CPU Reviews & Articles

TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 MPEG-1 Encoding Performance

TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 is a new revision to this popular MPEG encoder, and a program that not only provides real-world MPEG performance results, but also includes a host of specialized CPU support options. The program supports virtually all CPU multimedia features such as MMX/MMX-2, SSE/SSE2/SSE3, 3DNow!, along with dual core and Hyper-Threading technologies.

Due to the increasingly high performance of our review processors, we moved our reference video to a new higher-end, 7-minute AVI file for the initial quad core benchmarking. In our first test, this file is then encoded it to MPEG-1 using TMPGEnc and the encoding time is recorded. The test results are expressed in the form of time elapsed (minutes: seconds) and unlike our other benchmarks, a smaller bar denotes less time taken, and therefore higher encoding performance.

The Athlon 64 X2 6000+ represents a new AMD high in multimedia encoding, as this is an area where the higher clock speed can really come in handy. Unfortunately, this release has done little to close the gap with the Core 2 multimedia powerhouses, and even AMD's 3.0 GHz processor falls just short of the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo E6600, let alone the two quad core processors. These time gaps may not seem like much, but remember we're only talking about a 7-minute file using MPEG-1 encoding, and relative positioning is still the most important factor.

TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 MPEG-2 Encoding Performance

For the next test, we've taken the same 7-minute video file, and encoded it to MPEG-2 using TMPGEnc Express 3.0. This is more stressful on the system than our previous MPEG-1 encoding, and is the standard for DVD authoring. The performance results are expressed in the form of time elapsed (minutes: seconds) and as with the MPEG-1 results, a smaller bar denotes less time taken, and therefore higher performance.

The MPEG-2 encoding is much a tougher test, stressing even the dual core processors, and it's much easier to get a handle on the relative performance of the various models. The overall scenario remains the same, and although the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ posts another AMD high score, the Core 2 dual and quad core models still take it to town.

XMPEG DivX 6.4 Encoding Performance

Along with standard MPEG tests, we also use a few other media encoding tests, such as XMPEG and its DivX encoding benchmark test. The same 7-minute video file is used, and the time to encode the first 12K+ frames is displayed in the chart below. As with the previous encoding tests, these are time-based and a smaller bar denotes higher performance. We have also upgraded to the latest DivX 6.4 codec (home theatre setting), which features optimizations for dual processor (SMP), dual core, and Hyper-Threading-enabled systems.

The XMPEG DivX encoding results put us right back to square one, with the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ fighting to get closer to the Core 2 Duo processors, but ultimately falling a bit short.

Windows Media Encoder 9 Performance

Our last multimedia test measures basic Windows Media Encoder performance with the same 7-minute AVI file, and using the Windows Media Encoder 9 to convert it into .wmv format. WME 9 offers support for multi-threading and CPU optimizations, which makes it another great media encoding test for our high-end processors.

The Windows Media Encoder 9 benchmark testing now shows the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ outperforming the Core 2 Quad Q6600, but this is mostly due to the Codec having some issue with quad core models. Against the dual core competition, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ doesn't fare quite as well, and is still back of the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo E6600.