graphic cards for encoding?

Locked
RonnieDaking
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:07 pm
Org Profile

graphic cards for encoding?

Post by RonnieDaking » Thu May 28, 2009 1:25 am

I heard of graphic cards that can encode hi-def format for you faster then a cpu can . Any truth to that? Also is the MSI Radeon HD 3450 Graphics Card any good for it [or gaming for that matter]?

User avatar
Kariudo
Twilight prince
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:08 pm
Status: 1924 bots banned and counting!
Location: Los taquitos unidos
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by Kariudo » Thu May 28, 2009 5:33 am

I think all the HD series cards (ie, anything from ATI HD2xxx and up) have h.264 acceleration hardware...but I'm not sure if all those cards can do h.264 encoding.

From what I remember when I looked into it, you have to use the avivo video converter...which I was never able to access/figure out/get to work

but yeah, encoding on a [decent] gpu would be faster than doing it on the cpu.

...after doing a little looking, the AVIVO video converter uses the cpu rather than the gpu unless you have an HD48xx or HD46xx card (with catalyst 8.12 drivers or later)
Image
Image

User avatar
Zarxrax
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2001 6:37 pm
Location: North Cackalacky
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by Zarxrax » Thu May 28, 2009 1:07 pm

Graphics cards are not really useful for encoding, at least at the moment.

User avatar
s0matic
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:51 am
Status: Clitical
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by s0matic » Sun May 31, 2009 11:05 am

You might be talking about CUDA. CUDA is only supported by nVidia cards, and if you have a 8xxx series or higher, your card should support it. Full list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA#Supported_GPUs

However, the application you're using must have CUDA support to take advantage of this. There are H.264 CUDA encoders out there, and I believe Premiere CS4 has support for it, but if I'm not mistaken the quality probably won't match what x264 can put out. And AFAIK x264 doesn't support CUDA.

My advice would just to stick to x264 and get the best multi-core CPU you can buy (Core i7 comes to mind).

User avatar
Kariudo
Twilight prince
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:08 pm
Status: 1924 bots banned and counting!
Location: Los taquitos unidos
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by Kariudo » Sun May 31, 2009 3:37 pm

AMD/ATI has a competing technology called ATI Stream, which supposedly works on all ATI cards later than the HD2350.

No idea if there are any ATI Stream apps out there though
Image
Image

User avatar
NeoQuixotic
Master Procrastinator
Joined: Tue May 01, 2001 7:30 pm
Status: Lurking in the Ether
Location: Minnesota
Contact:
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by NeoQuixotic » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:20 am

There is also the OpenCL initiative to provide an open standard to GPUs. But widespread use of GPUs being used to do more than graphics is still a bit out there. Because there is no single standard at the moment, it doesn't make a lot of sense to provide the fuctionality. Although, CUDA does seem to be used a decent amount now. And of course this happens after I go with an ATI card :roll:. And the AVIVO encoder sucks due to lack of control of the encoder and the quality of the output being just blah.
Insert clever text/image here.

User avatar
the Black Monarch
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2002 1:29 am
Location: The Stellar Converter on Meklon IV
Org Profile

Re: graphic cards for encoding?

Post by the Black Monarch » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:33 pm

Any truth to that?
Technically, yes. For all practical purposes, no.
Also is the MSI Radeon HD 3450 Graphics Card any good for it [or gaming for that matter]?
No. The Radeon HD2000 and HD3000 series both sucked. Get an HD4000 or an Nvidia card.
Ask me about my secret stash of videos that can't be found anywhere anymore.

Locked

Return to “Hardware Discussion”