Is my opinion about hardware acceleration and tweaking players right?

[Josip747]

When I play 1080p MKV in Totem or VLC I get stuttering? Why the stuttering happens? Is my CPU to weak or what? On windows 8.1 was everything alright in MPC-HC,Gom player, KMPlayer, Kodi, POT Player, Zoom player, BS Player no matter if in this players the hardware acceleration was turned off or on. Only in VLC(on default settings) and SMPlayer( I had to increse the the number of cpu cores in option) were problems. The CPU usage in all player without hardware acceleration was 5-10% max 16%. I tested the memory with memtest, hdd with hd tune pro, the temps with Aida and everything is fine.
I always thought/think that hardware acceleration is bad because if you for normal/smooth playback of video must in player turn on the hardware acceleration it means that your CPU is weak. So if I in Vlc or any any other player must use hardware acceleration(that means to me tha my CPU is to weak.So is my opinion right or wrong? the goes if I in any player must change some other setting for normal playback. Am I wrong?
my pc specs:
PU: FX 8320
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS10X OPTIMA
MBO: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
RAM: TRANSCEND 2X4 GB 1600 MHZ (8GB)
HDD: WD BLUE 1TB SATA 3
GPU: MSI GTX 760 2GB TF IV GAMING OC
PSU: FORTRON FSP RAIDER 550W 80+ SILVER
CASE: ZALMAN Z3 PLUS ATX USB 3.0

[redwudz]

VLC does seem to use a bit more CPU power than some other players. Always has, IMO.
I normally use Zoom or MPC-HC instead and reserve VLC for 'odd' formats that other players may struggle to play.

I have a FX 8350 and a Nvidia GeForce GT610 Graphics card in my main PC and it has no playback problems.

[hello_hello]

Are you sure you're not confusing hardware acceleration with hardware decoding? Although I'm not sure your logic makes sense either way.
Having to use something because your CPU is "weak" doesn't make using it bad, it just means your CPU doesn't have enough grunt for decoding. So logically to me, that'd make the "something else" a good thing because it gives you a decoding option when you have a weaker CPU.

I enable hardware decoding in MPC-HC not matter what the CPU. Why not use any dedicated hardware decoder for decoding, given it's pretty efficient at the job, and leave the CPU that isn't as efficient at decoding free to get one with other things?

Does VLC support hardware decoding these day? I don't use it regularly and I can't remember.

Edit: Sorry.... may bad. I checked and both LAV Filters and ffdshow have hardware decoding options described as hardware acceleration so I guess it's a common thing now?

[Krispy Kritter]

It's not better or worse. It depends on the hardware used for playback. Not all GPU's support hardware acceleration. So any app that only used hardware acceleration wouldn't work on all hardware. It's about providing options to the user. Not an issue of which is better.

[redwudz]

The OPs PC is using a AMD FX-8320 Vishera 8-Core 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) CPU. It's not underpowered for his uses.

I just tried playing back three HD MKV videos at the same time on my PC using a FX-8350 and opening them with VLC, Zoom Player and VSO player.
All three played at once with no stuttering, though the audio was a bit confusing.

The problem is likely in the video card or it's settings.