GPU choice - handbrake encoding using hardware GPU 775M vs GTX 780M

[TwoBytes]

When planning my new 2013 iMac the only thing i'm debating is the GPU.
I don't play games but do a lot of encoding.

I read that handbreak uses Hardware Acceleration to speed up encoding which wasn't the case in older versions. Does anyone know what kind of percentage of speed this adds? I may just opt for the 780 just for resale value in the next couple of years..


Mods, hope this is the right forum opposed to ATV or Video? Couldn't decide. Thanks

 

[Nightarchaon]

I was looking into this, in the end i built a PC for about 50% the cost of the top end iMac with more ram, more HDD Space, a faster CPU, expansion space and SLI 670s that given CUDA aware conversion software chew through my video conversion needs in a way nothing but an old school mac pro would.

Kept my 2011 iMac for pretty much everything else, except gaming, watching blu-rays, and 3D gaming and movie watching (Passive AOC 27" 3D screen FTW)

In fact my iMac has become an iTunes server for the house, a place where i do my "productive" tasks with word and excel, and deal with my emails and browse the web, little else as everything else i do on the better equipped PC

ill always advise people who are looking for a 1st home computer to get an iMac, if they want to word process, browse the net, and maybe even watch netflix.

The iMac also has the benefit of keeping my electricity bills low, as its not chewing through 800w all the time.

For gaming, heavy/quick video conversion (not editing) and pretty much anything else, i advise a PC.

 

[chevalier433]

When planning my new 2013 iMac the only thing i'm debating is the GPU.
I don't play games but do a lot of encoding.

I read that handbreak uses Hardware Acceleration to speed up encoding which wasn't the case in older versions. Does anyone know what kind of percentage of speed this adds? I may just opt for the 780 just for resale value in the next couple of years..


Mods, hope this is the right forum opposed to ATV or Video? Couldn't decide. Thanks

handbrake depends on cpu cores.780m is mainly for gaming.

 

[Nirurin]

I was looking into this, in the end i built a PC for about 50% the cost of the top end iMac with more ram, more HDD Space, a faster CPU, expansion space and SLI 670s ....

How?

I recently have been looking at (and trying to decide between) making a hackintosh vs buying a 27" imac. Price being the deciding factor.

But half price? The build I had was £1150, and that was only a single 670. another 670 would add another £200+. And a 1440p monitor is another £450. So thats £1600 total. (£1800 with the second 670.)

Yes, its a lot more powerful graphically, and has more storage on board, but its not half the price... its only about £300 different. Unless you already had a monitor of course (I dont).

Was just curious.

 

[TwoBytes]

Back on topic, does any tech head know if the graphics card impacts handbreak as well as CPU?

 

[martinm0]

Back on topic, does any tech head know if the graphics card impacts handbreak as well as CPU?

My experience with a variety of machines tells me no. Sure, it helps maybe a little, but not enough to be the only reason to get the updated card.

Take a look at some of the Sandy Bridge Big Buck Bunny Handbrake benchmark threads here on MR and you'll see a number of posts I did comparing a variety of machines (rMPB, Mac Mini, Hackintosh, etc). If I recall correctly, I pitted the first gen Mac Mini with i7 and i7 MBP and found that the MBP beat it out slightly. Then when I tested a new 2.6 i7 Mac Mini to my current gen i7 2.7 rMBP, the Mini was a little faster. Odd.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1111126/ (see the last few pages for more current benchmarks)

 

[Nirurin]

Back on topic, does any tech head know if the graphics card impacts handbreak as well as CPU?

Ahh yes sorry, went off topic a tad there..

I have tried researching into handbrake myself on this issue, and it seems that the GPU can/does effect handbrake times, as it now uses OpenCL.

But, whether theres a big difference between the 775 and the 780, I dont think theres an easy way to calculate it.

Will have to find a couple nice people who have these two GPUs, and ask them both to handbrake the same file, at the same settings, and see what the results are, I expect?

If/When I get my machine, I'll be happy to be a guinea pig, but I expect people will come up with the answers by then

 

[FredT2]

It's long been known that Handbrake does not use GPUs at all. It's all in the processors, and it will push those to the max. So if Handbrake is the app that needs to be fast, get the fastest CPU and don't worry about the GPU

 

[Nirurin]

It's long been known that Handbrake does not use GPUs at all. It's all in the processors, and it will push those to the max. So if Handbrake is the app that needs to be fast, get the fastest CPU and don't worry about the GPU

Really? I've found a fair few references to handbrake using gpu, including on the handbrake site itself. Though I'll admit I dont necessary understand *how* its using the GPU, but still.

 

[Nightarchaon]

How?

I recently have been looking at (and trying to decide between) making a hackintosh vs buying a 27" imac. Price being the deciding factor.

But half price? The build I had was £1150, and that was only a single 670. another 670 would add another £200+. And a 1440p monitor is another £450. So thats £1600 total. (£1800 with the second 670.)

Yes, its a lot more powerful graphically, and has more storage on board, but its not half the price... its only about £300 different. Unless you already had a monitor of course (I dont).

Was just curious.

670s cost me £180 each with some careful shopping, the entire rig was new, and i settled on two 1080p AOC Passive 3d monitors, costing £380 the pair, i have no need for higher than 1080p as main screen displays the video im working on natively at 1080p and 2nd screen has the applications open

the choice of monitor was the "cut price" shot to drive down the price, the iMac i was looking at topped out at in excess of £3000 when apple care and cabling + Thunderbolt chassis was added to drive the raid that the PC has now got internally . My boot is off a 128GB SSD that i picked up for £54 on a special at scan, im using intel RST with a sperate 60gb SSD i got for a ridiculous £40 in a bargain bin in PCworld, and the 4TB raid array cost me £180.

Keyboard + Mouse price i wasn't including in that (my mouse cost £109, keyboard , £200) Total PC build came in around £1500-£1600 without them all new parts (and i wasn't including OS in that pricing)

If you take out the Raid, then the prices do come a lot nearer, but the iMac is such a pain to upgrade and use in a professional environment, and god forbid anything on it broke, it would grind my work to a halt for days (One of the reasons i built this PC and ignored the new Mac Pro, cant afford the apple level of downtime a fault would cause)

 

[Bear]

It's long been known that Handbrake does not use GPUs at all. It's all in the processors, and it will push those to the max. So if Handbrake is the app that needs to be fast, get the fastest CPU and don't worry about the GPU

The link that the OP provided talkes about handbrake and GPU usage.

Really? I've found a fair few references to handbrake using gpu, including on the handbrake site itself. Though I'll admit I dont necessary understand *how* its using the GPU, but still.

Again, look at the link the OP provided.

 

[Nirurin]

The link that the OP provided talkes about handbrake and GPU usage.

Again, look at the link the OP provided.

Ahh yeah, thats the same wiki page i was looking at.

 

[mcnallym]

http://handbrake.fr/news.php

The use of OpenCL or Intel QuickSync are beta versions only, and Windows

OpenCL only accelerates at the moment if downscaling your Video.
QuickSync is Windows only and uses the iGPU in the CPU.

The regular release still uses CPU for the Encoding.

It won't make any difference to the user which of those GPU's buys in relation to his Handbrake Encode time.

The hardware acceleration talked about in the linked info is for hardware DECODING. My 2008 MBPro 9600GT or 9400m can keep up fast enough for that

 

[TwoBytes]

Thanks for these replies, it looks like CPU still dominates with encoding jobs. i7 is on my shopping list