Free software (for Windows only at present) allows the GPU to be harnessed to perform video transcodes, allowing up to 17x speedups over CPU encodes (which is what handbrake uses, or specifically, x264 binary). I'd guess Nahelam owners won't experience such a jump as 17x but it should still be faster than CPU alone.
http://ati.amd.com/technology/Avivo/technology.html
It would probably mean a boot into Windows is necessary as I'd imaging it wouldn't work via Fusion/Parallels - but would be very handy if it did, at least while we wait for a OS X version.
There is an equivalent application for Nvidia users:
http://www.badaboomit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrp8zcLbmI
Interesting comparison between the ATi version and the Nvidia version. Looks like the ATi kinda smokes the opposition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckjXgrtBBWI
So it's like having a super fast Turbo.264 plugin device in every Mac Pro! Even more of a reason to save money and get the quad instead of the octo if video encoding is your thing!
http://ati.amd.com/technology/Avivo/technology.html
It would probably mean a boot into Windows is necessary as I'd imaging it wouldn't work via Fusion/Parallels - but would be very handy if it did, at least while we wait for a OS X version.
There is an equivalent application for Nvidia users:
http://www.badaboomit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrp8zcLbmI
Interesting comparison between the ATi version and the Nvidia version. Looks like the ATi kinda smokes the opposition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckjXgrtBBWI
So it's like having a super fast Turbo.264 plugin device in every Mac Pro! Even more of a reason to save money and get the quad instead of the octo if video encoding is your thing!