Athlon64 X2 encoding performance

Sharktooth · 9th May 2005, 13:45

Anandtech reviewed the A64 X2 and this puppy seems to crunch everything you throw at it...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410&p=6

Sirber · 9th May 2005, 15:25

sweet!

Doom9 · 9th May 2005, 15:47

I've been waiting all that time for a 2.6 GHz Athlon64 4200+, now there won't be one so I'm torn between waiting for the X2 or getting the Venice core 3800+. Best thing would be to have two identical PCs though, one with a single core and one with a corresponding dual core so that in the next codec comparison, I can compare single to dual core.

Angelus · 9th May 2005, 17:48

Extremetech had similar results with the new AMD processor, here's a link to their review of it too:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1813763,00.asp

they seem amazed by it as well. It seems like my next computer build is going to have to be AMD

b00zed · 10th May 2005, 06:36

In the words of Keanu Reeves, "woah."

I was a bit up in the air as to whether my next media PC would be a P4 or an A64... and now it's settled. The deficit traditionally suffered by AMD's CPUs in audio and video has completely evaporated, the P4 can't touch it at all in most other tasks, and according to THG the X2's power consumption at full load is lower than any current *idling* P4, which is very attractive. Those multitasking tests look very promising too. The only shame is that we have to wait until the second half of the year for these things to show up in volume.

looks like it will soon be time to finally say goodbye to my faithful Athlon XP 2000+ I think

Doom9 · 10th May 2005, 09:42

Quote:

The deficit traditionally suffered by AMD's CPUs in audio and video has completely evaporated

Was there ever one? XviD has been consistently faster on the AMD platform than on Intel. DivX is the other way around.. considering how much money Intel invests to get people to optimize software for their CPUs, that's not a surprise.. generally unless a video software is heavily optimized for the Intel platform, running it on a comparable AMD chip should give comparable results, and depending on the implementation, the AMD should even be faster.

It is to be noted that starting with the Venice core AMD also supports SSE3 so it can take advantage of the "Intel optimizations" unlike previous cores. Hopefully, not too many software will check the CPU type but just query the CPU's capabilities and activate/deactivate optimizations accordingly.

b00zed · 10th May 2005, 10:16

I had a feeling I'd get pulled up for that. Unfortunately XviD does not represent all there is to audio and video production.

Sirber · 10th May 2005, 12:49

Quote:

Originally posted by b00zed
looks like it will soon be time to finally say goodbye to my faithful Athlon XP 2000+ I think

You could build a linux server from it

Sharktooth · 26th May 2005, 17:24

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/20...md-820/index.x

Watch how pentium 4s single and dual cores get pulverized...

Doom9 · 21st June 2005, 22:02

Finally they've shown in in the PC store where I shop. Supposed to be available this week even.. even with some delay, just in time to replace my NForce3 barebone with an NForce4 one and an X2.. the old box will make a nice birthday present for my dad and his reorganized home office (currently the big almost-full-tower) looks really ugly and doesn't go well with the 26" flatscreen TV/PC monitor.

BangoO · 26th June 2005, 16:09

Hi there,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I need to be sure before spending my $$$

I read that Windows Media Encoder 9 is multithreaded.
I am encoding stuff in WM9, but with VDubMod.
I read that, though VDubMod is multithreaded, its encoding part is not...
So... should I buy an X2 cpu, and will I experience the same improvement as in the benchmarks which use Windows Media Encoder 9 ?

Thx !

PS: I currently have a P4C running at 3.15Ghz...

tsp · 26th June 2005, 16:27

yes you will. It only depends on the encoder.

BangoO · 26th June 2005, 17:06

Thx for the fast answer tsp, now I know what my next cpu will be

Doom9 · 29th June 2005, 21:58

This post is made from a dual core machine... X2 4600

Bootsy · 30th June 2005, 16:27

Hope we will see some benchmarks soon. I'm tempted to buy one myself but I want the larger cache that the 4400 and 4800 offers.

BangoO · 30th June 2005, 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doom9

This post is made from a dual core machine... X2 4600

Nice !
Are you happy with it ?

Doom9 · 1st July 2005, 16:43

Quote:

Are you happy with it ?

I haven't gotten around to transferring all the files so I haven't really tested anything.. for now I just know that my wallet is very unhappy. The NForce 4 based XPC is a bit quieter than the NForce3 based one though, so I'm happy about that.. I'm also happy that I didn't need to put in a floppy to set up Windows.. the last intel machine I got required a floppy (a real one, usb didn't help) to get the ICHR6 driver even though I just had a single regular SATA disk. I may get around to racing the two CPUs (A64 3500+ versus the new one), to see how much an additional 200 Mhz and an additional core will fare.

Doom9 · 1st July 2005, 23:02

I've finally switched the two machines.. too bad my stereo can only handle 5.1, not 7.1. I've had one blue screen while transferring dozens of GBs of raw DVD data I use for testing purposes.. and some other weird stuff.. now using this full time will show how good the whole thing really is (Barebones, while great from a visual and space perspective tend to be a lot less unforgiving when it comes to stability, and I packed a lot of high end stuff into this box.. my last one had to undergo an MB and RAM change to run stable). Anyway, I'm now about to install AviSynth, get my D2Vs working again and start a quick encoding test.

Doom9 · 1st July 2005, 23:49

Alright, here's the first report from my X2 4600. x264 revision 270, cli version.

3598 frame PAL DVD source, scaled to 640x352. Settings used: ABR, rdo turned on, 6, 3 ref frames, 2 b-frames, adaptive b-frames and pyramid order turned on, as well as weighted prediction and adaptive dct and 8x8 i-blocks (so high profile).

Naturally, I've used MeGUI 0.2.0.4 for all the tests as it displays FPS and lenght accurately (I'll have to improve upon the FPS as right now it shows the last FPS value received.. I'll make it the average in the next version).

Athlon 64 X2 4600 (2 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 512KB cache each)

1 threads: 6m29s = 9.24 fps, relative speed: 112.23%
2 threads: 4m06s = 14.62, fps relative speed: 177.64%, relative speed gain over 1 thread: 58.22%

Athlon 64 3500+ (1 core @ 2.2 GHz, 512 KB cache, Manchester core)

1 threads: 7m17 = 8.23 fps, relative speed 100%
2 threads: same as with 1 thread.

So, in terms of the PR rating and just looking at x264 performance does the processor deserve its rating? If we consider that most applications are not parallelized to make use of dual core CPUs, then I'd have to say no. Is the money still well spent? I guess that depends on how frequently you're multitasking and which applications you're using.

In my case, using 1 thread my overall CPU load is 51% (x264.exe running in idle mode), so there's plenty of room to do even I/O intensive stuff. The CPU load was consistently above 80% using 2 threads on the dual core CPU. Except for MeGUI running x264.exe, I also had a browser, windows explorer and winamp running (with winamp playing an mp3 online radio @ 128kbit/s)

On a sidenote for those not familiar with AMD's ratings.. the 2.4 GHz single core chip with 512KB cache has a 3800+ rating.

Blue_MiSfit · 2nd July 2005, 03:24

as the script kiddies say... w00t 4nd r0x0r

I need to get a dual core, but last december I spent a bunch getting a socket 754 board and a 2800 (big mistake)... So I wont be upgrading for at least a year now...

hindsight is always 20/20

9th May 2005, 13:45	#1 \| Link
Sharktooth Mr. Sandman Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Haddonfield, IL Posts: 11,768	Athlon64 X2 encoding performance Anandtech reviewed the A64 X2 and this puppy seems to crunch everything you throw at it... http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410&p=6 __________________ MPEG-4 ASP Custom Matrices: EQM V1(old), EQM AutoGK Sharpmatrix (aka EQM V2), EQM V3HR (updated 01/10/2004), EQM V3LR, EQM V3ULR (updated 04/02/2005), EQM V3UHR (updated 17/12/2004) and EQM V3EHR (updated 05/10/2004) Info about my ASP matrices. MPEG-4 AVC Custom Matrices: EQM AVC-HR Info about my AVC matrices My x264 builds. Mooo!!!

9th May 2005, 15:25	#2 \| Link
Sirber retired developer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 8,978	sweet! __________________ Detritus Software

9th May 2005, 15:47	#3 \| Link
Doom9 clueless n00b Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 10,577	I've been waiting all that time for a 2.6 GHz Athlon64 4200+, now there won't be one so I'm torn between waiting for the X2 or getting the Venice core 3800+. Best thing would be to have two identical PCs though, one with a single core and one with a corresponding dual core so that in the next codec comparison, I can compare single to dual core. __________________ For the web's most comprehensive collection of DVD backup guides go to www.doom9.org

10th May 2005, 06:36	#5 \| Link
b00zed Person Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Asstralia Posts: 111	In the words of Keanu Reeves, "woah." I was a bit up in the air as to whether my next media PC would be a P4 or an A64... and now it's settled. The deficit traditionally suffered by AMD's CPUs in audio and video has completely evaporated, the P4 can't touch it at all in most other tasks, and according to THG the X2's power consumption at full load is lower than any current idling P4, which is very attractive. Those multitasking tests look very promising too. The only shame is that we have to wait until the second half of the year for these things to show up in volume. looks like it will soon be time to finally say goodbye to my faithful Athlon XP 2000+ I think __________________ Would you like some candy little girl?

10th May 2005, 10:16	#7 \| Link
b00zed Person Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Asstralia Posts: 111	I had a feeling I'd get pulled up for that. Unfortunately XviD does not represent all there is to audio and video production. __________________ Would you like some candy little girl?

9th May 2005, 17:48	#4 \| Link
Angelus Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 511	Extremetech had similar results with the new AMD processor, here's a link to their review of it too: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1813763,00.asp they seem amazed by it as well. It seems like my next computer build is going to have to be AMD

26th May 2005, 17:24	#9 \| Link
Sharktooth Mr. Sandman Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Haddonfield, IL Posts: 11,768	http://www.techreport.com/reviews/20...md-820/index.x Watch how pentium 4s single and dual cores get pulverized... __________________ MPEG-4 ASP Custom Matrices: EQM V1(old), EQM AutoGK Sharpmatrix (aka EQM V2), EQM V3HR (updated 01/10/2004), EQM V3LR, EQM V3ULR (updated 04/02/2005), EQM V3UHR (updated 17/12/2004) and EQM V3EHR (updated 05/10/2004) Info about my ASP matrices. MPEG-4 AVC Custom Matrices: EQM AVC-HR Info about my AVC matrices My x264 builds. Mooo!!!

21st June 2005, 22:02	#10 \| Link
Doom9 clueless n00b Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 10,577	Finally they've shown in in the PC store where I shop. Supposed to be available this week even.. even with some delay, just in time to replace my NForce3 barebone with an NForce4 one and an X2.. the old box will make a nice birthday present for my dad and his reorganized home office (currently the big almost-full-tower) looks really ugly and doesn't go well with the 26" flatscreen TV/PC monitor. __________________ For the web's most comprehensive collection of DVD backup guides go to www.doom9.org

26th June 2005, 16:09	#11 \| Link
BangoO Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 94	Hi there, Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I need to be sure before spending my $$$ I read that Windows Media Encoder 9 is multithreaded. I am encoding stuff in WM9, but with VDubMod. I read that, though VDubMod is multithreaded, its encoding part is not... So... should I buy an X2 cpu, and will I experience the same improvement as in the benchmarks which use Windows Media Encoder 9 ? Thx ! PS: I currently have a P4C running at 3.15Ghz...

26th June 2005, 16:27	#12 \| Link
tsp Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Denmark Posts: 807	yes you will. It only depends on the encoder.

26th June 2005, 17:06	#13 \| Link
BangoO Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 94	Thx for the fast answer tsp, now I know what my next cpu will be

29th June 2005, 21:58	#14 \| Link
Doom9 clueless n00b Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 10,577	This post is made from a dual core machine... X2 4600 __________________ For the web's most comprehensive collection of DVD backup guides go to www.doom9.org

30th June 2005, 16:27	#15 \| Link
Bootsy Lurker Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Norway Posts: 32	Hope we will see some benchmarks soon. I'm tempted to buy one myself but I want the larger cache that the 4400 and 4800 offers.

1st July 2005, 23:02	#18 \| Link
Doom9 clueless n00b Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 10,577	I've finally switched the two machines.. too bad my stereo can only handle 5.1, not 7.1. I've had one blue screen while transferring dozens of GBs of raw DVD data I use for testing purposes.. and some other weird stuff.. now using this full time will show how good the whole thing really is (Barebones, while great from a visual and space perspective tend to be a lot less unforgiving when it comes to stability, and I packed a lot of high end stuff into this box.. my last one had to undergo an MB and RAM change to run stable). Anyway, I'm now about to install AviSynth, get my D2Vs working again and start a quick encoding test. __________________ For the web's most comprehensive collection of DVD backup guides go to www.doom9.org

1st July 2005, 23:49	#19 \| Link
Doom9 clueless n00b Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 10,577	Alright, here's the first report from my X2 4600. x264 revision 270, cli version. 3598 frame PAL DVD source, scaled to 640x352. Settings used: ABR, rdo turned on, 6, 3 ref frames, 2 b-frames, adaptive b-frames and pyramid order turned on, as well as weighted prediction and adaptive dct and 8x8 i-blocks (so high profile). Naturally, I've used MeGUI 0.2.0.4 for all the tests as it displays FPS and lenght accurately (I'll have to improve upon the FPS as right now it shows the last FPS value received.. I'll make it the average in the next version). Athlon 64 X2 4600 (2 cores @ 2.4 GHz, 512KB cache each) 1 threads: 6m29s = 9.24 fps, relative speed: 112.23% 2 threads: 4m06s = 14.62, fps relative speed: 177.64%, relative speed gain over 1 thread: 58.22% Athlon 64 3500+ (1 core @ 2.2 GHz, 512 KB cache, Manchester core) 1 threads: 7m17 = 8.23 fps, relative speed 100% 2 threads: same as with 1 thread. So, in terms of the PR rating and just looking at x264 performance does the processor deserve its rating? If we consider that most applications are not parallelized to make use of dual core CPUs, then I'd have to say no. Is the money still well spent? I guess that depends on how frequently you're multitasking and which applications you're using. In my case, using 1 thread my overall CPU load is 51% (x264.exe running in idle mode), so there's plenty of room to do even I/O intensive stuff. The CPU load was consistently above 80% using 2 threads on the dual core CPU. Except for MeGUI running x264.exe, I also had a browser, windows explorer and winamp running (with winamp playing an mp3 online radio @ 128kbit/s) On a sidenote for those not familiar with AMD's ratings.. the 2.4 GHz single core chip with 512KB cache has a 3800+ rating. __________________ For the web's most comprehensive collection of DVD backup guides go to www.doom9.org

2nd July 2005, 03:24	#20 \| Link
Blue_MiSfit Derek Prestegard IRL Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 5,960	as the script kiddies say... w00t 4nd r0x0r I need to get a dual core, but last december I spent a bunch getting a socket 754 board and a 2800 (big mistake)... So I wont be upgrading for at least a year now... hindsight is always 20/20 __________________ These are all my personal statements, not those of my employer :)

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