AC3 vs. MP3 low mips requirement

[videophool]

I am considering audio codecs for a scenario in which there will be very little CPU available for audio decoding, and so I want the audio codec with the lowest MIPS requirement. We do need some audio compression, however, but are willing to sacrifice some compression efficiency to gain CPU cycles. With this in mind, does anybody have any thoughts on AC3 vs. MP3. I have been looking for some general guidelines on audio codec vs. mip requirements. A link would be very helpful. Thanks.

[DJ Bobo]

I don't know about MIPS requirements, but AC3 requires less CPU time on my machine than MP3 (CBR).

AC3 Stereo 192kbps 48KHz: ~3%
MP3 Stereo 128kbps 48KHz: ~5%

Decoded with MPC-HC's internal filters.

NB: CPU was running at 950MHz during this test.

[Midzuki]

MP2 should be less resource-consuming than both MP3 and AC3.