Do YOU encode in Safe Mode?

[DarkT]

We all know that once windows finished loading up, tons of stuff loads with it, naturally, the handy "end task" can help us get those things closed - but it can't close ALL of the unneccesairy stuff.

Here comes Safe Mode to the rescue, I mostly use this to fix people's PCs - since it's just bare-bones windows loaded, none of their bullshit programs, etc...

Anyway, I am encoding now in safe mode, and to me it seems it's faster - I have not stress tested this idea yet, but I'm quite certain it IS faster.

Do you do this trick too?

[check]

It probably is, but not by a significant proportion. I use process explorer to see CPU usage, and over every 10sec interval, x264 tends to get 99%+ CPU usage (accurate to 2dp). Unless windows somehow hides cpu usage from the rest of the system, the only gain would be of a placebo nature :)

[DarkT]

"Unless windows somehow hides cpu usage from the rest of the system"

Are you underestimating little billy(gates)?

*sigh* I know that RAM plays also a part in all of this, I'm pretty certain I've seen people post comparisons - after 1gb of ram it doesn't move down by much, BUT, I only have 512 ram... And all those progs also take ram... So... Ya know ;).

Edit:

BTW - I see you're also anime-encoding related? Could you recommend to me settings? I've been reading here and there, got recommendatipons of increasing b-frames, and putting pyramid on, etc... But still, I'd love to get more tips :).

[check]

yes, with 512mb ram it might be useful. I'm sitting on 1gb here, and even when I tell avisynth to use 1024mb, it rarely uses over 600mb -- so that's a non issue here.

[DarkT]

Aaaah, I see... Mhmhmhm, dellusions, eh? :).

Ah well, it makes me feel better ;).

I'll test it out later, when I have 1gb of ram and report.

[check]

missed the last line. my advice is:
"the avs is everything" :)

[DarkT]

AVS is everything? This sounds like something yoda would say >.>

:).

[Vitos]

In Safe Mode DMA transfer from all drives is disabled and they work in slower and CPU-dependant PIO modes. So there might be a negative impact of encoding in Safe Mode with bigger files...

[DarkT]

Hmmm, I can't say that I have noticed it - and I was working with 2 loseless passes - 4-5gb each.

Well, as I've said - needs further checking ;).

[BigDid]

It probably is, but not by a significant proportion...
Hi,

You may want to redo the avs test in this thread http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120371 to have a factual comparison.

I have done it and have quite a surprise but it is only me and my new rig actually in tests...
I'll post results in the thread later.

Did

[squid_80]

Unless windows somehow hides cpu usage from the rest of the system, the only gain would be of a placebo nature :)
When looking at the performance tab in task manager, open the view menu and turn on the Show Kernel Times option. Watch it when using DGIndex - even though the program is listed as using ~20% cpu, there's huge (~25%) kernel times associated with all the I/O calls.

[Blue_MiSfit]

In Safe Mode DMA transfer from all drives is disabled and they work in slower and CPU-dependant PIO modes. So there might be a negative impact of encoding in Safe Mode with bigger files...

This is always what I thought as well, but it seems that with newer systems this is not the case. PIO is PAINFULLY slow, and safe mode can sometimes be just as fast as normal mode for heavy disk I/O.

[check]

process explorer displays that by default :). It doesn't have multiple displays per CPU though, which is its only failing.