MPEG4 Hardware decoder

[Guest]

The use of the hardware accelerator makes a noticeable difference, especially with older PC systems with less CPU power. The system we used in our tests with an AMD Duron 650 exhibited an average CPU load of 80% - i.e., when using the media player from Microsoft under Windows XP and a special MPEG-4 test sequence. By using the decoder board, the processor load fell to an average of 10% to 12%.

this is an extract of the THG review of which the link is following <A HREF="http/www.tomshardware.com/video/02q2/020621/sigma-04.html" target="_new">http/www.tomshardware.com/video/02q2/020621/sigma-04.html</A>

i am rather surprising by this low Duron 650Mhz cpu load of around 10% for this hardware MPEG4 decoding.
i have a Thunderbird @ 1.533Ghz & a All in Wonder Radeon which has a MPEG2 hardware decoder. when i use it this involves a cpu load of 50%.
because of the large difference between both cpus frequency as the cpu load percentage, i am a bit perplexed.

does someone has an opinion on this topic?


<i>if you know you don't know, the way could be more easy ...</i>

 

[dukeofcrydee]

Hmmm. I can only assume the MPEG4 board they used handles a lot more of the decoding chores compred the MPEG2 video & your decoder board.

Also the fact that your decoder is "built-in" might equate to "less powerful" when compared to a stand alone board that is designed to tackle that one task alone. Just a hunch though

 

[NurseMSIC]

And MPEG 4 is really quite different to MPEG 2. But yeah, i'd go with the 'having a dedicated board' thing.

<A HREF="http/www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=19557" target="_new">http/www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=19557</A>

 

[dukeofcrydee]

And MPEG 4 is really quite different to MPEG 2

Oh I know. Figures....I knew rushing that out before I left work would make it read wrong.