So does anyone know if the new Intel HD3000 supports hardware accelerated flash video like the Nvidia 320m on the previous MBP 13" ? 
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Does Intel M3000 support hardware accelartion of Flash Video?
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So does anyone know if the new Intel HD3000 supports hardware accelerated flash video like the Nvidia 320m on the previous MBP 13" ?
I believe yes. This chip has OpenCL support also.
...as in you can't run OpenCL code on the Intel IGP.
If Flash decoding uses OpenCL, then no. If it doesn't, then maybe.
Can we nail this down for sure? I have not been able to get anybody to provide proof that the HD 3000 does or does not support OpenCL. The previous generation integrated Intel graphics did not.
The Sandy Bridge processors have something better than simple GPU-accelerated video, these processors support Intel's Quick Sync technology which provides dedicated hardware for both encoding and decoding of H.264 video (technically, it supports MPEG2, AVC/H.264, and the decoding of Microsoft's VC-1). Apple will almost certainly support Quick Sync, but I'm not sure whether it is fully functional under Snow Leopard (we may have to wait for Mac OS 10.7). Apple does suggest that they are using Quick Sync for the new HD FaceTime camera, but I don't know whether they have rolled Quick Sync support into Mac OS X's public APIs.
Frankly, as far as Flash video is concerned, I think Quick Sync pretty much says, "Stick a fork in it, Flash is done."
In any case, I suspect that Adobe/Apple may not implement GPU-assisted decoding of Flash video on the new MacBooks. The Sandy Bridge processors are fast enough that most people probably won't notice the slowdown without it.
As for OpenCL, I'm sure that it is fully supported on the new MacBook Pros, it's just that OpenCL-based video decoding may not be as fast as it was on the NVIDIA 9400M and 320M-based systems (unless they've found a way to use Quick Sync, which should make it faster than it was before).
Frankly, as far as Flash video is concerned, I think Quick Sync pretty much says, "Stick a fork in it, Flash is done."
In any case, I suspect that Adobe/Apple may not implement GPU-assisted decoding of Flash video on the new MacBooks. The Sandy Bridge processors are fast enough that most people probably won't notice the slowdown without it.
As for OpenCL, I'm sure that it is fully supported on the new MacBook Pros, it's just that OpenCL-based video decoding may not be as fast as it was on the NVIDIA 9400M and 320M-based systems (unless they've found a way to use Quick Sync, which should make it faster than it was before).
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This is from Adobe's site. I prefer to find real answers instead of just giving opinions.
"Intel drivers
Intel hardware decoding of H.264 video in Flash Player 10.2 is supported on the Intel 4 Series chipset family and the 2010 Intel Core processor family with Intel HD Graphics, starting with graphics driver version 15.16.5.2021 (8.15.10.2021) for 32/64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7."
While this doesn't mention Intel 3000 under OSX it does point out that Intel gpu's have supported hardware acceleration since the Intel 4 series gpu's. Previous Intel gpu's didn't have any video acceleration built in which is why Flash couldn't use it.
We must also consider the next MBA may end up using the Intel 3000 and that platform may need the acceleration so I'm sure Flash will support it. This will especially be true for the new Flash 10.2.
"Intel drivers
Intel hardware decoding of H.264 video in Flash Player 10.2 is supported on the Intel 4 Series chipset family and the 2010 Intel Core processor family with Intel HD Graphics, starting with graphics driver version 15.16.5.2021 (8.15.10.2021) for 32/64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7."
While this doesn't mention Intel 3000 under OSX it does point out that Intel gpu's have supported hardware acceleration since the Intel 4 series gpu's. Previous Intel gpu's didn't have any video acceleration built in which is why Flash couldn't use it.
We must also consider the next MBA may end up using the Intel 3000 and that platform may need the acceleration so I'm sure Flash will support it. This will especially be true for the new Flash 10.2.
However, "H.264 video in Flash Player" is not necessarily the same thing as just any Flash video. Adobe is beginning to use H.264 in their Flash Player but I'm sure that there is still a lot of Flash video content that isn't encoded with H.264.
Dude Flash has been using H264 since Flash player 9. My company has been using H264 in Flash for well over 2 years now. VP6 based FLV video is typically not HD and much lower resolutions so it doesn't really need acceleration. My wife's old Dell Celeron laptop from 6 years ago can play that stuff without breaking a sweat.
That really isn't at odds with anything that I've previously said. However, are you suggesting that the majority of Flash video on the web is encoded in H.264?
In any case, as I said initially the new MacBooks are probably fast enough to decode Flash (in any format) without GPU acceleration, so it's all kind of a moot issue.
Info based on Wikipedia:
"On September 13, 2010, Intel released details of their first OpenCL implementation for the Sandy Bridge chip architecture. Sandy Bridge will integrate Intel's newest graphics chip technology directly onto the central processing unit.[30]."
Intel designed natural successor for NVIDIA 320M chipset, so it is naturally that support all technologies important for OSX system. OpenCL was widely advertised in media and highlighted during previous keynotes.
This is almost tradition that Apple has problems to apply GPU features in OSX. H.264 hardware acceleration support is available in old GF8600GT series and Snow Leopard still does not support it. Similar story with Flash etc. I do not expect any change in Apple strategy - they love to create standards, but do not to follow standards created by other companies
But back to main topic - new MBP13" is worse under a term of thermal performance and noise management, which is especially strange according to better GPU integration.
"On September 13, 2010, Intel released details of their first OpenCL implementation for the Sandy Bridge chip architecture. Sandy Bridge will integrate Intel's newest graphics chip technology directly onto the central processing unit.[30]."
Intel designed natural successor for NVIDIA 320M chipset, so it is naturally that support all technologies important for OSX system. OpenCL was widely advertised in media and highlighted during previous keynotes.
This is almost tradition that Apple has problems to apply GPU features in OSX. H.264 hardware acceleration support is available in old GF8600GT series and Snow Leopard still does not support it. Similar story with Flash etc. I do not expect any change in Apple strategy - they love to create standards, but do not to follow standards created by other companies
But back to main topic - new MBP13" is worse under a term of thermal performance and noise management, which is especially strange according to better GPU integration.
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I think it will eventually support OpenCL, since as said above, apple repeatedly advertised this feature when they introduced snow leopard.
OpenCL is used for general computing aka raw mathematical calculations. For some tasks you can increase the raw computing power by using both cpu and gpu. Think about CT scans, folding@home, Matlab, etc. That's when you want or even need OpenCL. The new Intel HD 3000 is very tightly integrated with the cpu. I doubt if you benefit from OpenCL because of that tight integration.
The h.264 acceleration has been documented by Apple but it isn't very up to date: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2010/tn2267.html
The h.264 acceleration has been documented by Apple but it isn't very up to date: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2010/tn2267.html
I mean it could increase the CPU usage and raise the temperature, but not enough to start the fans from spinning which is around 75C. 70C isn't exactly "efficient"
No one uses OpenCL for video decoding. All of those GPU video acceleration is supported by decoder blocks in the GPUs. UVD in AMD GPUs and whatever Nvidia calls their decoder.
Why anyone expects OpenGL to be used for Flash videos when there's a simpler API for it....?
That is not true. Example:
http://www.mainconcept.com/en/products/sdks/gpu-acceleration/opencltm-h264avc.html