Will this cut my processing time in half?

[jsbenson]

Hardware:
MSI P6 Motherboard
2.4Ghz Quad core OC'd to 3.0Ghz
4GB DDR2
2TB HD space

Running:
Vista x64
HDConvertToX

If I purchase a dual processor motherboard and run 2x2.4Ghz quad core processors, should I see my processing time cut in half from about 12 hours to 6? I know PCs, but I don't have a way to benchmark this. Is anyone running this kind of setup? If so, what kind of performance do you see?

[rallynavvie]

You will pay 4 times as much for only about 60% more performance. And that's only for applications that will use all 8 cores.

[poisondeathray]

It depends what the bottleneck is. There are way too many variables to answer this question

It might be the source filter e.g.DGAVCIndex is much slower than DirectShowSource. DGNVTools are capped at 50fps serving.

It might be the b-frame decision which wasn't multithreaded when using b-adapt 2 (recently improved)

It might be filters e.g. resizing, denoise, color correction. This is usually the case

It also highly dependent on the settings used and content complexity. You won't see a linear increase (exactly 1/2 time) on lower quality settings, or using a small dimension video

I did run dual harpertowns @ 3.2, and it was much more efficient to run parallel encodes in most scenarios

If you had a choice, clockspeed increase is still king over more cores, even on highly optimized multicore aware software.

And rallynavvie is spot on with the price concerns. Not worth it. Moreover, most server boards don't overclock at all. You could tape/pin mod the 5400 series, but not the current 5500 i7 series for intel. Not sure about AMD server boards

Much better to get an i7 and overclock it.

[jsbenson]

Thanks for the advice. Knowing that I'll probably just build another machine with an i7 and then use both of them to convert video (thus cutting my processing time in half by running two conversions at the same time rather than one).

[ocgw]

Better yet don't upgrade @ all, build a cheap 2nd rig w/ a base level quad that can run 24/7 undisturbed

I am about to upgrade my 6000+ 2nd PC w/ the new AMD $99USD quad myself

ocgw

peace

[jsbenson]

Another good idea.

Thanks

[jagabo]

Xvid is not well multithreaded. It hardly scales at all past 4 threads.

[Noahtuck]

Better yet don't upgrade @ all, build a cheap 2nd rig w/ a base level quad that can run 24/7 undisturbed

I am about to upgrade my 6000+ 2nd PC w/ the new AMD $99USD quad myself

ocgw

peace

Well i don't know what the specs are of the OP's current system seeing as he did not fill out his info or say, but you can always upgrade/build a new system and just move the current one down the line.

I always have at least 3 running systems side by side, and as i upgrade (build a new sys) my main PC i just move them down the line and take out the lowest one and either give it to someone or part it out to the parts shelves.

Then i always have 1 dedicated machine for doing long and slow encodes or other video work so my main system is not tied up.

I have worked on some old videos from VHS using vdub and the NEAT video filter that took 3 days from start to finish on a 2.0ghz with 1.5gb of ram so it is nice to have a dedicated system for such things.
But that is an extreme situation as most encodes do not take anywhere near that long.

EDIT:
Okay, i am guessing that he did state his current specs.

MSI P6 Motherboard
2.4Ghz Quad core OC'd to 3.0Ghz
4GB DDR2
2TB HD space

Running:
Vista x64
HDConvertToX

So yeah, either way, build a new main system & move down the line or build a cheaper dedicated system for doing encodes you can let run over night or as long as you need.