NVIDIA VDPAU Performance Metrics On Ubuntu 14.04 Linux

When playing back the Big Buck Bunny 1080p H.264 video file, the average CPU usage for the Intel Core i3 4130 when being able to offload most of the work to the NVIDIA GPUs, was about 3.5%. The average CPU usage during the VDPAU-accelerated playback process for the graphics cards involved from the GeForce 9500GT through the GTX 760 was just 3.5~4% overall, though some of the slower graphics cards had occasional spikes up to 25% as indicated by the modified box chart. When using X-Video, the average CPU usage was up at 9.3%.

The GPU temperatures obviously varied quite a bit depending upon generation and model. The GeForce 9800GT was the warmest graphics card during the testing process, but still lower than where it would be running at if running any demanding OpenGL games. The coolest graphics cards during the VDPAU-accelerated MPlayer playback were the Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti.