Pentium D or AMD64?

[Bear]

Hello,

I want to build a faster encoding machine to encode videos to xvid format. I got the following cpus in my list:

1. Pentium D 820
2. Athlon 64 X2 4400+
3. AMD 64 3500

I see a lot of review, saying that AMD 64 x2 is the fastest, than Pentium D 820 and finally AMD 64 3500.

The price for AMD64 x2 might be a bit high, so I might not consider. In most report, Pentium D is faster than AMD64 3500. But I am thinking about, since a lot of app is going to 64 bit, is it still worth to get a 32bit Pentium D 820?

Any comments?

[Doom9]

XviD isn't SMP optimized (yet) so a dual core will bring very little to the table. As far as video encoding goes, there's plenty of good benchmarks out there and it's up to you to decide which ones you believe.

All things being equal I'd give my money to AMD because they're the little guy, but the X2 series is pretty good at outperforming anything so imho worth the price tag (I have one myself).

I wouldn't consider 64 bit right now.. the move to 64 bit operating systems is unlikely to happen shortly in the PC mainstream. But if you're looking to buy a machine to be used for the next 5 years, then I would give 64 bit some consideration.

[yamo]

The D 820 also has Intels EMT64, a kind of AMD64 (x86-64).
It is not 32bit, almost full AMD64 support (exept the IOMMU and 3DNow!, of course).
There is a nice Comparison between AMD64 3500+ and Intels D 820 on
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2389
The encoding speed of the D 820 Xvid with AutoGK 1.6 is 32.5 fps; the 3500+ gets 30 fps...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2389&p=4
They didnt say anything about the exact xvid settings though....

Intel is a little faster in Xvid, but is it really worth buying an intel processor with a netburst-pipeline ? :D

[dvd_maniac]

Question about the SMP in Xvid:
I have 3 Intel CPU systems
P4 478 2.8 HT, P4 478 3.0 HT and a Pentium D 830 3.0
I record TV with Hauppauge devices at 12mbit/s 384 audio so my files are about 5GB/Hr. I use AutoGK to encode them to 300MB/Hr I leave everything else default. The two single cores take a little over two hours to encode. But the Pentium D only takes about 1hr 15min? I can see that during the Vdub stages that the CPU is utilizing around 65% of the Pentium D, so if xvid is not SMP optimized, then why the speedup?

[Doom9]

if XviD were SMP optimized, you'd see a much higher CPU utilization. I consistently get over 80% using x264 with two threads.

Though why it's that much faster is beyond me.. I'd quadruplecheck my settings (and perhaps get rid of HT for a change.. it's usefullness is not beyond reproach and while it helps some times, other times it hurts just as much).

They didnt say anything about the exact xvid settings though....I actually wrote their cpu editor about the reproducability of their benchmarks in the video area two weeks ago. No reply so far. I guess I must be looking for another place in the future that listens to valid concerns. I wished I had enough time to benchmark myself and do it right. Too many sites out there just run standard benchmark tools, which imho is very little service. If you look at how c't does it with their own tools.. you at least know why you pay for the mag. It is obviously an extra effort to benchmark the real video tools (writing page 1 of a codec comparison is hell), but it's imho the only way. If you cannot reproduce a benchmark it is worthless. Try feeding your thesis supervisor data they cannot reproduce (not that they do, but at least they try to determine if it would be possible).. and you're not going to be done in a long while..

[Bear]

Thanks for the replies and the info. I will check them out. I am currently using P4-3.2G (800 FSB, socket 478) to encode the movies.

I don't know how this cpu compaare with Pentium D 830 or 820. As dvd_maniac said, he use socket 478 cpu as well, and when he compare with Pentium D cpu, there is a great increase in performance. I think the Pentium D will sure peformace better than the 478 socket cpu for encoding movies.

According to Toms, http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041221/cpu_charts-19.html I can see the P4-3.2G is even rank higher than P4 540. The highest rank is P4 570. In here, http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050405/pentium_d-13.html the Pentium D 840 is rank even higher than the P4 570. So I guess, Pentium D 830 must be faster than my current P4-3.2G.

So If going to get a intel cpu, I will sure to consider Pentium D 830 or 820.

[dvd_maniac]

So If going to get a intel cpu, I will sure to consider Pentium D 830 or 820.

I think it would be better to be more future proof since I'm sure xvid will go SMP shortly.

@Doom
Thanx for the HT tip. I will run a comparison with and without HT and see if the non-HT is faster

[yamo]

@bear
AMD is going to release a Dual-Core X2 3800+ processor pretty soon, that will
be priced like the Intel D 830. Could be an interesting
alternative, the AMD X2 4800 outperforms the Intel D 840 by far
in video encoding, especially in Xvid + Windows Media.
See also http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050509/cual_core_athlon-15.html

[Bear]

Thanks a lot.

I have a look of the info at: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20050706A2006.html

Haha.., really don't know how Dual-Core X2 3800+ compare with Pentium D 830 or 820.

I have a look of this review: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2410&p=6

You can see the Dual-Core X2 4200 is working faster than Pentium D 840. When it compare to Dual-Core X2 3800+, I don't know which one will win.

[Doom9]

Besides price and performance, there's actually another factor to consider: as you've probably heard, AMD is sueing Intel for unfair competition. It is an open secret in the IT industry that Intel is forcing the hand of many retailers and OEMs to only offer Intel CPUs or at least don't equivalently support both Intel and AMD chips.

So, if you give them your money, you're at least passively condoning those unfair market practices. And then there's the thing about supporting the little guy to ensure there will be competition in the times to come.. if intel was all alone eventually prices would go up and technological advancement would slow down as in any other monopoly situation.

[luders]

IMHO the motherboard is the most important part of a quality computer these days. I went with Pentium D because of the motherboard I was able to get with it and because the Pentium D was much cheaper with the two features I was looking for (Dual core and 64 bit.) I found I really wanted the 955x northbridge and the ich7 south. Anywho, its all good.