Hardware capabilities?

[bwall244]

I've done quite a bit of reading on CPU vs GPU encoding, finding that software and quality are the main issues with GPU. My question is with programs such as avitodvd, dvd flick, devede, or others (paid or not) will on board graphics vs dedicated GPU make ANY difference on medium to high level CPU systems in terms of converting times or quality?

[jman98]

No. It really is that simple.

[bwall244]

Anything that will make a difference? input vs output on different drives? Use a SSD for one of them? Right now I can run more than one program at a time without maxing out the cpu, just looking for a way to make things eaiser.

[johns0]

Ssd won't help encoding at all unless you can encode at 500 Mb a sec,the only other thing that will make a difference is cpu power and its efficiency.

[Slipster]

Anything that will make a difference? input vs output on different drives?

This can make a measurable difference depending on the speed of the drives, especially if one or both drives are badly fragmented. If the software you're using to encode is multi-threaded and you're not maxing out your CPU on a regular basis when encoding then that does suggest that there's probably an I/O bottleneck coming into play.

Of course, the other option is to avoid wasting those unused CPU clock cycles by bringing up the encoder quality settings to keep the CPU busier and use them up. If you get the balance right you'll still be encoding at approximately the same speed but have better looking encodes 'for free'.