AV1 Update Reduces CPU Encoding Times By Up To 34 Percent

AOMedia
(Image credit: AOMedia)

According to Phoronix, Google has released a new AOM-AV1 update - version 3.5, that drastically improves encode times when streaming, rendering, or recording from the CPU. At its best, the update can improve encoding times by up to 34%. 

It is a fantastic addition to AV1's capabilities, with the encoder becoming very popular among powerful video platforms such as YouTube. In addition, we are also seeing significant support for AV1 hardware acceleration on modern discrete GPUs now, such as Intel's Arc Alchemist GPUs and, most importantly - Nvidia's RTX 40-series GPUs.

Depending on the resolution, encoding times with the new update have improved by 20% to 30%. For example, at 1080P, encode times featuring 16 threads of processing are reduced by 18% to 34%. At 4K, render times improved by 18% to 20% with 32 threads. Google could do this by adding Frame Parallel Encoding to heavily multi-threaded configurations. Google has also added several other improvements contributing to AV1's performance uplifts in other areas - specifically in real-time encoding.

In other words, CPU utilization in programs such as OBS has been reduced, primarily for systems packing 16 CPU threads. As a result, they are allowing users to use those CPU resources for other tasks or increase video quality even higher without any additional performance cost. If you are video editing and are rendering out a video in AV1, processing times will be vastly reduced if you have a CPU with 16 threads or more.

AV1's Performance Improvements Come At The Perfect Time

AV1's speed improvements couldn't have come at a better time. The video industry is aggressively moving to AV1 more than ever this year, thanks to the introduction of AV1 hardware acceleration engines and allowing content creators to use discrete GPUs to record and stream content with the AV1 codec.

AV1 came on the scene in 2018 as a newer potential alternative to the H.264 video codec. It has become a mainstream item due to its very attractive feature set; for one, it is entirely open-source, allowing anyone to use it for free. It provides up to 50% higher compression ratios than H.264. In addition, it is drastically reducing AV1 video file sizes.

This year we saw our first AV1 hardware acceleration engine in the Intel Arc A-series GPUs, providing drastic video quality improvements over its competitors, including Nvidia's legendary NVENC H.264 encoder. But now, Nvidia has finally entered the game with its RTX 40-series GPUs supporting AV1 encoding for the first time - thanks to the brand-new 8th generation NVENC engine.

It sets up the stage for AV1 to become a complete replacement for H.264, now that we have AV1 encoding present in both discrete GPUs and via software encoding on the CPU, which will make AV1 encoding very accessible to the public. The new AV1 performance update is just the cherry on top and will provide greater flexibility for users running the AV1 codec on live streams and within video editors.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • -Fran-
    Oh, you know this makes me happy, LOL.

    I'll test it as soon as OBS gets it.

    Regards xD
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade
    I'm still rooting for H.266 VVC.
    Reply
  • dk382
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    I'm still rooting for H.266 VVC.
    VVC will be useful for video archival, and maybe some streaming services will use it, but AV1 will be the codec of choice for streaming and youtube since it's faster, free, and funded by google.
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade
    dk382 said:
    VVC will be useful for video archival, and maybe some streaming services will use it, but AV1 will be the codec of choice for streaming and youtube since it's faster, free, and funded by google.
    Let's be honest, the Free & Funded by Google is the main reason they'll be using it.
    They want to avoid paying any form of payments / royalties to MPEG.
    Reply
  • RedBear87
    dk382 said:
    VVC will be useful for video archival, and maybe some streaming services will use it, but AV1 will be the codec of choice for streaming and youtube since it's faster, free, and funded by google.
    Broadcasting is probably going to use VVC as well, early this year in February DVB approved VVC as its next generation video codec, while AV1 is still under review.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    -Fran- said:
    Oh, you know this makes me happy, LOL.

    I'll test it as soon as OBS gets it.

    Regards xD

    Oh I know you are! 🤣
    Reply
  • TheOtherOne
    Comparing the difference with two decades older tech just to brag it's 50% more efficient! Where is the comparison to h265? 🤨¯\(ツ)
    Reply
  • mitch074
    TheOtherOne said:
    Comparing the difference with two decades older tech just to brag it's 50% more efficient! Where is the comparison to h265? 🤨¯\(ツ)
    HEVC is on par with VP9 - AV1's predecessor in the open source world. Theoretically, AV1 is thus 30% more efficient than HEVC, but has a high cost in encoding processing power. A 34% reduction in encoding time on software solutions means that the only advantage HEVC had is shrinking. Coupled with hardware encoders in Nvidia and Intel GPUs, HEVC is less and less appealing.
    Now if AMD could add AV1 encoding in its chips...
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    AV1 must be new, because YouTube encodes in VP9 mostly. Most YouTube creators use HVEC/.265 at really high bit rates because YouTube re-compresses it. Are we all going to be encoding in AV1 then?
    Reply
  • Tex61
    ThatMouse said:
    AV1 must be new, because YouTube encodes in VP9 mostly. Most YouTube creators use HVEC/.265 at really high bit rates because YouTube re-compresses it. Are we all going to be encoding in AV1 then?

    In 2018, YouTube began rolling out AV1.....

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#Content_providers
    Reply