Intel's SVT-AV1 0.9.1 Speedy AV1 Encoder Adds New SSE Kernels To Help Old CPUs

Last month Intel released SVT-AV1 0.9 as a big step-up for this open-source AV1 encoder with delivering even better performance and also adding new preset options for much higher performance capabilities. Out today is SVT-AV1 0.9.1 with some incremental improvements over the January version.

SVT-AV1 0.9.1 adds a new "--fast-decode option for producing bitstreams tuned for faster M5-M10 modes, a new "--tune" option for subjectively optimized encoding mode, various quality versus density improvements for 4K resolutions, and closing out all open library bugs. Plus other bug fixes.

Additionally, for those on older CPUs, SVT-AV1 0.9.1 introduces new SSE kernels to improve the AV1 encoding speed on older hardware. But if you are on newer CPUs, the AVX code paths are obviously far superior.

Downloads and more details on SVT-AV1 0.9.1 via GitLab. Those curious about SVT-AV1 0.9 performance across CPUs can see ours and the community benchmarks via the OpenBenchmarking.org test profile page.