Evaluation of HEVC decoders (SW, Hybrid and HW)

[sneaker_ger]

Interesting. I didn't notice a significant speed change between 2015 and 2016. Guess I'll have to test again later.

[NikosD]

29-10-2013 | LAV 0.58.2-97 x64 | 68,6 fps
30-10-2013 | LAV 0.58.2-104 x64 | 131,2 fps
03-08-2014 | LAV 0.62.0-8 x64 | 231,0 fps
03-08-2014 | LAV 0.62.0-9 x64 | 280,3 fps
19-01-2015 | LAV 0.63.0-41 x64 | 346,5 fps
13-07-2016 | LAV 0.68.1-31 x64 | 370,4 fps
23-04-2017 | LAV 0.69.0-39 x64 | 381,7 fps

TearsOfSteal 1080p sample

Your CPU ?

Have you noticed significant speed-up gains due to specific SIMD optimizations ?

A 5.5x speed-up in 3.5 years is impressive.

[NikosD]

Latest LAV x64 nightlies are up to 10% faster for software decoding of HEVC compared to older versions here (Win 7x64, i5-2500K, Ducks Take Off sample). This is the biggest, if not the only, speedup I've seen to HEVC software decoding since 2014.

29-10-2013 |
13-07-2016 | LAV 0.68.1-31 x64 | 370,4 fps
23-04-2017 | LAV 0.69.0-39 x64 | 381,7 fps

TearsOfSteal 1080p sample

No change here (Core i3-4170, Win 10 x64 Creators Update) going from 0.69.24 to 0.69.39 on Ducks Sample (0%)

But a small regression on 10bit HEVC Gravity sample.

At least for me latest nightly is a little slower.

[sneaker_ger]

29-10-2013 | LAV 0.58.2-97 x64 | 68,6 fps
30-10-2013 | LAV 0.58.2-104 x64 | 131,2 fps
03-08-2014 | LAV 0.62.0-8 x64 | 231,0 fps
03-08-2014 | LAV 0.62.0-9 x64 | 280,3 fps
19-01-2015 | LAV 0.63.0-41 x64 | 346,5 fps
13-07-2016 | LAV 0.68.1-31 x64 | 370,4 fps
23-04-2017 | LAV 0.69.0-39 x64 | 381,7 fps

TearsOfSteal 1080p sample

TearsOfSteal 1080p on i5-2500K
19-01-2015 | LAV 0.63.0-41 x64 | 289.5 fps
13-07-2016 | LAV 0.68.1-31 x64 | 293.9 fps
23-04-2017 | LAV 0.69.0-39 x64 | 294.9 fps

Guess I misremembered. Nothing to see. Sorry for the confusion.

[nevcairiel]

The speed ups are likely going to be bigger the lower the bitrate is, which means more importance is being placed on actual image processing instead of CABAC bitstream reading (which is by far the biggest bottleneck in the decoder, and unfortunately very hard to optimize, and practically impossible to use SIMD on).
With multi-threaded decoding a 100% accurate and reproducable benchmark seems to be very hard to achieve though, there is always quite a bit of variance, so differences under 1% often just disappear in noise.

[clsid]

There wasn't any speedup with the 4k version of the same video, while the 720p version had even bigger gains than the 1080p result above. The 720p one is decoded with 700+ fps. So it seems to me that your recent optimizations work good for reducing the overhead per decoded frame. Unfortunately probably not very noticeable at real-time speeds.

[GTPVHD]

https://videocardz.com/69009/nvidia-pascal-gp108-300-graphics-processor-pictured

GT 1030 (GP108 GPU) coming soon, smallest Pascal GPU with same hardware decoders as GP107.

[nsnhd]

https://videocardz.com/69009/nvidia-pascal-gp108-300-graphics-processor-pictured

GT 1030 (GP108 GPU) coming soon, smallest Pascal GPU with same hardware decoders as GP107.
Hopefully it will add 4K HDR to old systems.

[huhn]

the is no reason to remove it but but it is not going to work everywhere thanks to the most likely to low Vram.

[NikosD]

Hopefully it will add 4K HDR to old systems.
If you are interested in 4K HDR, then AMD RX 550 is an alternative choice as it in the same price range with GT 1030 and has 4GB VRAM option for sure.

Also, it is available worldwide as we speak.

[nsnhd]

If you are interested in 4K HDR, then AMD RX 550 is an alternative choice as it in the same price range with GT 1030 and has 4GB VRAM option for sure.

Also, it is available worldwide as we speak.

Is the situation of VP9 hardware decoder improved by AMD RX cards ?

[NikosD]

VP9 is not hardware accelerated by AMD cards in pure mode, only hybrid and only in YouTube.

But, there is no VP9 usage outside YouTube so I don't think it's a major issue.

[NikosD]

Nvidia and Netflix just added another reason to avoid 1050 and <4GB VRAM cards.

In the preview support of Netflix 4K streaming service, besides some weird requirements like Windows Insider OS (!) they added a restriction of at least 3GB VRAM.

From anandtech.com

In any case, for the moment NVIDIA is calling this a preview, presumably due to the Insider OS requirements.
Despite this qualifier, 4K Netflix support should fully work on all Pascal GPUs with 3GB or more of VRAM, though this means that 2GB GTX 1050 cards are oddly excluded.


Update:
It seems that you can manually install 381.74 drivers from Nvidia on Win 10 Creators Update and do the trick.
You don't actually need Windows Insider.

[huhn]

is this about an Netflix application or web browser?

because 4K youtube with 2GB Vram is totally fine but a proper video player will need quite a lot of Vram and 2 GB can make a huge problem.

like before if you want 4K video playback get a card with at least 3 GB Vram better 4.

[wanezhiling]

Off-topic, I wanna buy a 4K(5K/8K) HDR monitor, any good choices? :)

[huhn]

the number of HDR monitors is close to zero.

[nevcairiel]

Off-topic, I wanna buy a 4K(5K/8K) HDR monitor, any good choices? :)

Acer Predator X27 is coming out later this year, 4K, 144Hz, HDR, AdobeRGB and NVIDIA GSYNC. Probably quite expensive. :p

[baii]

Eizo and dell just announce their s, but you may as well just buy a tv for any entertainment related experience.

[nsnhd]

is this about an Netflix application or web browser?

because 4K youtube with 2GB Vram is totally fine but a proper video player will need quite a lot of Vram and 2 GB can make a huge problem.

like before if you want 4K video playback get a card with at least 3 GB Vram better 4.

And what's about memory bandwidth 128-bits (RX550) vs 64-bits (GT1030), does that have impact on fps assuming these cards have 4GB vram ?

[huhn]

i don't know sorry.
if it is 64 bit with GDDR5 it is maybe fast enough but i don't believe in a 1030 with 4Gb Vram there is no 1050 with 4 GB on the market right now.

[el Filou]

GeForce 1030 is official: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-1030/specifications

Will be interesting to see if the 2 GB of RAM and/or limited bandwidth are a limitation with video outside of madVR, because 30W TDP is interesting.

[nevcairiel]

With a very simple renderer like EVR its probably going to be fine.

[leonccyiu]

GeForce 1030 is official: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-1030/specifications

Will be interesting to see if the 2 GB of RAM and/or limited bandwidth are a limitation with video outside of madVR, because 30W TDP is interesting.

It's a huge shame there isn't a 3GB version that works with netflix in 4k. Spec's wise, it's exactly half a 1050Ti and sells for half a 1050Ti, I think it could probably do 1080p23 > 2160p with NGU low in MADVR

[NikosD]

The main issue with those kind of cards, like GT 1030 and plain GTX 1050, is that there is no 4GB version.

Due to 2GB VRAM only, those cards could definitely have problems displaying the 4K resolution.

On the other hand, a much more capable GPU like AMD RX 550 has more 3D power, 4GB VRAM, costing around the same price like GT 1030 with a very low TDP too.

[huhn]

polaris cards are very slow for NGU so a 550 is most likely slower than a 1030 for NGU and ignoring Vram.
the pathetic 48 GB/s could be a real problem.

to be honest the 1030 looks terrible.
TDP is not that important i wouldn't be shocked if a 1050 has the same power consumption when playing back videos.

about 4K playback with 2GB Vram using EVR-CP this was fine with DXVA copyback and unplayable with DXVA native using a 2GB 960. Vram was at his limited.
a lot has changed since a used that card.

[NikosD]

RX 550 has 512 cores and 128bit memory bus.

It should be faster than GT 1030 in all processing cases.

[nevcairiel]

A 4GB RX550 is around ~30€ more expensive around here though, which at that level is almost 30%. But yeah the 1030 is not something I would ever buy or recommend to anyone in any case.
For another 20-30€ over the RX550 (ie. starting at ~135€), you can get a 4GB 1050Ti already, which is probably as low as I would go.

[el Filou]

It's a huge shame there isn't a 3GB version that works with netflix in 4k. Spec's wise, it's exactly half a 1050Ti and sells for half a 1050Ti, I think it could probably do 1080p23 > 2160p with NGU low in MADVR
Maybe they'll update the drivers to make the lower-end cards compatible with Netflix later?
My 1050 Ti when decoding YouTube 4K60 in Chrome and outputting 1080 doesn't even use 500 MB (and this includes around 200 MB for Windows and the browser). When outputting actual 4K that might go up a few 100s MB, but I don't see why just the DRM support would need more than 1 GB for itself and the whole couldn't run on 2 GB.
Has someone already tested Netflix 4K using the Insider Preview NVIDIA driver and measured how much VRAM is actually used?

@NikosD: the RX 550 is indeed a better all-round card (though I doubt it beats a 1030 in pure shader power by much, only the memory is much faster), but the 4 GB ones start around 100 USD. We'll have to see how low the OEMs can price their GF 1030s.

[huhn]

that's why: https://abload.de/img/thatswhyo1uge.png (EVR-CP)

and yes webbrowser video player use a lot less Vram and there is a reason picture quality is pathetic...

[el Filou]

that's why: https://abload.de/img/thatswhyo1uge.png (EVR-CP)

and yes webbrowser video player use a lot less Vram and there is a reason picture quality is pathetic...
Yes, I remember that from your tests.
"pathetic" is pushing it a bit, don't you think? :)

Anyway there is no way to play Netflix using MPC-HC ;), I was just wondering if 2 GB would be fine with the Netflix app or in the browser but I can't find any public test results yet. I guess the fact the driver is still in beta explains it.

[huhn]

Yes, I remember that from your tests.
"pathetic" is pushing it a bit, don't you think? :)

most browser video renderer today can't deal with windows scaling and they do everything as fast as possible.

i still think think pathetic is a good word for the default web browser renderer.
and it is pretty obvious what a web browser renderer is doing to get the lowest possible Vram usages it's not like EVR is wasteful or something like that.

mpc-hc may not support it but jriver say they support it: https://www.jriver.com/video.html
i don't know how it works in jriver.

[NikosD]

It looks like GT 1030 has a different (slower) Video Decoder than the rest of the Pascal family.

Tested in Linux and H.264 - 720p/1080p, it looks like having a GTX 950 video decoder.

Unless that test is not about pure decoding, but rather playback performance, so the weak GPU shrinks the pure video decoder's performance.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia-geforce-1030&num=10

[nevcairiel]

Might be limited by its low memory bandwidth, doubtful they would put an older chip in there - but someone with DXVAChecker could figure that out.

[NikosD]

After Windows Creators Update, the old Chrome trick via the --enable switch to force enable VP9 hardware acceleration on Polaris RX 400/500 cards doesn't properly work.

Does anyone have any idea how to enable the VP9 acceleration of Chrome/YouTube on Polaris cards ?

I want access to VP9 4K60fps content, so no other browser is suitable for that.

[mrcorbo]

After Windows Creators Update, the old Chrome trick via the --enable switch to force enable VP9 hardware acceleration on Polaris RX 400/500 cards doesn't properly work.

Does anyone have any idea how to enable the VP9 acceleration of Chrome/YouTube on Polaris cards ?

I want access to VP9 4K60fps content, so no other browser is suitable for that.

Seems to work in Edge on my GTX 1060. Tested up to 8k VP9 w/ 10% CPU usage and no dropped frames. Chrome can't even do this, actually, at least not on my system. Same video pegs my CPU and drops frames like crazy.

[NikosD]

Nvidia is different and it has a pure video VP9 decoder.

And I don't think Edge can access all YouTube streams.

Some of them, like 4K60fps are VP9 only and Chrome only (I think)

[sneaker_ger]

Edge has VP9 but I don't know if it's compatible with AMD.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/5ojx3j/microsoft_edge_cant_play_4k_videos_on_youtube/

[NikosD]

Besides Chrome-only streams of YouTube, I want to avoid Edge for one more reason.

I haven't found out yet a way to move Edge's cache from my SSD (C:) to HDD (D:)

Is it possible ?

[mrcorbo]

Nvidia is different and it has a pure video VP9 decoder.

And I don't think Edge can access all YouTube streams.

Some of them, like 4K60fps are VP9 only and Chrome only (I think)

According to "Stats for Nerds", all the streams I tried were VP9.

[P.J]

Wonder why youtube used H.264 for 8K :stupid:

http://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2017/2/21/delivering-8k-using-avch264

[huhn]

it's VP9 too...

[NikosD]

The new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16226 adds a GPU utilization Tab in Windows 10 task manager.
The Performance tab shows GPU utilization information for each separate GPU component (such as 3D and Video encode/decode), as well as graphics memory usage stats.

The Details tab shows you GPU utilization info for each process.
Please note that this feature is still under construction and you will find issues and bugs.

https://s3.postimg.org/uc75eqh77/untitled-1.png

[edwdevel]

Hello, this is my first post here on Doom9. I just purchased a
gt 1030 for the ancient 8 yr old Intel icore duo at work, just
to benchmark this board representing the least expensive nvidia
solution for HEVC decoding. My PC (Dell Dimension 780) is a
stand-in for the millions of old systems that now cannot decode
HEVC.


Benchmarks: Nvidia Gt 1030 @1227Mhz/Intel E8400 2core3.0Ghz
LAV 0.70.0 DXVA Checker 3.15.3 Nvidia driver 382.53

All benchmarks are playback only downscaled to 1920x1080

-----------------------------------------------------------
NikosD benchmark clips (see March 1, 2017 forum entry)

Clip: 4k 8bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
LG View the Feeling 89-109-139 2-7-25 13-17-62
LG View the Feeling 139-198-205 6-12-23 23-26-31 Nvidia 384.76
Sams 4K 8bit -235 107-118-122 3-8-20 14-17-53
Sams 4K 8bit -230 97-112-115 4-9-18 15-16-17
Crowd Run 4K300m50f 61-89-98 5-12-26 12-12-14
Tunnelflag700m60f 41-76-93 4-15-24 3-15-21 Nvidia 384.76


Clip: 4k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Lovely Swiss 66-116-143 1-8-29 5-20-60
Lovely Swiss 124-185-208 2-12-30 29-33-42 Nvidia 384.76
Jellyfish 140m30f 64-88-103 4-11-22 11-15-23

Clip: 7k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Arri65 7K263m24f 30-44-50 3-12-21 14-20-25
8Kexsamp 40-52-55 4-9-23 16-20-26 Nvidia 384.76



-----------------------------------------------------------
Other clips I think should be benchmarked:

Clip: 4k 8bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Tears of Steel 24f 123-165-177 1-8-15 26-35-97

Clip: 4k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Exodus Trailer 24f 113-132-130 1-10-23 18-25-31
LifeofPi Trail 24f 97-115-123 1-8-21 17-22-30
LifeofPi Trail 24f 121-171-191 5-11-20 27-32-40 Nvidia 384.76
ColorsofJourney60f 106-128-139 2-6-18 17-22-30
ColorsofJourney60f 132-191-207 2-11-23 31-35-45 Nvidia 384.76
Sony Camp 60f 92-109-134 0-7-21 15-20-27
Sony Camp 60f 130-177-210 2-10-31 25-32-43 Nvidia 384.76


About the choice of benchmark clips:

Although NikosD's choice of clips are illuminating, I feel
they don't represent the real-world videos and movies
that people are actually going to view. "Lovely Swiss", for
example, while very pretty to watch, is really just a slideshow
of individual images with virtually no movement or panning at all,
making it a perfect foil for interframe compression. Almost all
real video/film content, on the other hand, is basically all
movement, due both to camera and subject.

Thus, I included some clips (all easily available on the web) that
I think are more representative of content that people will
actually be exposed to now and in the future. "Exodus" and
"Life of Pi" Trailers represent professionally directed and encoded
UHD HDR 24fps content, and "Colors of Journey" and "Sony Camp" are
4K 60fps video that represent non-movie but again professionally directed
and encoded 10 bit content. "Tears of Steel" is an interesting
8-bit professional 4K short movie.


Observations:

The GT 1030 can play all of the videos above perfectly and with only
about 20% CPU utilization on an ancient 8 year old 2 core 3Ghz
wolfdale PC. This lowest-end (so far) Pascal GPU furthermore
has the lowest TDP in the 10x series, which means that no old
PC system has to worry that their old power supply can support the
graphics card. The 2 GB video memory seems perfectly adequate to play
the most demanding 4k videos, while *simultaneously* downscaling to
whatever resolution the current PC monitor has. This seems to me
to demonstrate that this GPU is ideally suited to the millions of old
PC systems, and all of the HTPC systems, that would like to upgrade
their systems to allow playback of what I think will be the universal
video encoding standard. Unlike some other posters in this forum, I
would heartily recommend this GPU. At $69 (ZOTAC GT 1030) I don't
think the card has any drawbacks at all.

Plus, now even Google Earth can draw its' 3D buildings and terrain
on my old system with some alacrity. :)

I have nothing to do with Nvidia or Zotac, I'm just reporting
benchmarks and observations.

[NikosD]

Hello, this is my first post here on Doom9.

Benchmarks: Nvidia Gt 1030 @1227Mhz/Intel E8400 2core3.0Ghz
LAV 0.70.0 DXVA Checker 3.15.3

All benchmarks are playback only downscaled to 1920x1080


Very interesting first post :)

We usually post both pure decode benchmark and playback benchmarks down scaled to 1280x720.

Also, can you post your DXVA Checker screenshot ?

It would also be useful to post your video clock not GPU clock during playback benchmarking.

What is your OS ?

[nsnhd]

Observations:

The GT 1030 can play all of the videos above perfectly and with only
about 20% CPU utilization on an ancient 8 year old 2 core 3Ghz
wolfdale PC. This lowest-end (so far) Pascal GPU furthermore
has the lowest TDP in the 10x series, which means that no old
PC system has to worry that their old power supply can support the
graphics card. The 2 GB video memory seems perfectly adequate to play
the most demanding 4k videos, while *simultaneously* downscaling to
whatever resolution the current PC monitor has. This seems to me
to demonstrate that this GPU is ideally suited to the millions of old
PC systems, and all of the HTPC systems, that would like to upgrade
their systems to allow playback of what I think will be the universal
video encoding standard. Unlike some other posters in this forum, I
would heartily recommend this GPU. At $69 (ZOTAC GT 1030) I don't
think the card has any drawbacks at all.

Plus, now even Google Earth can draw its' 3D buildings and terrain
on my old system with some alacrity. :)

I have nothing to do with Nvidia or Zotac, I'm just reporting
benchmarks and observations.

But benchmarks on DXVA Checker don't guaranty smooth play back with common apps like madVR in reality, especially by HDR output.

[NikosD]

Benchmarks: Nvidia Gt 1030 @1227Mhz/Intel E8400 2core3.0Ghz
LAV 0.70.0 DXVA Checker 3.15.3

All benchmarks are playback only downscaled to 1920x1080

-----------------------------------------------------------
NikosD benchmark clips (see March 1, 2017 forum entry)

Clip: 4k 8bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
LG View the Feeling 89-109-139 2-7-25 13-17-62
Sams 4K 8bit -235 107-118-122 3-8-20 14-17-53
Sams 4K 8bit -230 97-112-115 4-9-18 15-16-17
Crowd Run 4K300m50f 61-89-98 5-12-26 12-12-14

Clip: 4k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Lovely Swiss 66-116-143 1-8-29 5-20-60
Jellyfish 140m30f 64-88-103 4-11-22 11-15-23

Clip: 7k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Arri65 7K263m24f 30-44-50 3-12-21 14-20-25

-----------------------------------------------------------
Other clips I think should be benchmarked:

Clip: 4k 8bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Tears of Steel 24f 123-165-177 1-8-15 26-35-97

Clip: 4k 10bit Frames Cpu% Gpu%
Exodus Trailer 24f 113-132-130 1-10-23 18-25-31
LifeofPi Trail 24f 97-115-123 1-8-21 17-22-30
ColorsofJourney60f 106-128-139 2-6-18 17-22-30
Sony Camp 60f 92-109-134 0-7-21 15-20-27


Two more favors:

1) I don't see any 8K clips - 8bit or 10bit

Can you test some 8K clips from my samples collection ?

2) If you have a fast Internet line (e.g VDSL) can you test Youtube 4K60fps VP9 clips using Chrome ?

I would like you to test them in a standard Chrome window-mode (not full screen) and see the stats for any frame drop.

thanks!

[edwdevel]

I am currently under 1030 driver level 382.53, but will install the latest version later. Here is the current DXVA checker screen (see attachment).

NikosD, I did test the arri 7K clip, as it could be downloaded quickly, but the others are very large and the servers refused fast downloading. The "girls" video takes a long time to benchmark and this cannot be done at work :)

I am able to view 8k chrome you tube videos (from forum discussion here last month) but the actual bit rate is too high for the internet connection here at work. Post a link to your 4k VP9 videos and I'll try to view them.

[edwdevel]

Oh- I am under Windows 7 SP1.

Also, I don't know how to the "video" clock as opposed to the graphics clock for the GT 1030. Is this part of DXVA checker?

[NikosD]

Oh- I am under Windows 7 SP1.

Also, I don't know how to the "video" clock as opposed to the graphics clock for the GT 1030. Is this part of DXVA checker?
You have to use a tool called HWiNFO and look for "GPU Video Clock" in the monitoring parameters.

For VP9 4K60fps content in YouTube, just run Chrome and put in the search field of YouTube "4K60" and you will see a list of 4K60FPS videos.

It doesn't really matter which one you choose.

Just see the CPU usage while playing and frame drop in "Stats for nerds" (right click on the clip)

It will also say if the clip is 60fps and in VP9 format

The image of DXVA Checker is not visible.
The best way is to copy paste a direct URL of some free "upload image" service using the insert image button of Doom9.

[v0lt]

@edwdevel
Use external photohostings. For example: sendpic.org, jpegshare.net.

Please test Sony_4K_HDR_Camp.mp4 (http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=144) in MPC-BE (https://yadi.sk/d/hlf1lfC8mKU58/!_last) and make a screenshot with statistics enabled (Ctrl+J) after 15 or more seconds of playback (so that the chip's frequency is stabilized).