CUDA-Enabled Apps: Measuring Mainstream GPU Performance

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A Tsunami of Improvement?

A long-time favorite tool among transcoders is the Tsunami MPEG Encoder, or TMPGEnc, now owned by Pegasys in Japan. Within the video community, TMPGEnc is considered one of the highest quality transcoders available, although not necessarily one of the fastest. We used TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress with a 15-second, 1440x1080 clip supplied by Pegasys.

Unlike some other transcoders, TMPGEnc only uses CUDA for effects acceleration. The encoding process itself is currently not GPU-accelerated.  You’re only going to see benefits from CUDA here when the transcode process involves effects/filters such as noise reduction, sharpening, and so on. This is why you need to read the fine print before investing in acceleration technologies and the apps that use them. Make sure that not only the application you’ve picked but also the functions that you need from that application will deliver what you expect.

William Van Winkle
56 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SpadeM
    The 8800GS or with the new name 9600GSO goes for 60$ and delivers 96 stream processors. Would it be correct to assume that it would perform betwen the 9600 GT and 9800 GTX you reviewed?

    Other then that great article, been waiting for it since we got a sneak preview from Chris last week.
    Reply
  • curnel_D
    And I'll never take Nvidia marketing seriously until they either stop singing about CUDA being the holy grail of computing, or this changes: "Aside from Folding@home and SETI@home, every single application on Nvidia’s consumer CUDA list involves video editing and/or transcoding."
    Reply
  • As more software will use CUDA, we will not only see a great boost in performance for e.g. video performance, but for parallel programing in general. This sky rocket this business into a new age!
    Reply
  • curnel_D
    l0bd0nAs more software will use CUDA, we will not only see a great boost in performance for e.g. video performance, but for parallel programing in general. This sky rocket this business into a new age!Honestly, I dont think a proprietary language will do this. If anything, it's likely to be GPGPU's in general, run by Open Computing Language.(OpenCL)
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Are we both thinking about the same "Pirates 2"? Or am I missing something...
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    Who knows it's just a clip he used he could be naming it anything for the hell of it.

    CUDA transcoding is very nice to someone that does H.264 transcoding at a high profile and lacks a 300+ dollar cpu who would spend hours transcoding a dvd on high profile settings.

    Else from that CUDA acceleration has just been more of a feature nothing like a main event. Although can easly be the main attraction to someone that does a good flow of H.264 trasncoding/encoding.

    Encoding/transcoding in h.264 high profile can easily make someone who is very content with their cpu and it's power become sad very quickly when they see the est time for their 30 min clip or something.
    Reply
  • I'm using CoreAVC since support was added for CUDA h264 decoding. I kinda feel stupid for buying a high end CPU (at the time) since playing all videos, no matter the resolution or bit-rate, leaves the CPU at near-idle usage.
    Vid card: 8600GTS
    CPU: E6700
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    Well you lucked in considering not all of the geforce 8 series supports H.264 decoding etc.
    Reply
  • ohim
    they should remove Adobe CS4 suite from there since Cuda transcoding is only posible with nvidia CX videocards not with normal gaming cards wich supports cuda.
    Reply
  • adbat
    CUDA means Miracle in my language :-) I it will do those
    The sad thing is that ATI does not truly compete in CUDA department and there is not standard for it.
    Reply