UVD/hw acceleration If, when?

[curaga]

How many 2/4-socket server boards still have Ati Rages? Or other low-end gpu, for the matter.

[bridgman]

I think that the BIG thing that needs to be remembered here is that a GPU is much more easily upgraded than a CPU. A graphics card is literally a drop-in part whereas a CPU upgrade will typically ALSO require a mainboard and RAM since any particular low-end/older CPU will probably have a socket configuration for which there are no new chips available.

Yes and no - most of the slow CPU / small GPU combinations seem to be in laptops, where neither component is easily upgradeable.

[Jimbo]

The main risk to shader-based decoding IMO is multi-thread decoders maturing and fast CPUs becoming sufficiently cheap and power-efficient that the community loses interest in GPU decode before it gets fully implemented.

Good point!! all future CPU are going to be multi-core, and more cores every year. Even 4W atoms are multicore. I am pretty impressed with ffmep-mt performance:

- Atom 8W cpu can decode 720p video.
- Core 2 duo 2,2Mhz, 2 cores, 40W, can decode 1080p 40Mbps video.

What could achieve an 8 - 12 cores opteron?

[HokTar]

What could achieve an 8 - 12 cores opteron?

You are shooting a bird with a canon, don't you think?

[nanonyme]

You are shooting a bird with a canon, don't you think?

Why go for the kill when you can go for overkill?

[bridgman]

Overkill is a time-honored tradition, particularly when hunting birds :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_gun

Punt guns were eventually outlawed in most areas, since there was a real risk of "running out of birds" if their use was continued. I think the record was ~130 birds taken with a single shot.

[yimm]

http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature
On this page, video decode using 3d engine is todo for r600.
http://www.x.org/wiki/GalliumStatus
And on this page, g3dvl (video decode?) for r600 is WIP.

Hu?

[droidhacker]

Yes and no - most of the slow CPU / small GPU combinations seem to be in laptops, where neither component is easily upgradeable.

I wouldn't want to be doing any kind of heavy processing on a laptop. For those devices it is dedicated decoder or nothing. Reason being that most laptops are built to push the thermal limits of their components. Add heavy processing onto it and you're going to be hitting the overheat kill switch. Even with shader-assisted decoding, you're still going to be running the CPU too hard too consistently to keep properly cool. I would say that about 50% of laptops I've come across can hit the overheat kill switch if you run the CPU at or near 100% for half an hour.

And FYI: that broadcom device I mentioned is actually a LAPTOP card, so for that application, $50 and you have a LINUX SUPPORTED HD video decoder. It REALLY REALLY is the stationary HTPC-type devices that are going to benefit most from assisted video decoding. And yes, the broadcom device will work in a desktop system, but add in $100 for the socket adapter from mini-PCI-e to PCI-e X1.

http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/pex...-h-p-8291.html
And the decoder -- crystalHD BCM7001x -- they go for $50+.

** so for a desktop, you're looking at $150 (significantly more than the price of a sufficient video card). For a laptop, $50, which is about the lower limit for a video card that *might* be enough (or might not be).

[droidhacker]

How many 2/4-socket server boards still have Ati Rages? Or other low-end gpu, for the matter.

How many 2/4-socket server boards are used for watching videos?

[curaga]

How many 2/4-socket server boards are used for watching videos?

Doesn't Q have some?