AOM AV1 Encoder Sees Big Boost With Additional AVX2 Optimization

It should come as little surprise in general but making use of Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) for multimedia encode/decode is a big deal for performance. While one could hope that by 2020 most open-source encoders were already extensively utilizing AVX(2), that isn't yet the case with the latest being AOM-AV1 picking up another optimization.

Google engineers have added an AVX2-optimized high bit-depth temporal filter for the AOM-AV1 video encoder.

That optimized code is yielding an 8.96x gain compared to the conventional C code without the AVX2 optimization.

This comes following other recent AVX2 related work for this AOMedia reference video encoder around the royalty-free format.

AOM-AV1 generally performs quite slow compared to other AV1 encoders but especially Intel's SVT-AV1 that is making extensive use of AVX. Here's to hoping Google and other stakeholders working on AOM-AV1 are renewing their emphasis on performance and planning to make more extensive use of AVX2.