[MPlayer-users] Re: MPlayer-users Digest, Vol 27, Issue 59

[Vladimir Mosgalin]

Hi pfile at pacbell.net!

 On 2006.03.24 at 09:55:22 -0800, pfile at pacbell.net wrote next:

> >Thanks to you and everyone else who pitched in.  I have decided to get
> >an Athlon 64 4000+.  I was considering an X2, but there aren't really
> >any multi-threaded codecs out there yet, so I figured I should just
> >get the fastest single-core CPU that I can.
> >
> 
> uh, really? lavc takes threads=n as an argument, and it definitely 
> speeds up encoding on my A64 X2. like from 70fps to 80fps with 
> threads=2 on pass1 of dvd transcoding to mpeg4.

I heard that it makes quality (motion estimation, to be exact) a bit
worse though. I wonder if it's true? Because on powerful system, 70 vs
80 fps doesn't really matter, so why loose quality?

But generally I would suggest A64 X2 4200+ over A64 4000+ anyway.
Getting powerful, but single core system today isn't wise, unless you'll
be using system only for video encoding 100% of time. Even then,
you can always encode two streams at once! In that case, X2 would easily
outperform single-core systems. Just think about, X2 4200+ vs 4000+ is
2.4Ghz/1024Kb cache vs. 2x(2.2Ghz/512Kb cache). Not that big penalty
in single-thread encoding, but a major win when running two encodings at
once. Also if you have a lot of money to waste you can always buy
2x(2.4/1024) cpu (4800+) or just pick up a good MB, PSU and memory and
overclock your 4200+ system...

Just don't forget to buy two memory modules (dual channel) for X2, it
really needs it.

-- 

Vladimir