Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

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Nomis101
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Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:37 pm

Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by Nomis101 »

Using HandBrake I mainly encode my videos in HEVC for my AppleTV. For one BluRay this takes on my MacBook Pro around 30 hours (this is already with medium preset, I don't want to go lower than that). In the doom9 forum I was told a faster CPU would help. But, I wonder what it the most important CPU feature to speed up HEVC encoding? Is it the number of cores, the clock rate, the available SIMD extensions, the size of the CPU cache...? What is most important for video encoding? Thanks.
mduell
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Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by mduell »

Clocks and cores is all that really matters.

Well, also not thermally throttling like you often see on laptops.

In general Macs are a poor value for encoding performance, much cheaper to use a PC with Windows or Linux.
Nomis101
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Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:37 pm

Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by Nomis101 »

mduell wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:36 pm In general Macs are a poor value for encoding performance, ...
Really? Why?
Woodstock
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Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by Woodstock »

Because if you're looking for raw computing power, Apple charges a lot more for it, versus generic hardware.

If performance in tasks like video encoding is your PRIMARY consideration, you can match any Mac for less than half the price. You're paying for the integration of OTHER THINGS.

Even going with Intel processors rather than AMD, you can still exceed the Mac for less money, in terms of computing horsepower.

But, if the "other things" are your primary concern, the math of the situation becomes murky.
mduell
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Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by mduell »

Nomis101 wrote: Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:26 am
mduell wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:36 pm In general Macs are a poor value for encoding performance, ...
Really? Why?
There's no cheap way to buy a Mac with a lot of CPU and not much else.
Deleted User 11865

Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

If you're buying a machine that you will never use for anything other than video encoding, then indeed, you'll get more bang for your buck buying generic hardware.

If you want a nice machine to use day to day, with the occasional encoding job on the side, a quad-core iMac (i.e. any but the base 21.5" model) is probably your best bet.

Laptops are not ideal for encoding due to heat dissipation issues. At least (in my experience) Mac laptops may be slow at encoding (e.g. throttling the processor to ensure heat remains manageable), but at least they don't spontaneously reboot due to overheating like some cheap Windows-based hardware…
2socks
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Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:37 pm

Re: Which Mac is best for HEVC encoding?

Post by 2socks »

mduell wrote:There's no cheap way to buy a Mac with a lot of CPU and not much else.
Which is why I built me a Hackintosh a few years ago. 😉
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