H.264 DXVA Benchmarks: QuickSync vs UVD 2.2 vs VP4 vs VP5

[Yups]

Mid-2015 for Skylake-S. Q2 2015 in the last Roadmap.

[nevcairiel]

Broadwell isn't coming out before Q1 2015, if you still believe Skylake is up for anywhere in 2015..... ;)

[NikosD]

Broadwell for desktop is for Q2 2015.

No way Intel will release two different architectures at the same time !

[GTPVHD]

Nvidia Maxwell second generation GM204 will launch on September 19, time to see if it supports HEVC decoding.

[NikosD]

I guess not.

VP6 of 750 is very new and there was no time to add such a feature since then.

But is Nvidia is a big brand.
We'll see.

[Yups]

Broadwell isn't coming out before Q1 2015, if you still believe Skylake is up for anywhere in 2015..... ;)


Your are not well informed. Broadwell for desktop is practically nonexistent next year, it's only Broadwell-K with GT3e graphics. The mainstream successor of Haswell non-K will be Skylake-S next year. These CPUs are non-K SKUs with GT2 graphics. And yes Broadwell-K and Skylake-S are both supposed to come mid-2015. Many people don't understand that both are aimed for different segments which allows Intel to bring Broadwell and Skylake at the same time on desktop.

http://www.hardwareluxx.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31758%20%20&catid=34&Itemid=99
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/anton-shilov/intel-to-release-first-skylake-microprocessors-in-q2-2015-says-report/
http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2014/2014052601_Intel_Skylake_desktop_CPUs_to_launch_in_Q2_2015.html

[NikosD]

Nice!

We'll see.

[GTPVHD]

http://game24.nvidia.com/

GM204 confirmed launching on the 19th.

[NikosD]

At last!

The first AMD card with 4K H.264 fixed-function HW decoding support.

"New video decode block. The R9 285 also includes a new video decoder block for full hardware decode of H.264 4K streams. H.264 base, main, and high profile up to 5.2 are all supported. That means the new block can handle decoding 4096×2304 streams at 60 fps. There’s also a new fixed function video transcoder unit (VCE) that supports full hardware encoding to H.264, but AMD didn’t provide additional details on features or capabilities that distinguish this new unit from previous generation hardware."

[nevcairiel]

Didn't they claim support before? :d

[NikosD]

My Radeon 5750 had 4K H.264 support since 2010! :D

But this time they admit that it's the first time they support 4K H.264 in fixed-function decoding and all of the review sites are saying the same thing.

[Yups]

Intel is talking about GPU accelerated HEVC decoding and encoding in Broadwell. I thought Skylake was supposed to bring HEVC GPU encoding support for the first time in an Intel product.

https://intel.activeevents.com/sf14/connect/fileDownload/session/F7EBB2F85164E31DF41CDD863B86286F/SF14_SPCS002_101f.pdf

Page 77 and 88.

[NikosD]

Thanks for the document.

Nothing new actually.

GPU accelerated decoding & encoding means hybrid approach, not HW accelerated in ASIC.

It means it uses the EUs and CPU - probably not at all the ASIC or just a little.

The approach could be similar to the existent HEVC_MAIN_VLD for Haswell if we had an appropriate decoder to check it out now before Broadwell (in case of course that HEVC_MAIN_VLD mode actually works)

You can clearly say that I'm right, looking at the page 88, where it says "supported in higher performance SKU", meaning is not ASIC accelerated.

We have to wait for Skylake or Nvidia/AMD, whoever gets it first.

[NikosD]

...and also it's only 4K30 for HEVC in higher performance SKU.

But my Core i7-4790 already does 4K60 in SW thanks to the assembly OpenHEVC project optimizations that Nevcairiel has embedded in LAV filters.

[GTPVHD]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8510/idf-2014-intel-demonstrates-skylake-due-h22015

Intel confirmed Skylake will be out second half of 2015, it will probably have the power efficient, fixed function HEVC decoder unlike Broadwell's hybrid EU/CPU decoder.

[NikosD]

Latest UVD from AMD inside R9 285 is 3 times faster than VP5 and even faster than VP6 according to Anandtech in both 1080p & 4K H.264 files using Microsoft's decoder (LAV filters don't provide support yet)

Here is the article:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8460/amd-radeon-r9-285-review/4

It looks like a 4K80-85fps decoder to me.

[wanezhiling]

impossible...impossible...impossible...

http://i.imgur.com/H0ctjK9.gif

[GTPVHD]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_285_Dual-X_OC/images/power_bluray.gif

AMD cards are a joke when it comes to power consumption. 51W for Blu-ray playback vs 6W for Maxwell.

[huhn]

if you have such a powerful GPU you normally have a good CPU too. and in this case it isn't rare you can spare power by using the software decoding. the higher powerstate of such a GPU can easily take more power as software decoding.

[wanezhiling]

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_285_Dual-X_OC/images/power_bluray.gif

AMD cards are a joke when it comes to power consumption. 51W for Blu-ray playback vs 6W for Maxwell.

:D lol...No red in upper half part...

[STaRGaZeR]

Yep, they ramp up clocks and voltage when using DXVA (and with multi monitor too). Good thing that I use manual profiles in Afterburner :D

[RainyDog]

Power usage for video playback is easily the biggest issue I have with my R9 290. PC pulls nearly 200w using madVR and my preferred settings and it really bothers me.

If I switch from DXVA decoding to software with LAV and MPC-BE, total power consumption drops considerably. But is there any settings in madVR that require DXVA decoding? I' sure nnedi3 didn't seem to be working when I tried software last time.

[nevcairiel]

There is even features in madVR that do NOT work when using DXVA decoding, certainly none that require it to work - especially since not every video can be decoded through DXVA, that would be quite the silly limitation.

[NikosD]

I'm trying to collect HEVC decoders in SW, in order to start a new thread here and evaluate their performance.

Free/Open source/commercial, everything is accepted.

I was thinking to test basically two resolutions 1080p & 4K (UHD) in various clips for both of them, maybe a few more clips in 4K resolution which I think will be the target resolution of HEVC, especially after the official 4K BluRay specs.

I was thinking also to test them using various CPU architectures from Core2Duo up to Haswell Core i7.

The problem is that I didn't find a lot of decoders in the form that I could test them, e.g in binary form (not source) and in DS filter (not embedded in players or plug-ins etc.)

I have already found two.
LAV filters and Strongene's SW decoder.

Looking forward for your suggestions, if I can test at least 5 of them I could start a new thread.

[huhn]

I suggest to wait for about 6 month so the decoder can mature in the meanwhile.

HEVC decoding is simple not important right now.

[NikosD]

It's been already more than a year since the final official specification and about two years or more since the first H.265 encoders.

Yes, I agree that probably we have to wait even more than 6 months, about a year or more for the next year's 4K Bluray arrival which will be a boost for HEVC, but at that time we should have HW decoders too.

Anyway, if I manage to get a few SW HEVC decoders, I'll do it.

[GTPVHD]

http://videocardz.com/52362/only-at-vc-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-final-specifications

GTX 980 and GTX 970, world's first HDMI 2.0 graphics cards!

[NikosD]

Impressive specs, but it's going to be slower than 780 Ti in several cases, which is something not easily understood and justified.

[nevcairiel]

I managed to benchmark the hybrid HEVC hardware decoder on a NVIDIA GTX 780, and its not very fast - but it does have low CPU usage.
1080p is at 110-120 fps (15% cpu at benchmark, 1-2% during playback at 24p), and 4K only at 30-35 fps (20% benchmark cpu usage).

For comparison, the 32-bit LAV software decoder achieved 140 and 30 fps on the two clips i tested (of course 100% CPU), 64-bit is of course much faster.

Of course the design is more likely targeted at playback and not at fast transcoding, but on any decent CPU the pure software decoders are just faster (but do use a bit more CPU during playback), especially if you can use 64-bit.

[NikosD]

If you are talking about Strongene's OpenCL decoder, I had exactly the same experience with very low CPU usage during playback, but slower benchmark performance than fast CPUs.

But IIRC x86 LAV decoder was slower than hybrid decoder.

By the way, are you interested in implementing hybrid DXVA HW H.265 decoder for Nvidia and Intel ?

I remember you saying that it was scheduled (by you) since the first beta drivers of Intel offering DXVA H.265 support.

[nevcairiel]

I'm not talking about OpenCL, but NVIDIAs own hybrid decoder included in the driver, the same thing thats exposed through DXVA2.
Its not available through any software that I know of so far though, so maybe mine will be the first.

[NikosD]

Nice!

The reason I asked you is because I thought that hybrid DXVA decoders would have the same experience/behavior like OpenCL decoders and you just confirm that!

Is there any VP5 assistance for H.265 or it's just SMXs and CPU ?

Because 780 has a lot of shaders and other Kepler GPUs will be a lot slower than that.

Have you tried Intel's DXVA H.265 decoder ?

[nevcairiel]

Its unclear which features it really uses of the GPU, and I've been busy implementing it instead of worrying about driver details.
In any case, I have both LAV's CUVID and DXVA2 working on NVIDIA, for some reason DXVA2 still is broken on Intel, more to do in the coming days to get to the bottom of this. QuickSync (or more specifically, Intel's MediaSDK) doesn't seem to expose HEVC support yet, as far as i can see.

Drivers only expose 8-bit modes so far.

[JohnLai]

It would be great if Intel GPU assisted HEVC DXVA can work considering that most ordinary users tend to use Intel Haswell CPU/IGPU these days......Too bad I heard Intel won't implement such DXVA workaround with past Ivy Bridge IGPU (particularly HD 2000 and 4000)

[NikosD]

Its unclear which features it really uses of the GPU, and I've been busy implementing it instead of worrying about driver details.
In any case, I have both LAV's CUVID and DXVA2 working on NVIDIA, for some reason DXVA2 still is broken on Intel, more to do in the coming days to get to the bottom of this. QuickSync (or more specifically, Intel's MediaSDK) doesn't seem to expose HEVC support yet, as far as i can see.

Drivers only expose 8-bit modes so far.

Thanks for the info.

It's bad for Intel to implement first officially a hybrid decoder, but give it broken.

Did you try latest official drivers v. 3907 ?

About Nvidia I guess they will not have implemented a hybrid decoder with fixed-function assistance.

I think for low power Kepler/Maxwell cards it will make a difference.

It's easy to check it out by using a monitor tool like GPU-Z or a gadget while playing/ benchmarking the hybrid decoder.

Nvidia offers a VPU load metric different than GPU load which shows exactly that - fixed function load.

You definitely don't have to look inside the driver, instead you look at the decoding itself.

[nevcairiel]

I didn't say theirs is broken, it may as well be my code not being finished yet, its hard to judge if you have no alternate reference implementation to test if the hardware/drivers work.

[nevcairiel]

Maxwell v2 has a hardware HEVC encoder, but still only the hybrid decoder. I'll be getting one of those cards, maybe the hybrid decoder got faster on that architecture at least.

[NikosD]

Anandtech says it uses only shaders and fixed-function HW for H.265 decoding.

Is it accurate ?

Is there an ETA for the release of your new decoder including HEVC hybrid ?

I would like to test it myself on a Kepler 740M card inside a girlfriend's laptop.

It would be better if I could test Intel's H.265 too :D

Thanks.

[Yups]

HEVC Decoding works on my Haswell iGPU with MPC 1.7.7 via DXVA2 by the way. CPU utilization much lower than before.

[NikosD]

There is a new thread opened by me for HEVC decoding.

There is a lot of discussion and figures for HEVC decoding.

Look at my signature.

[NikosD]

Now that all three companies (Intel, Nvidia, AMD) have updated their fixed-function video decoders, I wonder what is their performance in H.264 1080p clips.

If someone has an Nvidia 960 GTX or AMD R9 285 or IvyBridge or Broadwell iGPU, I would like to see their results using DXVA Checker x64 v3.3.2 in pure decode mode and LAV x64 v0.64 in DXVA native for the clips from the first post.

1 to 6 is here: ftp://helpedia.com/pub/multimedia/x264/testvideos/2011%20-%2002%20-%20H.264%20CPU%20DXVA%20codec%20comparison%20-%20Core2Duo%20vs%20UVD%202.2/

7 to 10 is here:ftp://helpedia.com/pub/multimedia/x264/testvideos/2012%20-%2001%20-%20QuickSync%20vs%20UVD%202.2%20vs%20VP4/

[P.J]

Now that all three companies (Intel, Nvidia, AMD) have updated their fixed-function video decoders, I wonder what is their performance in H.264 1080p clips.

If someone has an Nvidia 960 GTX or AMD R9 285 or Broadwell iGPU, I would like to see their results using DXVA Checker x64 v3.3.2 in pure decode mode and LAV x64 v0.64 in DXVA native for the clips with huge bitrate from 7 to 10 from the first post.
ftp://helpedia.com/pub/multimedia/x264/testvideos/2012%20-%2001%20-%20QuickSync%20vs%20UVD%202.2%20vs%20VP4/

Any of those clips would definitely give us an idea of H.264 decoding performance.

1. Twinpeaks-30fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 475/475/475

2. Samsung-30fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 293/347/404

3. Basket-60fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 558/562/565

4. Girls-60fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 534/540/548

5. Birds-60fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 474/503/527

6. Cat-60fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 510/518/524

7. Vortex-24fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 169/171/170

8. Birds-24fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 171/177/176

9. Ducks -30fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 181/191/192

10. Crowd Run-25fps
VP7 LAV NATIVE 152/154/152


Just be aware of the Core/Memory clocks ;)
I set 'Repeat Count' to '8' because it's very slow in thr first benchmark

[NikosD]

Using DXVA Checker x64 v3.3.2 in pure decode mode and LAV Video x64 v0.64 in DXVA native mode, I did the tests again with modern and older ASICs for the whole collection of clips from 1 to 10.

The results of VP7 (Nvidia GTX 960) are from P.J which has a GPU with high clocks (GPU clock = 1.47GHz).
The results of Neet009 using a different GTX 960 are a little lower.


Results:


1. Twinpeaks-30fps


QS3 1070/1070/1070

CPU 4790 515/515/515

QS1 484/484/484

VP7 475/475/475

RX 470 414/419/414 [Playback] - New driver

RX 470 312/338/380 [Decode] - New driver

RX 470 288/308/326 [Playback]

RX 470 279/289/310 [Decode]

VP5 125/139/143

Intel GMA HD 85/128/142

VP4 80/84/86

UVD2.2 46/56/62

UVD+ 2/51/60



2. Samsung-30fps


QS3 767/808/872

VP7 293/347/404

QS1 293/340/376

CPU 4790 218/268/349

RX 470 218/265/328 [Playback] - New driver

RX 470 199/240/306 [Decode] - New driver

RX 470 168/209/259 [Playback]

RX 470 158/200/263 [Decode]

VP5 109/119/125

Intel GMA HD 51/74/103

VP4 34/55/82

UVD2.2 35/46/55



3. Basket-60fps


QS3 1105/1155/1184

RX 470 530/588/617 [Playback] - New driver

QS1 540/581/633

VP7 558/562/565

CPU 4790 471/539/610

RX 470 422/450/471 [Playback]

RX 470 345/362/432 [Decode] - New driver

RX 470 317/337/398 [Decode]

VP5 136/144/157

Intel GMA HD 75/103/134

VP4 71/82/104

UVD2.2 54/57/59


4. Girls-60fps


QS3 1023/1060/1091

RX 470 532/548/561 [Playback] - New driver

VP7 534/540/548

QS1 487/500/514

CPU 4790 411/427/441

RX 470 412/425/444 [Playback]

RX 470 340/346/440 [Decode] - New driver

RX 470 310/333/415 [Decode]

VP5 135/137/139

Intel GMA HD 90/105/112

VP4 74/76/79

UVD2.2 55/56/58


6. Cat-60fps


QS3 959/967/970

VP7 510/518/524

RX 470 438/471/489 [Playback] - New driver

QS1 404/424/435

CPU 4790 347/379/400

RX 470 344/368/383 [Playback]

RX 470 313/326/383 [Decode] - New driver

RX 470 285/299/328 [Decode]

VP5 131/137/143

Intel GMA HD 68/92/96

VP4 67/76/83

UVD2.2 48/52/55

UVD+ 0/53/56


7. Vortex-24fps


QS3 358/359/358

VP7 169/171/170

QS1 156/159/158

CPU 4790 97/113/119

RX 470 107/110/110 [Playback & Decode] - new driver

RX 470 83/85/85 [Playback & Decode]

VP5 72/73/74

Intel GMA HD 35/46/49

UVD2.2 0/26/58

UVD+ 0/25/29

VP4 19/22/24


8. Birds-24fps


QS3 351/360/358

VP7 171/177/176

QS1 151/160/161

RX 470 105/111/111 [Playback & Decode] - new driver

CPU 4790 100/110/113

RX 470 75/86/92 [Playback & Decode]

VP5 71/77/79

Intel GMA HD 35/42/47

UVD2.2 13/27/47

UVD+ 0/26/29

VP4 19/22/28


9. Ducks -30fps


QS3 413/413/413

VP8 249/258/249

VP7 181/191/192

QS1 168/183/183

RX 470 105/126/134 [Playback & Decode] - new driver

CPU 4790 115/125/134

RX 470 80/98/110 [Playback & Decode]

VP5 74/84/91

Intel GMA HD 25/48/58

UVD2.2 0/30/58

VP4 21/25/30


10. Crowd Run-25fps


QS3 328/330/328

VP7 152/154/152

QS1 143/145/143

RX 470 98/101/105 [Playback & Decode] - new driver

CPU 4790 87/98/102

RX 470 74/78/78 [Playback & Decode]

VP5 66/68/69

Intel GMA HD 17/35/43

UVD2.2 20/23/24

UVD+ 0/22/28

VP4 18/21/21


Comments:

CPU 4790 = Core i7 4790@3.8GHz using 16 threads (LAV properties) - Win 8.1 Pro x64

QS3 = Haswell HD 4600@1.5GHz drivers: 4080

QS1 = SandyBridge HD 2000@1.5GHz drivers: 4101

VP8 = Nvidia GTX 1060 (Zotac Mini) drivers: 368.95

VP7 = Nvidia GTX 960@1.47GHz drivers: 347.52

RX 470 = AMD Radeon RX 470 drivers: 17.2.1 / New driver >17.4

VP5 = Nvidia GT610@0.81GHz drivers: 347.52

VP4 = Nvidia GT440@0.82GHz drivers: 347.52

Intel GMA HD = Core i5 520M (Arrandale)@0.77GHz drivers: 3268

UVD2.2 = Radeon 5750@0.4GHz drivers: 14.12

UVD+ = Radeon 3650@0.72GHz drivers: 13.9


P.S

1) For Arrandale I used MS DS x64 decoder because LAV video is not compatible with Arrandale.

Arrandale uses GPU shaders a lot, but CPU ~2%

For clips 3,4,6 the GPU load was 100% with a GPU clock of max 777MHz
For clips 1,2,7,8,9,10 the GPU load was ~70% with a GPU clock of min 372MHz

The GMA HD looks like a rather hybrid decoder using both ASIC+GPU, than a pure ASIC decoder.

2) Looking forward for Radeon R9 285, IvyBridge, Broadwell results

3) For RX 470 it was used DXVA Checker v3.15, LAV filters 0.69, Win 10 x64 and Playback mode used a 1280x720 scaling.

[leonccyiu]

I hope I am not posting this in the wrong place
I recently purchased an intel pentium g3258 thinking the hd graphics should be able to decode 4k h264 video, however my cpu is being used.
Upon running DXVA Checker my suspicions were confirmed

H264_VLD_NoFGT: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD

I looked through earlier posts in the thread and noticed that QFHD used to be included but after a driver update isn't anymore.
Does anyone know more about this? Or if it's still possible to revert to an older driver?

Thanks

[NikosD]

H264_VLD_NoFGT: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD



Really ?

That's a very bad thing for Intel.

I remember when I had a Pentium G3420 installed that a beta driver disabled 4K H.264 for Pentium but that was a beta driver and then I switched to Core i7.

I don't believe that they did that on official drivers!

If I were you I would download and install latest driver v.4156 and complain to Intel forums if 4K is still disabled.

Here is the download link and the forum:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/61436

[P.J]

Strange, my N2830 can play 4K H.264

[leonccyiu]

Really ?

That's a very bad thing for Intel.

I remember when I had a Pentium G3420 installed that a beta driver disabled 4K H.264 for Pentium but that was a beta driver and then I switched to Core i7.

I don't believe that they did that on official drivers!

If I were you I would download and install latest driver v.4156 and complain to Intel forums if 4K is still disabled.

Here is the download link and the forum:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/61436

My Driver version is 15.33.32.64.4061

According to the Intel Driver update utility that is the latest version. I downloaded the driver in your link, but it said it wasn't compatible with my hardware.

I believe the beta drivers you installed for your Pentium G3420 is the time in which Intel decided to disable 4k h264 decoding on hd graphics.

Do you mind if I use your screenshot to complain?
and Do you know where I can complain to Intel?

Thanks

[NikosD]

My Driver version is 15.33.32.64.4061

According to the Intel Driver update utility that is the latest version. I downloaded the driver in your link, but it said it wasn't compatible with my hardware.


You are doing something wrong.
Your Pentium G3258 belongs to Haswell family.
First of all you should install new family drivers 15.36 and not 15.33.
15.33 is the old family which is compatible with Ivy and Haswell and 4061 are the latest, when 15.36 is the new family that supports Haswell and Broadwell and 4156 are the latest drivers.

Maybe you downloaded the wrong link 32bit vs 64bit.

If you can't install 4156 drivers, ask for help from the link above that I gave you.



Do you mind if I use your screenshot to complain?
and Do you know where I can complain to Intel?


Don't use something from me, take a screenshot of your system using DXVA checker and paste it in the link above that I gave you.

It's from Intel forums, I don't know any other way.

[HarryM]

You are doing something wrong.
Your Pentium G3258 belongs to Haswell family.
First of all you should install new family drivers 15.36 and not 15.33.
15.33 is the old family which is compatible with Ivy and Haswell and 4061 are the latest, when 15.36 is the new family that supports Haswell and Broadwell and 4156 are the latest drivers.


15.40 family is the newest.

[NikosD]

Added today at this post https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1712350#post1712350 my new results for AMD RX 470 card.

The behavior was totally strange, as playback performance was better or even a lot better using playback mode (scale to 1280x720) than decode mode, but after clip 7 where the bitrate is huge, the playback performance was the same like pure decode performance.

For "normal" bitrate clips up to 30Mbps, the decoder is very fast but above 100Mbps the performance drops a lot, more than any other decoder.

Another strange thing is that 4K H.264 decoding performance looks exactly like 1080p.
Low bitrate clips at 4K resolution have almost same decoding speed like 1080p, but when the bitrate rises ~100Mbps, the decoding performance drops a lot.

The HW H.264 decoder of Polaris cards looks like it's not affected by higher resolution compared to high (>100Mbps) bitrate.

The last strange result is that clips from 7 to 9 show a 100% utilisation of 1 core (25% CPU usage of my quad core Core i5-2400) but only using "Decode" mode.
Playback mode is using CPU <5% like the decode and playback mode of all the other clips.

Even clip 10 has no problem at all in CPU usage in "Decode" and "Playback" mode.

What a strange HW decoder...