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Which new cpu processor for encoding and decoding video.?

Associate
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Hi guys, I've currently got a i7 7700k and 8 gb ram with a nvidia titan x maxwell card......
I don't game any more as circumstances have changed however, I'm finding myself wanting a more powerful processor to decode and encode my blu rays and 4k to h.265 and h.
264..... With my processor h.265 decodes extremely slow and the titan x graphics card.... Doesn't support h.265 decoding..... I can't see any point in buying a top end graphics card like the 3000 series, I've not looked much at hardware for a few years so I'm a little out of it..... Which processor would you recommend?
Amd or Intel with their quicksync..... My i7 supports quicksync but doesn't support all decodes and encodes... I've heard a bit about how good the amd chips are....... Any suggestions.?
Thanks in advance
 
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Intel might have quick sync, but with any CPU you can use NVENC, which as far as I know provides the best GPU based Media encoding. I've tried both and they are both very fast, with comparable quality.

But because I really care about quality I encode my media with the CPU, and that's where AMD come in. If you want the ability to encode with better quality with the CPU not to mention all the filters that are single thread based, Zen 3 CPU offer the single and multi core performance lead over Intel. I'd recommend a 5900X or a 5950X which seems both fit in your budget.

The only issue you might have is apparently, 4K Blu-rays playback are locked onto Intel with a special instruction set. WTF that is about I have no idea, DRM shenanigans probably.
 
Soldato
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Using Handbreak my 3900X encodes at 100% CPU usage but other software might not. Intel has Quicksync that might be fast, think I read it reduces quality but I could be wrong. I would get a 5950X(£750) as 16 fast cores will give fast consistent performance. It might also be worth getting a 5900X + mid range GPU that supports the software you are using, might be faster overall. You could go Threadripper as the 24 core is < £1K but I would still get a 5950X unless you need lots of PCIe high speed storage.
 
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Would a 5950x be comparable speed wise with Intel quick sync or nvidia rtx3070 series say.? I want quality but also don't want to wait forever for it to encode on a 4k blu ray like my old i7.!
 
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Just checked using handbrake on my 2080S - I get 66fps using H265 NVENC. My 3960X threadripper gets 18fps (75% utilised). You can work out a 3070 will encode a lot faster than any CPU. So if speed matters more than quality go with GPU based encoding. I can't fire up my 1065G7 Cpu to give you the Quicksync stats but i'm sure another Intel user can tell you the Quicksync performance. I'd go with a rtx 30 series GPU and I reckon if quick sync is up to scratch a 10700k would do the job instead.
 
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Well I've got a lot to compress so don't want to take a lifetime lol but i was kind of hoping that a processor can perform just as good as i don't game anymore.! I have done some encodes from blu ray to h. 264 with my titan x and am quite happy with the quality.....but I'm not encoding 4k for 12 hours with my i7 it's ridiculous.!.... If graphics card is the way to go ill go that way.!
But i suppose a 5950x with 16 threads will be a lot quicker than my old i7
 
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But i suppose a 5950x with 16 threads will be a lot quicker than my old i7

Way. With the flexibility of using it with any codec or filter you desire.

This guy is using https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PqOInmAlIo h265 with a 9900K and quick sync and is getting 16fps. I tried it (h265 with Intel QSV) on my i7 1065G7, and chances are my settings are wrong, I get 55fps but the quality is terrible. QuickSync's H264 quality is near NVENC's.

Honestly get a RTX GPU and you can't go wrong. CPU wise I'd still go AMD Zen 3. 5600X to 5900X take your pick.

EDIT: QuickSync on my 1065G7 uses Iris graphics that only Ice Lake CPUs and greater have, which should be better than comet lake's encoder. Issue for me is that it needs double the bitrate of my rtx 2080s to get comparable quality. So yeah...NVENC is the way to go.
 
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Soldato
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Quick Sync (intel’s technology) quality is not good.

for transcoding, QS is ok to view on iPhones or pads but any sort of larger display or seeing the video on TV should be based on GPU acceleration or just raw software encoding - the latter will take a while.

You are ripping blueray into H265 or H264 containers. So hand break is your friend. I dunno if that has GPU acceleration but NVidia GPU support is fairly wide spread so if there is Hw acceleration then NVidia card you can’t go wrong.

zen 3 5950x is your friend in terms of encoding. It is around £800atm with a decent board it will come below your £1000 budget
 
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Soldato
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Thanks guys for the info, I'll be getting a nvidia 3070 when I can get my hands on one !
any reason why the 3070? 3060ti got the same amoutn VRAM got 1000 less cuda cores 4900 vs 5900. but i doubt you will need all them cores for your rip conversion.

3060ti is £100 cheaper
 
Don
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Another option would be to chuck in a 2nd card - something like a GTX1650 super, which has full H265 Encoding and Decoding Support via NVENC and NVDEC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_NVENC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_NVDEC

Even something cheaper like a used GTX1050 or GTX1060 would be better than your Titan X, as they fully support all of the H265 encoding except B-Frames, and offer H265 4:2:0 Decoding that is missing from your Titan X
 
Soldato
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From my limited experience I found using NVEnc with a a 2080 super in handbrake to be disappointing. The few videos files I tried with it tended to make a H.265 files that were larger than the original H.264 source file, the quality was fine however. Using identical constant quality settings and CPU transcoding got me a H.265 file that was about half the size of the original source.

I've not tried quicksync but from what I have read is should only really be used for quick and dirty transcodes.
 
Soldato
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If quality is your primary concern then stick with CPU encoding. A 5900X would suit you great and is the best bang for buck in this regard though if you have the spare cash then the 5950X should also see you good for years to come.
 
Associate
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Intel's 11th Gen seems to perform very well in video encoding (both CPU and Xe GPU), but it's currently mobile only. You can wait a couple months untill they release Rocket Lake, or buy an i7-1165G7 laptop (under 700 pounds) or an i7-1185G7 laptop (over a £1000). If you go for a laptop, get one with 25W or higher power limit for the CPU.
Or get an M1 Mac Mini :D - they start at £648.46.
 
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I think 11th Gen's h265 encoder would have to improved quite a bit over Ice Lake's for it to be better than NVENC even on a Turing card.

From what I have read Mac Mini M1's h265 encoder doesn't sound especially impressive under handbrake: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-m1-h-265-encoding.2269815/ it sounds like quicksync. You'll need to up the bitrate to catch NVenc quality, never mind the quality of CPU encoding.
 
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As I understand it though, the ampere cards have essentially the same nvenc engine setup as the previous turing series - you may as well get a turing card ... and they are the same setup across the whole family ... so a 2060 will have the same nvenc processing unit as a 2080ti (for the nvenc part only that is. )
 
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