I'm considering upgrading my quad core 3.2ghz AMD CPU to one that is also 3.2ghz, but has six cores instead of four. I did some searching on the forums, and have read many discussions regarding how well x264 does (or doesn't) scale regarding raw CPU clock speed vs # of cores. However, I encode all of my videos to Theora, with Vorbis audio in the MKV container.
Can anyone provide any insight as to how well the Theora encoder works in regards to multithreading / scaling to multiple cores? I'm running GNU/Linux, in case it makes a difference.
Theora / Vorbis encoding performance with multiple cores
Re: Theora / Vorbis encoding performance with multiple cores
I've been doing some unscientific tests, and it would seem that the Theora encoder maxes out one of my CPU's cores, and keeps the others all around 40-50% usage. I'm not sure what to conclude from this in regards to adding two additional cores -- will it likely run each additional core at 40-50% also, or will it simply distribute the load and run all but one core at around 20%?
Re: Theora / Vorbis encoding performance with multiple cores
Theroa won't scale well at all I'm afraid
@nexradix - What you'll likely be seeing is Theora using 1 core, and the rest of the CPU activity is the HandBrake Library and decoding.
Fwiw, if your heart is set on Theora or open formats, look into WebM (Not something handbrake supports), Theora at it's best is awful, and HandBrake doesn't do anything to optimise for it which makes it even worse.
@nexradix - What you'll likely be seeing is Theora using 1 core, and the rest of the CPU activity is the HandBrake Library and decoding.
Fwiw, if your heart is set on Theora or open formats, look into WebM (Not something handbrake supports), Theora at it's best is awful, and HandBrake doesn't do anything to optimise for it which makes it even worse.
Re: Theora / Vorbis encoding performance with multiple cores
That's was I was afraid of.
I do want to use open formats, yes. And I agree that VP8/WebM is superior to Theora. But HandBrake makes things very easy, and is much better than other GUI tools that do support VP8.
If I'm reading the GUI's tool tips appropriately, I could encode with x264 at a constant quality level of 0, and store the video losslessly. I could then transcode to VP8/WebM using FFMPEG, without losing quality from an additional encode. Is that sound logic? I don't care about the space required for the intermediate lossless file (which will be deleted when I'm done anyway), as I have a 2tb drive to use as a workspace.
I do want to use open formats, yes. And I agree that VP8/WebM is superior to Theora. But HandBrake makes things very easy, and is much better than other GUI tools that do support VP8.
If I'm reading the GUI's tool tips appropriately, I could encode with x264 at a constant quality level of 0, and store the video losslessly. I could then transcode to VP8/WebM using FFMPEG, without losing quality from an additional encode. Is that sound logic? I don't care about the space required for the intermediate lossless file (which will be deleted when I'm done anyway), as I have a 2tb drive to use as a workspace.