get a license to for $15 for the lot) that uses CUDA on an nVidia card to handle decoding and deinterlacing of MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 video, and feed the result into AviSynth. This can be much faster than doing the deinterlacing on the CPU.

Also, there is one really awesome denoising filter that runs on the GPU - fft3dgpu.

I guess the ultimate question is what kind of encoding do you typically do? Also, what are the specs of your new PC?

~MiSfit

[thedozer]

Thanks for your replys

To make it a bit more clear I'm not into deinterlacing or using AviSynth filters,
I only use AviSynth for a source to re-encode videos into a smaller size that's all.

and about my PC specs: Core2Duo 2200, 2 gigs ram, green power sata HDD (WD), built-in sound and graphic cards.

EDIT:
Doesn't the encoder needs the video to be decoded before encoding it? And good decoding will need a good graphic card?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

and about my PC specs: Core2Duo 2200, 2 gigs ram, green power sata HDD (WD), built-in sound and graphic cards.

To improve your x264 performance you'd better get a Quadcore CPU instead of a new GPU. This would give you double encoding speed compared to your Dualcore (at same clock speed).

Doesn't the encoder needs the video to be encoded before encoding it? And good decoding will need a good graphic card?

Yes, the source needs to be decoded first. But the decoder does NOT use the GPU, unless you use a special GPU-accelerated decoder!

As said before: There is Neuron2's CUDA-accelerated H.264 decoder available for Avisynth. If you intend to use that one, you need an Nvidia card with CUDA support.

Anyway, most decoders won't use your graphics card at all. They'll run on the CPU only, just like x264 itself...

[thedozer]

To tell you the truth I'm not concerned about speed, quality is all that matters to me.

So doesn't the encoder needs the video to be decoded before encoding it? And good decoding will need a good graphic card?

The logical next question will be does GPU makes any difference in decoding quality?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

So doesn't the encoder needs the video to be decoded before encoding it?

Sure.

And good decoding will need a good graphic card?

No. As explained in my previous post, most decoders will NOT use the GPU at all!

And even if you use a special GPU-accelerated decoder, it will only be faster and/or free up CPU time for other tasks. But it won't give better quality.

In fact any proper decoder should give identical output for the same input video...

The logical next question will be does GPU makes any difference in decoding quality?

No, it certainly doesn't ;)

[thedozer]

Wow things got mixed up due to posting and editing at the same time!

But its clear to me now and you saved me some time and money.

thanks guys