Does a GPU affect Handbrake's performance?

[mkelley]

Okay, don't jump all over me here -- while I'm hardly new to computing I'm as far from a hardware guru as there is (how many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb? None: that's a hardware problem).

As I assemble my new PC (right at the moment I'm going with an i7 2.66 with 9GB of tri-channel memory, whatever the heck that means) I'm being given a choice of graphics cards. In the past all I cared about was whether my graphics card would support my dual monitors -- I don't play games, nor even video on my computer (other than to check the Handbrake results, or to play some videos on the web), but I do render animation (2d and 3d) and, of course, run Handbrake a lot. So all this begs the question -- does it make a difference whether I get one of these hot new GPUs like the ATI 5870, or will just any dual monitor card do? IOW, does Handbrake care whatsoever about what GPU is on the machine?

(I'd think no, since it runs in a command window, but as I say I'm pretty stupid when it comes to hardware and need a bit of handholding).

[TedJ]

No, Handbrake doesn't utilise your GPU during encoding - feel free to install the entry level card if it otherwise meets your needs.

I'm guessing from your post that you're building a machine around the Core i7 920 CPU... congratulations, you're going to end up with an awesome encoding box.

[creamyhorror]

No, x264 (which Handbrake uses to encode) does not depend on GPUs at all, nor is it likely to in future.

[mkelley]

Thanks, guys, that's helpful.

Yes, Ted, it is the Core i7. It's about time I upgraded to the latest/greatest, as my last machine is 5 years old (as I'm sure you're aware, ancient in CPU ages) and it wasn't actually even the fastest back then.

Now I just have to decide if I want to save the money on the GPU or spend it upgrading from a 2.66 to a 3.2GHz CPU. Sigh -- so many choices.