[mythtv-users] Should I Upgrade Frontend from AMD 3200+ to AMD X2 3800+ (DualCore) ?

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Sun Feb 15 19:14:52 UTC 2009


On Sunday 15 February 2009 11:23:27 Raphael wrote:

> I would disagree strongly with that. Even playing 1080i HD mpeg2 my X2
> 3800 uses around only 30% usage without xvmc or vdpau. Marginal is a
> very strong term to use for that. I would more put it "has a huge
> comfort zone margin". I don't know anything about how it handles h.264
> though. I've been using this for a couple years now and don't see myself
> getting rid of it for quite a while since right now it can handle the
> highest bitrate OTA (and digital cable) I can find.
> Raphael

There is a huge difference between MPEG2 and h264, in terms of CPU required to 
decode in real time. If you are using a high-load de-interlacer your CPU 
requirements would be even higher.

Playing back while running a commflag job, perhaps a schedule update and a 
transcode or two would probably push an X2 3800 pretty hard.

As you said, perhaps "marginal" is too strong a term, but without VDPAU on a 
multiple HD-PVR system I'd want something more powerful myself.

We also have to be careful about using CPU loads from "top", as they are an 
average only, and decoding tends to spike high at certain times. I have seen 
posts here from people here claiming 30% to 50% loads that still get tearing 
on some scenes.

-- 
beww
beww at beww.org


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