Encoding is slow on dedi server

[Ruriko]

I have bought a dedi server with these specs
* 2 x Dual Core 5150 Xeon
* 16GB RAM
* 500GB Disk

I did a test on video encoding using 10bit x264 Tune:Animation Slow Preset and it did 20fps for about 1minute and it dropped down to 9fps for the rest. Anyone know why it went fast at the beginning and then dramatically drop in half?

[kypec]

Maybe the beginning scene(s) were easy to encode, like simple credits/logos on still black background etc. Therefore x264 were able to process through this opening passage very quickly whereas the rest of the movie is more complex which puts quite a load on CPU.

[raffriff42]

Does the machine get benchmark (eg, pcmark (http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/pcmark7)) scores comparable to similar machines? You might have a defective, or improperly installed part.

You might be filling the disk cache, or even running low on RAM. Find out if this is your problem by watching key things like CPU usage, RAM usage and Disk I/O, noting changes over time, with Performance Monitor (https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+performance+monitor).

[Asmodian]

I bet kypec is right, I have often seen this with an opening mostly black scene.

[osgZach]

You also haven't said what you're trying to encode.. SD or HD? What resolution? These are all important factors. Also, Slow preset is gonna be slow. Medium is usually recommended as a default