Evaluation of HEVC decoders (SW, Hybrid and HW)

[Aleksoid1978]

Originally Posted by NikosD

We want to measure the scaling of performance regarding bandwidth from 80 Mbps to 300 Mbps and the difference in performance between two implementations - Skylake in HD 530 and Nvidia 960.

Isn't it obvious ?

Why - what's it do ??
Ok - Skylake decoding ~200 fps, GTX 960 ~100. What's next ??

[NikosD]

You didn't read all of my answer...

And if you 're looking for a very practical reason, one of the first replies would be that a decoder which manages 200 FPS on a clip and another one which manages 100 fps on the same clip during benchmarking, the first one will probably consume half power decoding a 50fps clip than the latter.

A second reply would be that in transcoding environment with no renderers involved, a faster decoder could lead to a faster transcoding.

A third reply could be that a two times faster decoder - a 200 FPS decoder vs a 100 FPS decoder - means that it can support two times more simultaneous streams in a video server environment or other multi- streams decoding requirements.

Do you want a fourth reason ?

[wanezhiling]

Originally Posted by Aleksoid1978

And what's the point to test - if the outputs of 100 or 200 fps, what's the difference ??

The faster the decoding is, the faster the seeking is.

[NikosD]

Ahh. ..Wanezhiling just added a fourth

[nussman]

If Skylake Hybrid Deocder is able to play HEVC 10bit UHD streams is also quite relevant isnt it?

[NikosD]

No, not for me because we already know it does and very slowly compared to pure HW decoding.

Hybrid decoding is just an intermediate "solution" between SW and pure HW decoding.

Only a 72 EUs Skylake GT4e iGPU or a 48 EUs iGPU could have some interest.

[nussman]

Hybrid Decoding is the solution for Skylake. I know it is slow, but it is important whether users can at least play "normal" (no 300mbs stuff) HEVC 10bit streams or not.

You think it is possible or not?

[NikosD]

No it's not.

It would be a huge surprise if HD 530 could play 4K60 fps 10bit in real time on anything above let's say 15 Mbps.

[nussman]

Ok. If someone with skylake is willing to test this here are some samples: http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=46

[NikosD]

That sample is good, because it's only 23 Mbps and could confirm or not my guess.

[P.J]

This one should be better for Yups to test: http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=97

Hybrid has terrible hiccups though.

[NikosD]

At 50 Mbps ? No, no chance at all.

Still waiting for your tests with your 960 at those 5 clips

[Yups]

Originally Posted by NikosD

1) Samsung 4K@30fps-80Mbps file -0230
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PROD...ProQuality.MP4

Decode= 163-168-172 [2-3%]
Playback= 132-141-145 [1-4%]

Originally Posted by NikosD

2) Samsung 4K@30fps-80Mbps file -0235
http://imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sa...HD_Sample1.MP4

Decode= 198-205-207 [1-3]
Playback= 143-154-158 [1-3%]

Originally Posted by NikosD

3) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -100Mbps file
https://www.sendspace.com/file/fvgk57

Decode= 163-166-169 [0-2%]
Playback= 129-139-143 [2-5%]

Originally Posted by NikosD

4) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -200Mbps file
https://www.sendspace.com/file/usyase

Decode= 134-139-141 [2-3%]
Playback= 114-123-128 [2-6%]

Originally Posted by NikosD

5) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -300Mbps file
http://www.filedropper.com/crowdrun2160p50300mbps

Decode= 113-122-126 [1-5%]
Playback= 97-110-115 [3-6%]



It's a very good result I would say. SKL GT2 shader power is the first bottleneck as expected for 8 bit HEVC playback, but it's fast enough nevertheless.

[NikosD]

Perfect!

Thank you for your results.

Extremely good I would say.

It's a 4K120 FPS HEVC 8bit decoder at 300 Mbps (!)

[P.J]

EVGA GTX 960, Win10 x64:


1) Samsung 4K@30fps-80Mbps file -0230
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PROD...ProQuality.MP4

Decode= 117-118-120
Playback= 114-115-118

2) Samsung 4K@30fps-80Mbps file -0235
http://imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sa...HD_Sample1.MP4

Decode= 119-122-126
Playback= 117-118-121

3) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -100Mbps file
https://www.sendspace.com/file/fvgk57

Decode= 129-132-134
Playback= 128-131-133

4) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -200Mbps file
https://www.sendspace.com/file/usyase

Decode= 104-107-109
Playback= 104-107-109

5) Crowd_run 4K@50fps -300Mbps file
http://www.filedropper.com/crowdrun2160p50300mbps
https://mega.nz/#!RVNy0BhB!DpsJlf5n_...vT0P12VikS3xko

Decode= 83-93-97
Playback= 81-92-97

[P.J]

Originally Posted by NikosD

At 50 Mbps ? No, no chance at all.

Still waiting for your tests with your 960 at those 5 clips

That's 10bit, hope Yups gives it a try
http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=97


Can you upload the 300Mbps video somewhere else like mega.nz?

[NikosD]

When I go back home I'll give it a try.

Does mega.nz allow 360 MB files ?

Is filedropper slow ?

Last time I checked it was fast enough.

[Yups]

Originally Posted by P.J

This one should be better for Yups to test: http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=97

Hybrid has terrible hiccups though.

Hybrid

Decode= 56-74-144 [22-36%] ~110 watts
Playback= 48-62-106 [0-28%] ~107 watts


CPU only

Decode= 83-99-156 [68-98%] ~130 watts
Playback= 62-70-81 [35-97%] ~127 watts


i7-6700k 4 Ghz @1.15V
HD 530 @1150 Mhz 10.18.15.4274


CPU only is faster in this case, but all 8 threads are running with ~90% load most of the time. I think on an ULT GT2 SKU with 4 threads only Hybrid will be faster than pure CPU.

[NikosD]

Good speed.

4K60 FPS HEVC 10bit at 50 Mbps but with the minimum values below 50fps.

Better than I thought.

What about this one ?

http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=46

It's from Satellite.

[P.J]

Originally Posted by Yups

Hybrid

Decode= 56-74-144 [22-36%] ~110 watts
Playback= 48-62-106 [0-28%] ~107 watts


CPU only

Decode= 83-99-156 [68-98%] ~130 watts
Playback= 62-70-81 [35-97%] ~127 watts


i7-6700k 4 Ghz @1.15V
HD 530 @1150 Mhz 10.18.15.4274


CPU only is faster in this case, but all 8 threads are running with ~90% load most of the time. I think on an ULT GT2 SKU with 4 threads only Hybrid will be faster than pure CPU.

Great
Would you disable HyperThreading in BIOS and try it again?

Originally Posted by NikosD

When I go back home I'll give it a try.

Does mega.nz allow 360 MB files ?

Is filedropper slow ?

Last time I checked it was fast enough.

Mega allows even big files like 10gb. Got filedropper to work.