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Cant get a PC to utilize more than about 10% CPU

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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I have been converting a video files from X to Y in oder to compare the speeds of my PCs, and I was looking at the disdplayu on the keyboard, and it was only floating at 10 or 11%

So, this got me doing a bit of twiddling about and sure enough, a load of the cores are parked, so I unpark them all, get the PC running full-speed but it makes ZERO difference. Im still running at 10%

I look tat he task manager and I see it eating Core 3 @ a good 90% or more but the other cores are almost untouched.

I try forcing the software to both use up all the cores, and it does nothing.

I try out different software and that does not help either?

I then tried Folding at home and sure enough, that eats all my cores at the full 100% as its supposed to, so that must means that the CPU is ok, but why does it keep doing this then?
 
Whatever converter you're using is just using one work thread. Any encoder from the current millennium will be multithreaded so there ought to be an option for it.
 
You kind of need to let people know what software you're using if you want some assistance. Also, what OS, CPU and how much memory might be handy.
 
Sorry guys I have posted in other places and I simply forgot to gie you the blab cos its was ridiculous oclock by the time I posted it and I was knackered.

Ok...

Intel I7-970 6 Core @ 3.2Ghz
Saphire Pure Black x58 Motherboard
24 GB RAM ( 6x4GB G.Skill )

Using an nVidia card yes, but NOT using the GPU to convert ( I have tried however )

Windows 8.1 64Bit

-

Software used is BigaSoft Total Video Converter v4.2

And sure, there is an option to chose how many cores to use, it makes no difference whether I set it to 1 or 12, it still only uses the one.

Its not the software either... The AMD was being used fully on all 8 cores, its only this PC thats giving me the issue. It must be something silly that I am missing surely?
 
NOT POSSIBLE!!!

Ok, I downloaded handbrake. For a second I thought I was missing out on some joke there, but sure enough there it is!

I grabbed a file, chucked it in and it does indeed use all 12 cores, not fully, but about 50% and in fact I was seeing it float at a fairly steady 53% to be precise. I left it go for a minute or two and it slowed down a little and then kept at 26% to 28%

It completed the video in 8 minutes 50

So I then grabbed bigasoft, and set the same settings as handbrake was on... MP4 instead of AVI and the Video file was coded down to 720x400... It was running at 21% this time - Wohoo, it was using all the cores now, at last but It took 8 minutes 14 seconds???

Im going mental.

Maybe it uses a set number of cores for specific filetypes?

I will have a play anyway and see what happens.
 
wam7 said:
What codec are you encoding to x264 or Xvid?
Click to expand...

Im a bit late in replying to this, I just saw it while having a squirmy through my EMails before deleting them.

I ts still an on-going issue and I have my AMD & Mobo etc here ready to put back in instead of this rubbish I7 junk and the only reason I have not, is that I have just won a gorgeous LianLi full tower on ebay for a painfully low £16, so Im not doing a Mobo swap twice in a few days.

Anyway, I am mostly just trying to codec them into the same thing, no matter what format.

For example
With our Ghost hunting club, everyone's recorder device saves as a mixture of AVI MP4 MPG and WMV in mixed resolutions. Some use their phones, some use a digi cam and acouple of us have decent semi-pro cameras

I then make 2 end formats for everyone

I make both an Android compatible AVI format that plays on my Tablet and phone ( so I know it will also play on theirs ) and I also do a Master DVD with Menus etc so that we have master copies for archival purposes.

--

I have had the chance of having a play with all my Pcs recently, and I have used Bigasoft, Format Factory, and handbrake, and I have found some interesting things about them Mainly that I think my 6 core I7, while having 6 RAM slots and allowign me more ram, and more CPU Power, is simply a load of junk, and that 4 core I7s are much better - Even my old 1156 and 1136 CPUs are better than this thing, because no matter what I try, this simply wont utilise the whole CPU while I can do it with the 4 cores... Even when it does, its simply no quicker at most things.

Ah well. Im a bugger for ranting over stupid stuff and I STFU on important things, but thats how I am, so enough now.
 
I will have a look at this freemake converter, absolutely, but for now, I am just trying to find out why this Intel is being such a whore.
 
You still haven't told me which codec you are using. ;)
You said you are encoding to .avi and DVD. You do know that .avi is not a codec it is a container, the same as .wmv, .mp4, .mkv. They are all containers that have the video and audio inside. Now the video can be using different codecs. The most popular are Mpeg4-ASP (Part 2) Xvid, DivX etc Mpeg4-AVC (part 10) which we know as x264 and Mpeg2 used in DVD's.

Certain containers have there limitations as to what video and audio they can hold. i.e. .avi can really only take Xvid whereas .mp4 can take both Xvid and x264 videos

If you are encoding to avi then you are using Xvid therefore you will rarely see high CPU utilisation (unless you are doing high resolutions i.e 1080p) as it was not really optimised for SMP whereas x264 is.

For your android phone/tablet I strongly suggest you use .mp4 container as it is much better than .avi and supported natively, also unless you are playing on older phones use the x264 codec instead of Xvid.
 
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Thats cos I dont know? I have tried a number of different options.

Yes, I know that AVI. MPG etc are containers and that there are different codecs.

Or to be fair, I would not have used the word containers, but yes, I am aware that there are different codecs.

Its just that I dont know exactly what codecs I am or was using, because I was tryign out so many types and formats.

I am also aware that some codecs are really single threads only while some newer ones allow for more threads... Some apps show this better than others.

x264 - yes, I have used that a few times... It seems to be better for my phones... Or not X264 but rather H264 Is that right?

--

Right now, I am in a pickle in that the PC is just being a right old pain in the bum now and nothing seems to work very well at all and so I am on the verge of putting my AMD back in, but shortly, I will give it one last install and this time without the Marvel sata controler.
 
x264 is a h.264 encoder. There are other h.264 encoders like Ateme etc but x264 is the most popular.

When you get it up and running again I suggest you use Handbrake with .mp4 container with x264 video and AAC audio. If your video is high enough resolution then it will max out your CPU but I suspect your video is not (<D1 resoltuion 720*576) which is why you're not seeing full utilisation.
 
Just throwing this out there, please shoot me down if this is completely incorrect...

Are you by any chance ripping off a DVD/Blu-ray and being limited by the transfer rate of the optical disk or drive?

D
 
Well, I have done myself another fresh install with different settings and this time avoiding the Marvel Sata ports for C: and instead using the basic AHCI ports and the DVDs on the Marvel.

Seemsto have cured my previous issues with the PC being a horror to run nicely.

Its a bit slower than it used to be, but at least its stable.

I have not done any convertions of anything yet other than a couple of quick tests on Format factory and what I see is encouraging, and so I am about to give proper jobs a shot later on.

No, none of the file sare BlueRay or even DVD.... The files are all moxed misc files from various video cameras or mobile phones that we have all stuffed into my PC to them put it all into a standard so that we can all see each others videos from our ghost hunting escapades.

A to teh question of whether there are ghosts... No, but we do have some great footage of weird stuff and thats half the fun.
 
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