Getting some speed out of a 6 core FX CPU?

[bizzybody]

Attempting to do some HEVC conversion to shrink the file size of videos. I was running a system with a dual core Phenom II 555 with 6 gig DDR2. That one was able to do at best 7 frames per second.

Current system is a 3.3Ghz 6 core FX Zambezi, 95W TDP from South Korea (could only find 125W versions in the US) with 8 gig DDR3. How well does it do on HEVC conversion? Not quite TEN frames per second, with all cores selected in MediaCoder.

How does such a large increase in processing power get such a piddly little increase in conversion speed? Four more cores, 3.3Ghz vs 3.2 plus at least 2 years newer core design and all it can manage is a 2~3 FPS increase?

What do I need for software and the settings for it to get it to work faster?

[redwudz]

What program did you use for the conversion? Edit: You said Mediacoder.
A few more details about the encode settings would help.

[KarMa]

You using all the same settings (presets) and source material? You getting full 100% CPU usages across all cores in task manager? I'd also move on to something like Handbrake or Vidcoder.

[sophisticles]

Attempting to do some HEVC conversion to shrink the file size of videos. I was running a system with a dual core Phenom II 555 with 6 gig DDR2. That one was able to do at best 7 frames per second.

Current system is a 3.3Ghz 6 core FX Zambezi, 95W TDP from South Korea (could only find 125W versions in the US) with 8 gig DDR3. How well does it do on HEVC conversion? Not quite TEN frames per second, with all cores selected in MediaCoder.

How does such a large increase in processing power get such a piddly little increase in conversion speed? Four more cores, 3.3Ghz vs 3.2 plus at least 2 years newer core design and all it can manage is a 2~3 FPS increase?

What do I need for software and the settings for it to get it to work faster?

I can guarantee that your comparison is flawed in one or more ways, such as using different sources to test encode speed, different resolution, different settings for the encoder etc.

Having said that, IF you were talking 1080p content I would be very surprised if a Phenom II 555 was able to get 7 fps with x265 and I would be surprised if the Zambezi saw 10 fps for 1080p content.

X265 is very computationally intensive, I think you're expecting way too much out of that class of cpu's.

[bizzybody]

Looks like I'll have to save up for a GTX 1050 or newer video card with its hardware HEVC encoding.

[KarMa]

Looks like I'll have to save up for a GTX 1050 or newer video card with its hardware HEVC encoding.

So you can get results similar to one of the x264 fast presets? And yes I did mean x264, not x265.

[bizzybody]

Is there a CPU that can do HEVC encoding in at least realtime? What I have is like when I was doing MPEG2 encoding with a Slot 1 Pentium II.

Edit: Handbrake is processing a 1280x688 video at a current average speed of 17.6 FPS. Slowed down from the 20+ it was doing for the first couple of minutes. That's better than 10 or less. Resource meter shows over 95% utilization of all cores. I'll let this go and see how much reduction it gets and if I can live with the quality or if I want to change settings and take more time. Will most likely focus on redoing what I have in Xvid and leave the more compressed x264 files as they are.

BTW, another disappointment from this CPU is it is pretty much 0% better at PS2 emulation than the Phenom II. 100% faster in multithreaded applications my butt. :P

[KarMa]

Well I have a FX-6300 which might be the same or very similar to what you have and am pretty happy with it for what it cost. You still have not said what settings you were using on your old CPU, and if they are the same settings you are using on your FX CPU. Like are you using the ultra fast x265 settings? Between Ultra Fast and Placebo, there is a huge difference in encoding FPS due to encoding complexity.

[redwudz]

My AMD FX-8350 8 Core CPU 4.2Ghz did about 60fps with H.264
and with the same settings, about 23fps with H.265, using the same BD Rip.

I used VidCoder with a CQ of 18.
And that's with all 8 cores at 100%.

If I lower my quality settings, then both encodes speed up a fair bit.

[bizzybody]

Fast 1080p 30. Set it to keep resolution and frame rate same as source, left the rest at defaults. The FX 6300 should be only marginally faster than the 6100.

I paid under $70 for mine but had to wait nearly a month for the slow boat from South Korea. The Asrock 770 Extreme 3 with BIOS 1.91 *may* be able to take an 8 core. Given the 140W limit of the board, that puts the max potential top CPU for it as the FX 8370. 8 core, 125W. Another thing is the RAM speed on this board tops at 1600 so that may make the Vishera CPUs incompatible. That would put the potential top as the FX-8150.

Edit: Crucial lists some 1866 RAM as being compatible - but I did run across an old forum thread from a person who could only get this same board to boot with two 4gig sticks of that.

I do have a real key for my free Windows 10, thanks to Microsoft customer help. So swapping motherboards now (again) won't be a big deal. Time to start saving up for something more current.

[ezcapper]

This thread seemed like a cool excuse to post this link:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

for x265 encoding if you can afford it, it looks like a dual xeon e5-2670 (sandy bridge) setup is a possible way to go. It's not as expensive as you'd think. You get 32 cores. I saw a pair for $170 on Ebay (cheaper than an i5-6400 on newegg). You have to buy a $300 motherboard but still not crazy prices. It outperforms intel's latest x series processors in x265 encoding wow

[ezcapper]

Looks like I'll have to save up for a GTX 1050 or newer video card with its hardware HEVC encoding.

So you can get results similar to one of the x264 fast presets? And yes I did mean x264, not x265.

The hardware hevc encoders have quite good quality. They atleast are comparable to x264 medium. Here is a quicksync encode from an acer computer I got for under $180 off of ebay compared with x264 medium. Target bitrate 5000 kbps

hardware hevc realtime:

QSVEncC64.exe -i 1.mkv -c hevc --vbr 5000 -o 1hevc.mkv
B pyramid is not supported on current platform, disabled.
cop.PicTimingSEI value changed off -> auto by driver
cop3.DirectBiasAdjustment value changed off -> auto by driver
cop3.GlobalMotionBiasAdjustment value changed off -> auto by driver
QSVEncC (x64) 2.62 (r1192) by rigaya, Jan  8 2017 23:11:24 (VC 1900/Win/avx2)
OS             Windows 10 (x64)
CPU Info       Intel Core i3-7100U @ 2.40GHz (2C/4T) <Kabylake>
GPU Info       Intel HD Graphics 620 (23EU) 300-1000MHz [15W] (21.20.16.4534)
Media SDK      QuickSyncVideo (hardware encoder) PG, 1st GPU, API v1.19
Async Depth    5 frames
Buffer Memory  d3d9, 1 input buffer, 21 work buffer
Input Info     avqsv video: H.264/AVC, 1920x1080, 50/1 fps
Output         HEVC  main @ Level 4.1
               1920x1080p 1:1 50.000fps (50/1fps)
               avwriter: hevc => matroska
Target usage   4 - balanced
Encode Mode    Bitrate Mode - VBR
Bitrate        5000 kbps
Max Bitrate    5000 kbps
QP Limit       min: none, max: none
Trellis        Auto
Ref frames     4 frames
Bframes        3 frames, B-pyramid: off
Max GOP Length 500 frames
Scene Change   off
Ext. Features  PerMBRC

encoded 2500 frames, 54.79 fps, 4983.10 kbps, 29.70 MB
encode time 0:00:46, CPULoad: 4.99%
frame type IDR    1
frame type I      5,  total size   0.43 MB
frame type P    625,  total size  22.97 MB
frame type B   1870,  total size   6.31 MB

x264 medium 15fps:

ffmpeg -i 1.mkv -c:v libx264 -preset medium -b:v 5000k 1x264.mkv
ffmpeg version N-83195-ge371f03 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-cuda --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55. 44.100 / 55. 44.100
  libavcodec     57. 75.100 / 57. 75.100
  libavformat    57. 63.100 / 57. 63.100
  libavdevice    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
  libavfilter     6. 69.100 /  6. 69.100
  libswscale      4.  3.101 /  4.  3.101
  libswresample   2.  4.100 /  2.  4.100
  libpostproc    54.  2.100 / 54.  2.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from '1.mkv':
  Metadata:
    title           : SVT_1080p50
    encoder         : libebml v1.2.2 + libmatroska v1.3.0
    creation_time   : 2011-10-23T14:54:54.000000Z
  Duration: 00:00:50.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29006 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 50 tbr, 1k tbn, 100 tbc (default)
File '1x264.mkv' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 AVX2 LZCNT BMI2
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] profile High, level 4.2
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] 264 - core 148 r2744 b97ae06 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2016 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=abr mbtree=1 bitrate=5000 ratetol=1.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, matroska, to '1x264.mkv':
  Metadata:
    title           : SVT_1080p50
    encoder         : Lavf57.63.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) (H264 / 0x34363248), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 5000 kb/s, 50 fps, 1k tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.75.100 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/5000000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 2500 fps= 15 q=-1.0 Lsize=   25391kB time=00:00:49.94 bitrate=4164.9kbits/s speed=0.305x
video:25372kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.073862%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] frame I:10    Avg QP:33.70  size:112345
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] frame P:654   Avg QP:37.53  size: 24030
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] frame B:1836  Avg QP:40.64  size:  4979
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] consecutive B-frames:  1.5%  1.5%  0.5% 96.5%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] mb I  I16..4: 14.6% 65.4% 20.0%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] mb P  I16..4:  0.8%  3.7%  0.3%  P16..4: 40.0% 11.1%  5.9%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:38.3%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] mb B  I16..4:  0.0%  0.1%  0.0%  B16..8: 39.7%  1.1%  0.1%  direct: 0.4%  skip:58.5%  L0:41.1% L1:58.0% BI: 0.9%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] final ratefactor: 31.58
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] 8x8 transform intra:74.1% inter:79.9%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 55.8% 57.6% 21.3% inter: 7.5% 5.4% 0.1%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] i16 v,h,dc,p: 20% 57%  7% 16%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 11% 23% 21%  6%  7%  6% 12%  5% 10%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 15% 27% 18%  7%  7%  5%  9%  5%  7%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] i8c dc,h,v,p: 70% 18% 10%  2%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] Weighted P-Frames: Y:3.7% UV:1.5%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] ref P L0: 67.1% 14.4% 14.0%  4.2%  0.3%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] ref B L0: 96.0%  3.4%  0.6%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] ref B L1: 98.8%  1.2%
[libx264 @ 0000000002da8b00] kb/s:4156.83

[bizzybody]

This thread seemed like a cool excuse to post this link:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

for x265 encoding if you can afford it, it looks like a dual xeon e5-2670 (sandy bridge) setup is a possible way to go. It's not as expensive as you'd think. You get 32 cores. I saw a pair for $170 on Ebay (cheaper than an i5-6400 on newegg). You have to buy a $300 motherboard but still not crazy prices. It outperforms intel's latest x series processors in x265 encoding wow

Motherboard, and RAM, and two coolers, and a PCIe USB 3.0 card. I do have my now 17 year old 12 bay tower case. I bought it new in 2000 because I was fed up with cramped mini and mid towers. From the Slot 1 Pentium II that I first installed in "Megatower 2000" that case has had many different groups of hardware inside. Currently totally empty and holding up a printer.

I also have a Corsair CX750M power supply, but someone made off with all the cables with SATA power connectors, leaving behind an excess with all Molex plugs. But hey, it was a freebie. Gimmie a dead power supply and I can fix that with a pair of wire cutters, solder and shrink tube.

My budget angles a lot closer to something like a Zotac GTX 1050 Mini. Has a 2x thick cooler but only uses one slot on the case. It's like they made it for BTX systems that have their x16 slot closest to the middle of the case so double slot cards can't fit.

[bizzybody]

Heck with *building* a couple generations old dual quad or octo Xeon. A quick look on eBay shows I could likely buy one complete in a snazzy mini tower for around $200, then just swap in a newer GPU. Would still have to make sure to get one with at least one x1 slot to add USB 3.0, and a PCI slot for my dumpster rescue X-Fi soundcard.

[ezcapper]

Heck with *building* a couple generations old dual quad or octo Xeon. A quick look on eBay shows I could likely buy one complete in a snazzy mini tower for around $200, then just swap in a newer GPU. Would still have to make sure to get one with at least one x1 slot to add USB 3.0, and a PCI slot for my dumpster rescue X-Fi soundcard.

yeah, realistically you're right. Another thing to keep in mind is that the modern desktop cpu's can encode 1080p x265 video faster than real-time now, so that is there to compete with the hardware hevc encoding as well. Here's an encode from an i7-7700 I just sold. The upcoming zen octacore will be even faster.

ffmpeg -i 1.mkv -c:v libx265 -preset ultrafast 2.mkv
ffmpeg version N-83195-ge371f03 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-cuda --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55. 44.100 / 55. 44.100
  libavcodec     57. 75.100 / 57. 75.100
  libavformat    57. 63.100 / 57. 63.100
  libavdevice    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
  libavfilter     6. 69.100 /  6. 69.100
  libswscale      4.  3.101 /  4.  3.101
  libswresample   2.  4.100 /  2.  4.100
  libpostproc    54.  2.100 / 54.  2.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from '1.mkv':
  Metadata:
    title           : SVT_1080p50
    encoder         : libebml v1.2.2 + libmatroska v1.3.0
    creation_time   : 2011-10-23T14:54:54.000000Z
  Duration: 00:00:50.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29006 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 50 tbr, 1k tbn, 100 tbc (default)
x265 [info]: HEVC encoder version 2.2
x265 [info]: build info [Windows][GCC 5.4.0][64 bit] 8bit
x265 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX AVX2 FMA3 LZCNT BMI2
x265 [info]: Main profile, Level-4.1 (Main tier)
x265 [info]: Thread pool created using 8 threads
x265 [info]: Slices                              : 1
x265 [info]: frame threads / pool features       : 3 / wpp(34 rows)
x265 [info]: Coding QT: max CU size, min CU size : 32 / 16
x265 [info]: Residual QT: max TU size, max depth : 32 / 1 inter / 1 intra
x265 [info]: ME / range / subpel / merge         : dia / 57 / 0 / 2
x265 [info]: Keyframe min / max / scenecut / bias: 25 / 250 / 0 / 5.00
x265 [info]: Lookahead / bframes / badapt        : 5 / 3 / 0
x265 [info]: b-pyramid / weightp / weightb       : 1 / 0 / 0
x265 [info]: References / ref-limit  cu / depth  : 1 / off / off
x265 [info]: AQ: mode / str / qg-size / cu-tree  : 1 / 0.0 / 32 / 1
x265 [info]: Rate Control / qCompress            : CRF-28.0 / 0.60
x265 [info]: tools: rd=2 psy-rd=2.00 early-skip rskip tmvp fast-intra
x265 [info]: tools: strong-intra-smoothing lslices=6 deblock
Output #0, matroska, to '2.mkv':
  Metadata:
    title           : SVT_1080p50
    encoder         : Lavf57.63.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (libx265), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 50 fps, 1k tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.75.100 libx265
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> hevc (libx265))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 2500 fps= 56 q=-0.0 Lsize=   51458kB time=00:00:49.94 bitrate=8440.9kbits/s speed=1.12x
video:51437kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:2kB muxing overhead: 0.040564%
x265 [info]: frame I:     10, Avg QP:32.32  kb/s: 51197.72
x265 [info]: frame P:    621, Avg QP:34.52  kb/s: 21637.37
x265 [info]: frame B:   1869, Avg QP:37.67  kb/s: 3807.36
x265 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 0.3% 1.4% 0.0% 98.3%

encoded 2500 frames in 44.57s (56.10 fps), 8425.90 kb/s, Avg QP:36.87