Need suggestions on best encoder

[mjr0483]

I am buying a new PC for video encoding.
I want to re-encode h264 content to h265 and looking for the best PC build.

Any combination CPU/GPU is in my budget.
I just want the best quality using handbrake, ffmpeg or staxrip
So the best combination of absolute best quality and faster encoding when I just need the fastest.

Question 1 - CPU encoding, 9900K vs the 3950x
Question 2 - GPU encoding fastest with best quality, QSV, AMF or NVENC?

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
Intel Core i9-9900K

GPU
AMD RX5700 XT
nvidia 2080 TI

[sophisticles]

Am I actually going to fall for this?

Yes I am.

If you are looking for cost effective, power efficient, fast and high quality, a laptop with an Ice Lake + Iris Pro gpu is probably your best best. Intel claims that its qsv hevc encoder beats x265+placebo+tune psnr and I have seen claims by people that say they have Ice Lake laptops that it beats x265+medium.

I have personally tested Kaby Lake qsv hevc 10-bit and think it's very good.

Having said this, I am waiting for cpu's that have Intel's Gen 12 Xe gpu, which means Tiger Lake for mobile, Rocket Lake for desktop and DG1 Xe dGPU. Intel has said that it's supposed to be twice as fast qsv encode as Ice Lake, higher quality and supposedly it will feature hardware decode/encode 12-bit AV1.

That's just my opinion.

[mjr0483]

Wow,

Ice Lake will beat a 3950x x265+medium