[HymnToLife]

Not a tremendous speed boost here either.
Source is 1080p anime (creditless opening of Michiko e Hatchin), settings are the ones I use for my real-world encodes (except for the CRF 18, I normally use 2 pass bitrate mode and the final RF is usually something between 19-20).
CPU is Phenom II 940 @ 3.2 GHz, running Vista 64. I also updated x264 to r1127 from x264.nl.
I'm going to run another test with standard definition (DVD) anime soon-ish.

Source: C:\software\x264_x64.2009-03-08\michiko_op.avs
Params: --crf 18 --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 4 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --weightb --direct auto --deblock -1:-1 --subme 7 --trellis 1 --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --merange 22 --psy-rd 0.8:0 --thread-input --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim

[Type: 32-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 0 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.02 fps, 7196.12 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.02 fps, 7196.12 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.03 fps, 7196.12 kb/s

[Type: 64-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 0 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.13 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.13 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.16 fps, 7197.35 kb/s

[Type: 64-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 1 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.16 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.17 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.19 fps, 7197.35 kb/s

[Type: 64-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 2 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.21 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.17 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.16 fps, 7197.35 kb/s

[Type: 64-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 4 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.18 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.17 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.15 fps, 7197.35 kb/s

[Type: 64-Bit, Pipe Buffer Size: 8 MByte]
encoded 1944 frames, 5.18 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.16 fps, 7197.35 kb/s
encoded 1944 frames, 5.15 fps, 7197.35 kb/s