x264 slows down work while I do other things

[naoto89]

I'm encoding videos to H264 with x264 on a recently built PC (Intel Core i7-12700KF, Asus Prime B660M-A AC D4. 32GB RAM, Asus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB dual fan) but I noticed that the x264 process goes down a lot when x264 window is minimized or not visible because it's behind other windows and this causes encoding to take longer instead keep working at the same pace. I know this is due to how P-Cores and E-Cores work but this is annoying me and I want x264 to keep working while I do other things. On my old PC (Intel Core i7-6700, Gigabyte H170M-D3H DDR3, 16GB RAM, Asus NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 2GB) I could use x264 and do other things just fine. I should be able to do the same on my current PC but I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[frank_footer]

it's a function of the os.

i assume you are using windows, this os makes the assumption that whichever application has focus is the one you are most interested in and prioritizes that application over any other, it's been this way for decades,

you can change priority of any application by launching it, in this case handbrake, start the encode, launch task manager, check which processes are running, if you see x264 right click on that, if you only see handbrake right click on that, there should be an option called priority, increase the priority to high, done.

[johns0]

If you are running windows 11 the priority is located in the details tab in task manager.

[naoto89]

it's a function of the os.

i assume you are using windows, this os makes the assumption that whichever application has focus is the one you are most interested in and prioritizes that application over any other, it's been this way for decades,

you can change priority of any application by launching it, in this case handbrake, start the encode, launch task manager, check which processes are running, if you see x264 right click on that, if you only see handbrake right click on that, there should be an option called priority, increase the priority to high, done.

That's right, I'm using Windows 10 Pro. In fact, it's the same setup I used previously with the Core i7-6700 but because H170M motherboard had a breakdown, I needed to change components but unfortunately I couldn't find a replacement and I had to make the generational jump. I know the Core i7-6700 can still fight but I also thought a lot about how good it would be to have a more current processor and that's why I changed almost everything. As I said, when I used x264 with the Core i7-6700 I never had that problem but since I've been using the Core i7-12700KF the experience has been very different. Following this I looked for info but the closest thing was about the heterogeneous cores that Intel incorporated since the 12th generation compared to 6th generation processors like the one I used before. Are you sure it's a matter of process priority? Because I never had the need to change it when using x264 with the Core i7-6700.

[johns0]

Some motherboards are better at distributing power for you so you gotta use the advice given.

[buzz1891]

Explainer, Win 10 + mixed cores CPU performance

Hybrid CPU Performance on Windows 10 and 11

[El Heggunte]

Explainer, Win 10 + mixed cores CPU performance

Hybrid CPU Performance on Windows 10 and 11

Thanks for informing the uninformed (a.k.a. me myself 😳).

[naoto89]

Explainer, Win 10 + mixed cores CPU performance

Hybrid CPU Performance on Windows 10 and 11

This is more of what I've read about heterogeneous cores, but I'm still confused. What I understood is that I should change something in Processor Power Management in advanced options of the power plan but there are only 3 options and none of them refer to the management of hybrid cores, I guess the other options appear in Windows 11.

[buzz1891]

>> but there are only 3 options and none of them refer to
The tool to unhide relevant options: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/windows-power-plan-settings-explorer-utility.416058/

[naoto89]

This is interesting, now I need to know exactly which options I need to unhide (it have slightly different names) and then know how to configure.

[naoto89]

Well, since heterogeneous cores options are not available in Windows 10, I decided to disable E-Cores in the BIOS. Now x264 works while I do other things but I noticed that the CPU usage shoots up to 100% unlike when the E-Cores were active. The good thing is that I previously made other changes in the BIOS such as setting -0.15 Offset and lower TDP values ​​in PL1 and PL2 with the purpose of having somewhat lower temperatures. However, reaching 100% usage shouldn't happe, even when I used x264 with the Core i7-6700 the CPU usage didn't go above 70%.

[buzz1891]

Well, since heterogeneous cores options are not available in Windows 10

That's strange, the screenshots I provided are from Win10 20H2 actually, you just have to unhide relevant options. Have you try it as suggested?
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/415450-x264-slows-down-work-while-I-do-other-things#post2744956

[naoto89]

Well, since heterogeneous cores options are not available in Windows 10

That's strange, the screenshots I provided are from Win10 20H2 actually, you just have to unhide relevant options. Have you try it as suggested?
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/415450-x264-slows-down-work-while-I-do-other-things#post2744956

In fact, it's 22H2. Sorry but I didn't look at all the options and I thought it wasn't there but I already unhidden them and reverted the changes in the BIOS to try. Following what I read, I set “Heterogeneous policy in effect” to “0” and “Heterogeneous thread scheduling policy” to “Prefer performant processors”. It seems that x264 is still active now and the CPU usage % are as it were before I disabled E-Cores in the BIOS. I also tried with “Performant processors” and the processing power went up a bit more but without reaching 100% usage like when I disabled the E-Cores in the BIOS. Is there anything else I can configure? Considering that I still want to reduce the temperatures that currently reach 80°C.

[buzz1891]

Is there anything else I can configure? Considering that I still want to reduce the temperatures that currently reach 80°C.

Temperature management is completely different topic. Performance wise you should use advice from the article:
set "Heterogeneous policy" = 3
set “Heterogeneous thread scheduling policy" = AllProcessors

[naoto89]

Performance wise you should use advice from the article:
set "Heterogeneous policy" = 3
set “Heterogeneous thread scheduling policy" = AllProcessors

What exactly does each policy number do and how does it complement the other?