Max threads with SD and below

[nixo]

Hi,

At what point (meaning number of threads) will there be a significant quality hit when encoding sources with SD resolution and below with x264?

I'm looking to perhaps buy an i7 860, which should default to 12 threads, I think. Would I be better off running several simultaneous encodes with less threads?

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Nikolaj

[poisondeathray]

You generally won't be able to max out cpu with i7 on SD source (depends on settings and any bottlenecks like filters, source decoding). Better to do simultaneous encodes IMO

In terms of quality, the hit from 8-12 threads is very tiny, less than 0.1% in terms of PSNR on most sources for typical encoding settings

[nixo]

Yeah, I didn't consider bottlenecks. Thanks!

--
Nikolaj

[Blue_MiSfit]

You're not allowed to complain about not being able to max out the CPU unless you're using --preset placebo ;)

You can absolutely max out an i7 and get crazy fast FPS with good settings though. The key is using a fast decoder, and light (if any) AviSynth scripting. Better still to just load the source directly via ffms2 in x264 (with the latest builds), if possible.

~MiSfit