ATI Avivo encoding + HIS X1800XT + Opteron 170 dual core

[eva2000]

Xmas day and what better way than to play with new toys

Time to test out ATI's Avivo software with my 512MB HIS X1800XT on my Opteron 170 dual core cpu to see what's all the fuss about

Required software:

• ATI Avivo Video converter for X1800 series cards http://i4memory.com/X1800XT/AvivoVideoConverter.zip OR
• Hacked ATI Avivo Video converter for use with any video cards ATI or nVidia (i think) http://i4memory.com/X1800XT/AvivoVid...12_anycard.zip
• For X1800 series cards you need Catalyst 5.13 from www.ati.com

Source video files to work from:

• ToyShop (91MB) http://www2.ati.com/multimedia/radeo...yShop-v1.1.zip
• T2 trailer (92.5MB) http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...9a4/T2_720.exe
• Taxi 3 1080P (161.9MB) http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...axi_3_1080.exe
• Speed 1080P (128.2MB) http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...Speed_1080.exe

Xbox HD video trailers:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

• Call_of_Duty_2_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 93.2 MB
• Condemned_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 53.0 MB
• Dead_or_Alive_4_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 286.0 MB
• Dead_Rising_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 75.9 MB
• Demonik_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 61.5 MB
• EA_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Compilation_Video.wmv 93.5 MB
• Final_Fantasy_XI_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 79.5 MB
• Frame_City_Killer_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 78.8 MB
• Full_Auto_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 57.9 MB
• Gears_of_War_Xbox360_Video.wmv 102.3 MB
• Ghost_Recon_3_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 86.1 MB
• Kameo_E32005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 84.0 MB
• Madden_NFL_06_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 49.2 MB
• NBA_2K6_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 68.1 MB
• NHL_2K6_E3_205_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 65.8 MB
• PGR3_E32005_Xbox360_Video.wmv 25.1 MB
• PGR3_Tokyo_Xbox_360 Video.wmv 68.1 MB
• QUAKE_4_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 127.8 MB
• Test_Drive_Unlimited_E3_2005_Video.wmv 89.9 MB
• The_Darkness_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Video.wmv 72.2 MB
• The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_E3_2005_Xbox_360_Vid eo.wmv 87.6 MB

System

Opteron 170 CCBWE 0546XPMW cooled by Corsair Hydrocool 200EX
DFI NF4 UT SLI-DR R.AB0 11/14-3 bios
512MB HIS X1800XT with Cat 5.13 drivers
4x 80GB Hitachi 7K80 SATAII Raid 0 OS drive
1x 250GB Maxtor Maxline Plus II PATA
Pioneer DVD Burner
Floppy drive
650W Silverstone SLI PSU

WinXP Pro SP2
NF4 6.53WHQL chipset drivers
DivX 6.1 codec

Using 2x 1GB OCZ PC4000EB Platinum 3-3-2-8 rated memory

Results
All conversions are done in the same windows session for each cpu speed clock i.e. 2000mhz, 2400mhz, 2600mhz and 2800mhz.



:: @10x200HTT = 2000mhz @200mhz 3-3-2-5 7-14-2223 ::

Source: Toyshop WMV file (91MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (56.9MB)
Conversion Time: 53 seconds

Source: T2 720P WMV file (92.5MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (33.5MB)
Conversion Time: 38 seconds

Source: Speed 1080P WMV file (128.2MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (54.2MB)
Conversion Time: 1m 12 seconds

Source: Taxi 3 1080P WMV file (161.9MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (41.4MB)
Conversion Time: 1m 14 seconds

--------------------------------------------------------------

:: @10x240HTT = 2400mhz @240mhz 3-3-2-5 7-14-2223 ::

Source: Toyshop WMV file (91MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (56.9MB)
Conversion Time: 44 seconds

Source: T2 720P WMV file (92.5MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (33.5MB)
Conversion Time: 43 seconds << weird repeated a few times and slower than @2000mhz ???

Source: Speed 1080P WMV file (128.2MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (54.2MB)
Conversion Time: 1m 00 seconds

Source: Taxi 3 1080P WMV file (161.9MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (41.4MB)
Conversion Time: 1m 03 seconds

--------------------------------------------------------------

:: @10x260HTT = 2600mhz @260mhz 3-3-2-5 7-14-2223 ::

Source: Toyshop WMV file (91MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (56.9MB)
Conversion Time: 41 seconds
Notes:
- Well Dinos got the same conversion time with ATI X800 video card with Cat 5.12 drivers and the hacked Avivo video converter http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?p=31423#post31423 !
- X1800XT's benefit then not yet implemented by ATI ?????

Source: T2 720P WMV file (92.5MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (33.5MB)
Conversion Time: 43 seconds << weird repeated a few times and slower than @2000mhz ???
Notes:
- Again Dinos with ATI X800, was 2 seconds faster http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?p=31426#post31426 ??

Source: Speed 1080P WMV file (128.2MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (54.2MB)
Conversion Time: 55 seconds
Notes:
- Same time as Dinos with ATI X800 http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?p=31427#post31427

Source: Taxi 3 1080P WMV file (161.9MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (41.4MB)
Conversion Time: 57 seconds
Notes:
- My time was 2 seconds faster than Dinos with ATI X800 http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?p=31427#post31427

Could be related to Dinos' DivX codec version differences ?

--------------------------------------------------------------

:: @10x280HTT = 2800mhz @280mhz 3-3-2-5 7-14-2223 ::

Source: Toyshop WMV file (91MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (56.7MB) <- file 0.2MB smaller ?
Conversion Time: 40 seconds

Source: T2 720P WMV file (92.5MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (32.7MB) <- file 0.2MB smaller ?
Conversion Time: 40 seconds << weird repeated a few times and slower than @2000mhz but faster than at 2400mhz and 2600mhz ???

Source: Speed 1080P WMV file (128.2MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (54.2MB)
Conversion Time: 52 seconds

Source: Taxi 3 1080P WMV file (161.9MB)
Settings: Highest quality
Output format: MPEG-4 DivX (41.4MB)
Conversion Time: 53 seconds

Judging by the times, maybe the source files aren't long enough to show a more accurate conversion time ?
--------------------------------------------------------------

Graph below displays the above results for easy viewing.



-------
It seems Avivo still needs a few improvements as the times between Dinos using ATI X800 with Cat 5.12 are really no different from the above results using ATI X1800XT with Cat 5.13. It maybe that the source files are too short and thus not as accurate ?

I believe ATI's current Avivo Xcode is CPU based only - so will have to wait for the future versions to take advantage of X1800XT GPU ?

Any suggestions for other tests ?


Update: Added List of Xbox HD video trailers you might want to try


.

[althes]

Nice review, I will give it a go with the x1600xts

[Hybrid]

Ill wait for the final version before judging it. The one i downloaded didnt convert/transcode fast at all. It took bout 30 mins to convert a 24 min episode of naruto. Also the resulting video was absolute garbage. This was on my rig which is an opty 170 at 2.6ghz and a x1800 xt.

[saaya]

great job george
well its easy to find out if its using the vpu, no?
downclock your x1800xt

but yeh, afaik its only cpu based atm, ati prolly wants us all to see how fast its cpu based and then jump up and do the banana dance when they show us the vpu accelerated performence

[Lightman]

yeah!
this version of ati converter is cpu based only

read anandtech review
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2645&p=1

[eva2000]

Ill wait for the final version before judging it. The one i downloaded didnt convert/transcode fast at all. It took bout 30 mins to convert a 24 min episode of naruto. Also the resulting video was absolute garbage. This was on my rig which is an opty 170 at 2.6ghz and a x1800 xt.

yeah i believe it's quality of the original source that determines the output quality

it does seem to be cpu only, i updated first post with some Xbox HD trailers if you find the original ones boring.

[eva2000]

well it seems DivX Create from divx.com on Opteron 170 dual cpu by default uses only cpu0 to max 50% of cpu load - if i use task manager to assign the app to cpu0 and cpu1 it uses 50-80% cpu resources so probably needs more improvement.

Now i used my Matrix Reloaded region 4 dvd and used DVDShrink (disabled split VOB at 1GB sizes) to re-encode output a 4.13GB sized VOB file of just the matrix main movie.

Using ATI AvivoXcode app, i converted the 4.13GB VOB file to MPEG-4 DIVX Highest Quality file and it produced a 694MB single divx avi file @2000mhz stock opteron 170 in 11mins 04s

Playing it back on DivX Player, the divx avi file has excellent quality

Going to plug the 4.13GB VOB file into DivX Create to see - only prob is DivX Create app doesn't show a completion time at the end so no idea how long it takes to complete.

edit: Using DivX Create with cpu0 + cpu1 assigned and loaded 4.13GB VOB to convert to Divx 700MB file so far at 2000mhz stock Opteron 170

- it's done only 30% completed in 49mins 11s
- 37% in 60mins
- 40% in 65mins
- 44% in 70mins
- 50% in 79mins

so much slower


took too long so ended it and clocked Opteron 170 to @2600mhz and reran DivX Create process of the 4.13GB VOB file

- 82% in 90mins averaging 72-75% cpu utilisation
- 87% in 93.5mins
- 92% in 98mins


.

[fhpchris]

There was a good review @ doom9.org, they determined that without 2 pass encoding and other real options, the quality of this codec is sub-par, and it isnt much faster than new divx versions.

The Avivo encoder program does not take advantage of GPU right now, it is only CPU.

Some of the advantages will slowly make way into other encoding systems.

[eva2000]

i'm no pro when it comes to encoding but as an end user /average joe i can't tell the difference in quality of the AvivoXcode produced matrix reloaded divx avi file - looks very fine for me

[eva2000]

---------------------------------------------------------
Opteron 170 @10x260HTT = 2600mhz at 1.312v

Matrix Reloaded 4.13GB VOB file
convert to Divx

Avivo Xcode output as 694MB sized MPEG-4 DivX highest quality = 8min 42s

vs

DivX Create out as 700MB Divx file = 105mins

But major bug found in Avivo Xcode = the resulting divx avi file is only 1hr 16mins long while the full movie is meant to be 2hrs 11mins long. So for some reason the Avivo app didn't finish the rest of the conversion ??? So estimating it would of really took Avivo Xcode 15mins to process the full 2hrs 11min VOB file if it did it properly!

DivX Create converter managed to do the full 2hrs 11mins of the Matrix Reloaded movie VOB fine.

[SainT]

this is really fast encoding (:

[Gnome]

how dya get the hacked xcode working ?

[eva2000]

Not sure as i don't use the hacked xcode .. it should be same as normal one

run setup batch file - hit 'y' for yes for each prompt shown and then manually in c:\program files\ati technologies folder create shortcut for avivoxcode.exe to your desktop or quick launch bar and click that shorcut to run

[Gnome]

not for me ( 2 7800GT in sli)

[cantankerous]

I dunno why but I cant even install the avivio program thingy, always gives me errors, weird.

[phoeniXfury]

I checked it out about 2 weeks back...I'd say this is still very much beta.

It is definitly fast...but I know it's not tapping into the GPU power yet. If you use ATI tool beta...the temp doesn't increase more than 2C (which is probably due to CPU in my case where water cooling is used)...and the measured current used by the core does not increase at all.

Much of the speed is from a more efficient encoding...but remember that it doesn't exactly resize your videos. Some times the aspect ratio will mess up too.

It does look like that it's utilizing both cores nicely, unlike many other encoders that can't even put full 100% on a single core. I know I did not get conversion times that short with my venice at 2.7G...but it was still 3-5 times faster than nero.

I'm hoping that they add in the option to select output file size, image size, croping, aspect ratio, and GPU acceleration.

[drunkenmaster]

ati have officially said it doesn't use gpu yet so theres no need to guess, its simply some extremely efficient encoding routines, which ati are giving out as code to people like nero so everyone can use them and increase encoding times.

however even when that happens once ati do implement the added gpu power nothing cpu based should be able to match it(theoretically). question is will ati be able to get the whole thing working on JUST gpu or gpu and cpu(s).

as with all software it will evolve, have more options, get more quality options and get better. the only thing that seems weird in the whole thing is why did ati come up with, and say they'll distribute, stupidly efficient cpu based encoding algorithums? it will only make the difference between ati's gpu encoding and nero's cpu encoding smaller, makes no sense at all to me.

[ugp]

Avivo works really well...I encode alot of videos for my iPod with it. Works great!

[phoeniXfury]

"the only thing that seems weird in the whole thing is why did ati come up with, and say they'll distribute, stupidly efficient cpu based encoding algorithums? it will only make the difference between ati's gpu encoding and nero's cpu encoding smaller, makes no sense at all to me."

They're doing it to market their Avivo Line of products...their cards are rediculously late...as we all know. They are adding some extra features that nVidia doesn't offer to gain an edge. The other great thing about "Avivo" is H.264 acceleration. Most of this is due to their very programmable chip...nVidia's G70 series is partially programmable...so it's harder to make majour performance changes or do GPGPU.

[eva2000]

Avivo works really well...I encode alot of videos for my iPod with it. Works great!

yeah it's okay for beta stuff heh