Let's start a new rumour (about HEVC hardware decode)

[h9826790]

From this thread. It looks like the iMac Pro has HEVC hardware decode.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-pro-hevc-h265.2101070/

Quicksync obviously not exist in the iMac Pro, otherwise, it's encoding performance shouldn't be that "bad". So, it should be either the T2 chip has HEVC decoding ability (the worst case for cMP user), or the Vega's HEVC decode is enabled. Since the iMac Pro has it's own MacOS build number. Is it possible only this specific build enable the Vega's HEVC hardware decode?

Anyone have time and hardware to test if this build will work better than the normal build on a cMP (with Vega installed)?

 

[h9826790]

And is this mean the Vega 64's hardware encoding is enabled? If yes, it's time to find out where is the Apple's artificial lock, and if possible to release this ability on a cMP.

iMac Intel Media Engine = QuickSync?

AFAIK, Compressor is CPU limiting, the GPU only be used to render the frame (this part is relatively fast), and it's the CPUs job to do the encoding (this is the slow part) unless QuickSync (or other GPU video engine) is enabled.

 

[bsbeamer]

Adobe products with NVIDIA GPUs can tap into CUDA acceleration for some processing, but unlocking this could be interesting (if possible).

 

[LightBulbFun]

From this thread. It looks like the iMac Pro has HEVC hardware decode.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-pro-hevc-h265.2101070/

Quicksync obviously not exist in the iMac Pro, otherwise, it's encoding performance shouldn't be that "bad". So, it should be either the T2 chip has HEVC decoding ability (the worst case for cMP user), or the Vega's HEVC decode is enabled. Since the iMac Pro has it's own MacOS build number. Is it possible only this specific build enable the Vega's HEVC hardware decode?

Anyone have time and hardware to test if this build will work better than the normal build on a cMP (with Vega installed)?

IIRC the iMac Pro does HEVC decode/encode on the Vega GPU

a few people have posted snippets from the Vega driver mentioning this. plus IIRC some people in the hackintosh community have used these snippets to get HW decode and encode working on Polaris too. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...support-h264-does-not-support-hevc-hw.240353/

I too have been wondering is HEVC available to Mac Pro 5,1s that have Vega GPUs installed? has anyone actually tried playing back some HEVC stuff? would be very interesting to see the results

 

[h9826790]

IIRC the iMac Pro does HEVC decode/encode on the Vega GPU

a few people have posted snippets from the Vega driver mentioning this. plus IIRC some people in the hackintosh community have used these snippets to get HW decode and encode working on Polaris too. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...support-h264-does-not-support-hevc-hw.240353/

I too have been wondering is HEVC available to Mac Pro 5,1s that have Vega GPUs installed? has anyone actually tried playing back some HEVC stuff? would be very interesting to see the results

Thanks for the reply. So, now, very obvious the hardware encode / decode can work with the AMD card in MacOS.

I already choose to switch to Nvidia, so won't go back to Vega at this moment. But I just submitted a request via Nvidia support (Live Chat), let's see if Nvidia will do anything about it.

Younus: Hi, my name is Younus. How may I help you?
Man tat Lo: Hi, I would like to request hardware decode / encode support in MacOS for my 1080Ti
Man tat Lo: The 1080Ti is working beautifully, however, I can only get HEVC hardware decode / encode in Windows. I would like to do that in MacOS as well
Man tat Lo: I am a Mac Pro 5,1 user, with the latest MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2 (17C205)
Younus: Hello Man
Younus: Did you download and install latest GPU drivers?
Man tat Lo: I have web driver 378.10.10.10.25.104 installed, and CUDA 387.99 installed. However, unable to use any HEVC hardware acceleration
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Man tat Lo: If the support is not available in MacOS. Can you help me to submit this request to the Nvidia software development team?
Younus: Sure, I'll forward this request to concerned team.
Younus: Thank you for contacting NVIDIA Customer Care, Have a great day ahead!
Man tat Lo: Thank your very much, cheers!
Younus: You're welcome : ) Bye.

If anyone want this feature, please also submit your request. Hopefully a little bit more noise can help

 

[itdk92]

IIRC the iMac Pro does HEVC decode/encode on the Vega GPU

a few people have posted snippets from the Vega driver mentioning this. plus IIRC some people in the hackintosh community have used these snippets to get HW decode and encode working on Polaris too. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...support-h264-does-not-support-hevc-hw.240353/

I too have been wondering is HEVC available to Mac Pro 5,1s that have Vega GPUs installed? has anyone actually tried playing back some HEVC stuff? would be very interesting to see the results

I was with a customer a couple of weeks ago, showing off a Mac Pro build with a Titan X in it.

I was trying to convince him that he needed to transcode to ProRes, especially with H265, because HEVC is a very compressed format and heavy on CPU exc.

So we play back some H265 GH5 footage I had, all in Preview... and suddently they are actually not really choppy anymore??

A month ago they would stutter like crazy, and there I was showing a clip that was almost playing back perfectly. (H265, 4K@60fps)

I thought it was weird, but I could make a point later on anyway, so I didn’t think about the episode.

So, long story short, take this for what it is, it was not a test by any means.

 

[itdk92]

I was with a customer a couple of weeks ago, showing off a Mac Pro build with a Titan X in it.

I was trying to convince him that he needed to transcode to ProRes, especially with H265, because HEVC is a very compressed format and heavy on CPU exc.

So we play back some H265 GH5 footage I had, all in Preview... and suddently they are actually not really choppy anymore??

A month ago they would stutter like crazy, and there I was showing a clip that was almost playing back perfectly. (H265, 4K@60fps)

I thought it was weird, but I could make a point later on anyway, so I didn’t think about the episode.

So, long story short, take this for what it is, it was not a test by any means.

Did a little test today, and transcoded two H265 GH5 clips with EditReady, a very well optimised program.

I don't know how to interpret the results though. It looks like the GPU (VEGA) kicks in and transcodes basically realtime

BUT maybe it's just the program being GPU-optimized? That wouldn't necessarily mean H265 hardware transcoding...Would it?
[doublepost=1516199380][/doublepost]Test on a test-system with 6 Core, and 1 x RX VEGA

 

[h9826790]

Did a little test today, and transcoded two H265 GH5 clips with EditReady, a very well optimised program.

I don't know how to interpret the results though. It looks like the GPU (VEGA) kicks in and transcodes basically realtime

BUT maybe it's just the program being GPU-optimized? That wouldn't necessarily mean H265 hardware transcoding...Would it?
[doublepost=1516199380][/doublepost]Test on a test-system with 6 Core, and 1 x RX VEGA

If you mean that 54.7FPS, that's nothing to do with the conversion rate.

If it can transcode in real time, then it should able to finish transcode a 1 min long video in 1 min time.

I just downloaded it's free trial version. The CPU usage is same as your screen capture, which is actually low if compare to ME, FFmpeg, or Handbrake. My GPU occasionally kicks in, VRAM usage definitely increased, may be because OpenCL is enabled. But since I am not using the Vega now, can't tell if any hardware encoding is enabled.

 

[itdk92]

If you mean that 54.7FPS, that's nothing to do with the conversion rate.

If it can transcode in real time, then it should able to finish transcode a 1 min long video in 1 min time.

I just downloaded it's free trial version. The CPU usage is same as your screen capture, which is actually low if compare to ME, FFmpeg, or Handbrake. My GPU occasionally kicks in, VRAM usage definitely increased, may be because OpenCL is enabled. But since I am not using the Vega now, can't tell if any hardware encoding is enabled.

I am more thinking about the "Processor" in iStat.

And I timed it, so it is a tad faster than real-time. But I don't really know if this is to be expected.

 

[bsbeamer]

Just a general FYI - I can encode with Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018 to H264 with 1-pass in more than real-time with a CUDA renderer. 2-pass is less than double-time.

Can test an H265 render when I get a chance with GTX 1080 if you're looking for time comparison benchmarks.

 

[h9826790]

Just a general FYI - I can encode with Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018 to H264 with 1-pass in more than real-time with a CUDA renderer. 2-pass is less than double-time.

Can test an H265 render when I get a chance with GTX 1080 if you're looking for time comparison benchmarks.

Yes, I am definitely looking for Nvidia hardware encoding options in MacOS (both H264 and H265), please let me know your result.

I am more thinking about the "Processor" in iStat.

And I timed it, so it is a tad faster than real-time. But I don't really know if this is to be expected.

That's interesting, even a relatively low res H265 video, it's still pretty hard to finish encoding in real time with that CPU usage.

I use the trial version to transcode a h264 video to h264. And it takes 8.5 min to finish a 57s 2160x1080 video (2 vertical 1080P video SBS). So, it definitely no hardware acceleration on my Mac (that's expected with the Nvidia GPU). If your Mac can do H265 in real time, that's almost sure hardware encoding is being used.

 

[bsbeamer]

HEVC H.265 encodes through Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018 on MacPro 5,1 with GTX 1080 all appear to be about 10:1 for 4K UHD encode time regardless of renderer (software only, metal, CUDA, OpenCL). Overall difference between each renderer was minimal. That being said, pretty easy to conclude that GPU is not really being utilized for HEVC encodes at all through Adobe Media Encoder.

Test file was a 3840x2160 29.97fps Cineform Quicktime .MOV that was brought directly into Media Encoder (not rendering or encoding from PPro/AE). File was 3min duration, contained an extremely detailed generated fractal with many color varations, 10% opacity test pattern overlay, and large running file timecode in the middle.

All outputs were 3840x2160, 29.97fps, 2:59:29 duration, 1-pass VBR with 35Mbps target (40Mbps max) and AAC 320kbps, 48kHz Stereo audio.

Will see if I can test with Edit Ready later this week. (Believe there's a 1min limitation on trial.) Have not tried Apple Compressor since FCP7 days, but may buy and give it a shot.

 

[devon807]

I wonder if EditReady is optimized for Polaris as well as Vega? Will test and report back, most likely not optimized though.
[doublepost=1516230408][/doublepost]

I use the trial version to transcode a h264 video to h264. And it takes 8.5 min to finish a 57s 2160x1080 video (2 vertical 1080P video SBS). So, it definitely no hardware acceleration on my Mac (that's expected with the Nvidia GPU). If your Mac can do H265 in real time, that's almost sure hardware encoding is being used.

I also used the trial version to transcode A 2 min (1 minute limit) H.264 GH4 test clip to H.265 And stopped it around 5 mins. iStat reported miniscule GPU usage and average memory usage. This is a sign that there is no hardware HEVC support in macOS for Polaris ATM. (Pretty sure this has been tested before with Polaris, but wanted to put my suppositions to rest )

 

[bsbeamer]

Quickly testing EditReady before I call it a day. It's going to be MUCH longer than 10:1 for HEVC/H265 encodes. Already passed the 10-minute mark that it's been running. The trial only encodes 1 minute of footage. According to the progress bar, seriously looks like it has 90% of the way to go still. Will leave running overnight to get an actual time, but would not recommend EditReady for HEVC/H265 encodes over Adobe. Absolutely is not optimized for GPU (at least NVIDIA) and seems much less optimized than Adobe for CPU as well.

 

[bsbeamer]

EditReady ended up being almost 47:1 for an HEVC/H265 encode with same test file. Would have been around 141 minutes for a full 3 minute vs. about 30 minutes for Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018. May test Apple Compressor next week.

 

[devon807]

Looks as if EditReady is only optimised for VEGA GPU's

 

[bsbeamer]

Ran a similar test with HandBrake and it was also around 10:1 for H265/HEVC encode. Basically confirms Adobe Media Encoder CC 2018 is not using GPU acceleration for H265 at all with NVIDIA.

Issue with HandBrake was it was not able to take the original test file as a source since it was not compatible (Cineform MOV). Needed to use a high quality MP4, then send that through for H265. Quality is not nearly as good as Adobe encodes, only plays through VLC with many errors and artifacts, but the time itself for encode was very similar.