13-Way NVIDIA VDPAU Video Decode Benchmarks

[phoronix]

Phoronix: 13-Way NVIDIA VDPAU Video Decode Benchmarks

It's been a while since last putting out any hardware-accelerated video decode benchmarks of NVIDIA's Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU). However, after updating qVDPAUtest to support building on modern platforms, here's a round of thirteen NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards being benchmarked under VDPAU.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=19381

[mark45]

Wayland allows for using overlays in subsufraces (for video), I wonder if VDPAU can make use of that, or of overlays at all.

[sireangelus]

you miss the point, as you do with the frame latency tests. The point of video decoding testing is to see how it affects battery life/power consumption.

The point of frame latency is that is preferable to have as less spikes as possible, so a card that has slightly lower average fps but less spikes is better than one that has higher avg fps but lots of spikes.

[SyXbiT]

Is there a way to know when the video you're playing back is using hardware acceleration?
With most video player apps on Android, you can see 'HW' in the corner of the screen (or 'SW') to let you know whether you're phone is using hardware or software to decode a video.
I have the Nvidia GTX 670, and I'm pretty sure Totem isn't using hardware acceleration. Is there anyway to either see, or force hardware acceleration?

[deanjo]

Is there a way to know when the video you're playing back is using hardware acceleration?
With most video player apps on Android, you can see 'HW' in the corner of the screen (or 'SW') to let you know whether you're phone is using hardware or software to decode a video.
I have the Nvidia GTX 670, and I'm pretty sure Totem isn't using hardware acceleration. Is there anyway to either see, or force hardware acceleration?

Depends on the player. I'm not sure about totem but in other players you can usually see the rendering codec and it is usually tagged with vdpau on (such as h264-vdpau in xbmc).

[johnc]

Is there a way to know when the video you're playing back is using hardware acceleration?
With most video player apps on Android, you can see 'HW' in the corner of the screen (or 'SW') to let you know whether you're phone is using hardware or software to decode a video.
I have the Nvidia GTX 670, and I'm pretty sure Totem isn't using hardware acceleration. Is there anyway to either see, or force hardware acceleration?

In the NVIDIA X Server Settings application -- in the newer versions at least -- there is an area which shows "Video Engine Utilization". You can also look at top to see if the CPU is lightly loaded.

Or check out the Totem log file to see which decoder it's using. It would say VDPAU in there somewhere.

Of course you should be using smplayer.

[Nille]

I don't see the reason for this benchmark. The GPUs use a Hardware ASIC for Decoding and this is for the most Card in each generation the same.

[Morpheus]

Yes, but different cards with different clock speeds could have lead to different permormance. That's not the case, and leads to the reason extra-low-end GPUs exists in Nvidia line-up : bring a real video decoder to an extra-low-end CPU.

It would have been interesting to see power draw but to be relevant it needs a laptop, and in these times of Optimus setups, it's not yet ready to use Under Linux. Sad.

[przemoli]

@Michael

As some stated. Power/CPU usage would be better indicators (of most value for most of users of video players). And maybe some Flash tests?


But WHERE THE ... IS AMD? No meantioning of it in the news. gVDPAU can not bear it? Movies used require hw not present on AMD UVD?


Anyway. Great benchmark. If not for its merits, then at least for exploring more and more benchmarking paths for PTS

[SyXbiT]

In the NVIDIA X Server Settings application -- in the newer versions at least -- there is an area which shows "Video Engine Utilization". You can also look at top to see if the CPU is lightly loaded.

Or check out the Totem log file to see which decoder it's using. It would say VDPAU in there somewhere.

Of course you should be using smplayer.

Thanks a lot. That was perfect. I can't force Totem to use VDPAU, but VLC has an easy setting. Now I can verify that it's working.