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New AMD GPU Tech Speeds Video Conversions

By - Source: Tom's Hardware | B 28 comments

AMD will release next month a new version of its ATI Catalyst driver suite that unlocks stream-processing technology that currently lies dormant in ATI Radeon HD 4000 series videocards.

AMD describes ATI Stream as a collection of hardware and software technologies that enable AMD GPUs to work with a system’s host CPU to accelerate applications beyond graphics. Games and other applications will need to be coded in a particular fashion to take advantage of ATI Stream, but AMD says that imaging and video-editing software developers ArcSoft and CyberLink are very close to releasing updates to their existing programs that will tap this capability.

ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre, for instance, will use ATI Stream to enable a new feature known as SimHD, a video post-processing technology that render standard-definition video closer to HD. CyberLink plans to release an updated version of its PowerDirector 7 video-editing software in the first quarter of 2009 that will tap ATI Stream to accelerate video conversions.

In the meantime, AMD will release a new version of its own free Avivo Video Converter that will use ATI Stream to accelerate video conversions. AMD claims a Radeon HD 4870 with a 512MB frame buffer, in combination with a quad-core Intel Core 2 Duo QX9650 processor running at 3.0GHz and 6GB of system memory, was able to convert one hour of MPEG video (1920x1080 resolution at 24fps) to a format compatible with a portable video player (MPEG4, 320x240 resolution, 24fps) in 12 minutes. The same conversion using iTunes 8.0.1 and the WinQuickTimeMPEG2 pack required three hours and 23 minutes on the same rig, according to AMD.

It’s interesting that AMD chose not only an Intel CPU, but Intel’s most powerful CPU for this comparison. Most consumer rigs have far less horsepower under the hood, so we look forward to testing this, and making a comparison to what Nvidia has to offer, on more mainstream hardware.

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  • 0 Hide
    tipoo , November 13, 2008 6:57 PM
    awesome!
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , November 13, 2008 7:10 PM
    nice innovation on AMDs part... hopefully nvidia will stop being a resource pig... and actually come out with something ground breaking again
  • 0 Hide
    afrobacon , November 13, 2008 7:13 PM
    so their proving that this tech not only works with amd processors, but also intel. very nice. it seems that their trading a small loss in the cpu market for a potential bigger gain in the gpu market.

    i hope everything works out better than expected, it might give them some much needed income to catch up a little to intel.
  • Display all 28 comments.
  • -1 Hide
    Anonymous , November 13, 2008 7:13 PM
    what about HD 3000 series?
  • 0 Hide
    eklipz330 , November 13, 2008 7:15 PM
    w00t this is awesome, way to go guys... don't you love when your stuff just keeps getting better? but the time saved is really amazing, i can't wait for their version... will this simulate upconversion like on some dvd players?
  • 0 Hide
    anarchy4sale , November 13, 2008 7:53 PM
    This is nice, I will definetly take advantage of this converter they are going to release.
  • 0 Hide
    smalltime0 , November 13, 2008 7:56 PM
    Its interesting that they chose such a fast processor for comparison, to get a better difference woulldnt a slower processor or dual core have been better?
  • -2 Hide
    apoq , November 13, 2008 7:59 PM
    Nice, but until a common solution for both ATI and Nvidia is reached, applications for Cuda and ATI Stream will remain few and far between. If you remember, there was this guy, Eran Bandit, trying (and succeeding to some degree) to run Cuda on ATI cards and strangely enough, it was ATI not showing any support with Nvidia actually helping out ( http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/cuda_running_a_radeon ).
  • 0 Hide
    eklipz330 , November 13, 2008 8:56 PM
    Its interesting that they chose such a fast processor for comparison, to get a better difference woulldnt a slower processor or dual core have been better?

    its also interssting that they used an intel processor...hmmm..
  • 0 Hide
    pug_s , November 13, 2008 9:25 PM
    Hopefully Nvidia will wise up and make a similiar software as an added value for its customers. Then agian, I brought a cheap geforce 9800 gso for less than $50. So I don't expect anything.
  • 0 Hide
    Shadow703793 , November 13, 2008 10:19 PM
    Actually nVidia has a smiler product. It's called BadaBOOM ( see: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=20 ). Link: http://www.nvidia.com/content/forcewithin/us/download.asp
    Trial copy is good for 30 encodings or 30 days. Full version is $30. Not too bad if you are converting HD videos and providing you have a 8x00 or later CUDA enabled GPU.
  • -4 Hide
    rcarm , November 13, 2008 10:36 PM
    Quote:
    "AMD claims a Radeon HD 4870 with a 512MB frame buffer, in combination with a quad-core INTEL Core 2 Duo QX9650 processor running at 3.0GHz and 6GB of system memory"


    LOL! :D 
  • -2 Hide
    zodiacfml , November 14, 2008 2:16 AM
    hehe,at least they admit Intel is faster in video. they could be thinking of using the Core i7 soon! hahaha :D 
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , November 14, 2008 2:31 AM
    Cyberlink and arcsoft??
    Meh. Show me some Adobe, Autodesk or Avid products using it and I will care.
  • 0 Hide
    JAYDEEJOHN , November 14, 2008 2:39 AM
    Both the 3xxx and 4 xxx series can do this, and its free, unlike badaboom. Im sure using a slower cpu will show slower times, but this config shows its 17x faster, so even if it lost half its time on a slow dual core, still 8x faster, and its free
  • -3 Hide
    skittle , November 14, 2008 3:12 AM
    Too bad the encoder sucks, quality wise. X264 is faster (when using comparable fast settings)
  • 1 Hide
    neiroatopelcc , November 14, 2008 6:09 AM
    "It’s interesting that AMD chose not only an Intel CPU, but Intel’s most powerful CPU for this comparison. Most consumer rigs have far less horsepower under the hood, so we look forward to testing this, and making a comparison to what Nvidia has to offer, on more mainstream hardware." AMD never had any problem admitting the current intel top models are better than their best ones. Everyone knows that. It's not really a problem though, as AMD appearently didn't intend to compete at the very top.
  • -1 Hide
    liemfukliang , November 14, 2008 6:13 AM
    Try Radeon HD 4400? and Celeron? How much it increase? With one GB ram with the same test case....
  • 4 Hide
    Anonymous , November 14, 2008 8:08 AM
    I don't understand why is everybody so excited about AMD using INTEL procesor to demonstrate it's ATI card power.
    If they used an AMD processor, everyone would have been complaining the test is biased because of use of slow processor.
    It's seems like a wise choice from AMD in my opinion.
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , November 14, 2008 1:41 PM
    @ Dokworm Uhh... wasn't there just a plugin released for Adobe cs4 which added CUDA support for nVidia cards that support the feature...? amd having support for applications which can use the stream process in video encoding is a nice catch-up, hopefully Tom's will make some type of shoot-out article.
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