P4 vs. AMD: re-encoding quality and speed

[dpcpro]

I am using 2 systems for my re-encoding with ReMpeg and noticed a big difference between the two.

The first P4 1.6, 256MB DDR, Intel 845 Chipset and the second AMD XP 2000, 512MB DDR, Nvidia NForce2 Chipset. Both systems are around the same CPU speed but there is a big difference with re-encoding times between the two.

My AMD system re-encodes movies in about 4 hours while the P4 takes about 8 hours.

Has anyone noticed any difference in quality with either CPU or the other?
What have your experiences been, what do you recommend and WHY?

Any experienced comments are appreciated. Thanks.

dpcpro

[jfebus]

Hi,

The AMD 2000 must be compared wit the P4 2000, not with a P4 1600.

I have the AMD XP 2000 and it's great!

Regards,

Jose

[BJ_M]

not this debate again .. look through about 1000 other posting already on this subject and its rather a pointless battle with no winner ..

[Gazorgan]

I have found that it's primarily CPU(equivalent) speed driven. I say primarily, because there are 'tweaked' versions of most compressors. Specifically some use the P4 only extensions and some use the Athlon only extensions. If you have a mis-optimized version that can explain the time difference (beyond the 25% or 2 hour difference for CPU speed).

I have tested 133 Mhz SDRAM verses 266 Mhz DDR and noted no real encoding speed changes (Gaming is another story). I have tested non-optimized (PII versions) versus Optimized (Athlon) version and seen a 12-15% speed improvement(wasn't a hardcore test, just the same clip after re-booting). That's saving an hour on an 8 hour encode (add that to the cpu difference and your closer to being mostly Mhz driven)

[Burner27]

I have tested encoding with my AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8GHz) vs a P4 @2GHz (400FSB).

The file size was 717MBs and I was converting it from Divx to MPeg2.

AMD finished in ~6 hours


P4 finished in 10 hours

[mickboss]

8) People, quality is ALWAYS the same! FPUs floating-point and MMX/SSE precision is about the same.

reencoding video is VERY CPU intensive, at least in a FPU matter. I can reencode a video and still edit in WORD and see Webpages with very little impact in performance.

AMD Athlon XP has an extra FPU unit comparing with Intel P4 and, each Athlon XP FPU is a little fast that P4´s FPUs. Result: Improved performance in DCT and iDCT calculations.

Honestly, I see thousands of comparisons between P4 / XP and I can´t understand how P4 wins in video encoding in all of them! (well, I know... LOTS of $$$$$ and intel/SSE2 optimized software... 8) )

I own a Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2000+ with 384 Mb 133MHz SDRAM. I encode video severeal hours faster than a friend of mine (in same conditions) with a P4 2000 512Kb cache, 512 Mb DDR... yes, Intel don´t give me or him favours

[jbenj01]

Sorry to change the subject a bit but I'm hoping someone can help me out... I just upgraded the gutz of my 3-yr old Dell Dimension 450Mhz to an Asus A7V333/AMD Athlon XP2000 (1.67G)/512M, mainly to support creating backups of my DVD's (DVD to DVD-R) .. (yes, I'm a novice at best)

When I go into system BIOS to adjust CPU processor speed, it doesn't give an option to select "1.67Ghz" - give me only 3 choices: 1.0G, 1.33G, 1.8G (or something like that)??? I called customer support twice--never called me back.. ba$tards.. '-)

Also, I kept my original video and sound cards (Diamond Viper and ???).. Any recommendations for new ones?? I don't watch any movies on my pc, nor do I listen to music. Should I just stick to what I have and not upgrade the cards??

Thanks..

[jfebus]

Sorry to change the subject a bit but I'm hoping someone can help me out... I just upgraded the gutz of my 3-yr old Dell Dimension 450Mhz to an Asus A7V333/AMD Athlon XP2000 (1.67G)/512M, mainly to support creating backups of my DVD's (DVD to DVD-R) .. (yes, I'm a novice at best)

When I go into system BIOS to adjust CPU processor speed, it doesn't give an option to select "1.67Ghz" - give me only 3 choices: 1.0G, 1.33G, 1.8G (or something like that)??? I called customer support twice--never called me back.. ba$tards.. '-)

Also, I kept my original video and sound cards (Diamond Viper and ???).. Any recommendations for new ones?? I don't watch any movies on my pc, nor do I listen to music. Should I just stick to what I have and not upgrade the cards??

Thanks..

I had the same problem..I just change the bus speed to 133 and solved the problem!

Regards,

Jose

[jbenj01]

Jose, thanks!

Do I leave processor speed what I have it set to currently (at 1.33G)?? Or do the options change to include 1.67G when I change BUS speed to 133? (Oh, I'm at work so can't check right now..). Thanks again..

[jfebus]

Jose, thanks!

Do I leave processor speed what I have it set to currently (at 1.33G)?? Or do the options change to include 1.67G when I change BUS speed to 133? (Oh, I'm at work so can't check right now..). Thanks again..

Hi again!

I noticed the error when at boot time my recognized the cpu as a amx xp 1250! When I looked at the BIOS settings in the CPU area, there were two settings (I think cpu bus speed) set at 100mhz, after changing both to 133mhz the cpu was recognized as a 2000mhz...

Regards,,