Intel’s AV1 encoder outperforms NVIDIA and AMD

Intel is the primary GPU producer to supply AV1 encoding capabilities in its line of Arc graphics playing cards. Due to YouTuber EposVox, who examined the tech on an Arc A380 graphics card, we acquired an opportunity to see the encoding in motion. The YouTuber found that AV1 is superb for video streams that produce low bitrate. It outperformed all H.264 {hardware} encoders, similar to competitor NVIDIA’s NVENC encoder.

Intel’s AV1 encoder outperforms NVIDIA’s NVENC H.264 video codec

Many movies on YouTube that are watched every day have adopted the brand new AV1 encoding, particularly within the final years of growth. Intel’s AV1 video encoding was initially developed by the Alliance for Open Media as an open-source, royalty-free video encoding format in 2015. The format is revolutionary in principle and free, permitting it to be extra accessible to customers by way of the Web. AV1 produces fewer file sizes than H.264, offering a lot higher compression functionality.

In recent times, AV1 has been more and more adopted in video streaming platforms and has been extra broadly utilized in graphics card architectures, similar to NVIDIA RTX 30 sequence, RDNA 2 structure of AMD and not too long ago in Intel iGPUs. Sony has additionally built-in the expertise into the PlayStation 4 Professional console gaming system.

In content material creation, particularly in streaming, AV1 has not been absolutely utilized, even with the video encoding accessible. Present graphics engines don’t help AV1 encoder engines. With software program help, a system’s processor can use the AV1 codec. Nonetheless, {hardware} able to correctly accelerating AV1 encoding has by no means been developed, except Intel’s current Arc graphics playing cards.

Within the video above, EposVox positioned Intel’s AV1 encoder and examined the expertise in opposition to a number of H.264 encoders. Testing included AMD’s AMF, Intel’s Fast Sync, NVIDIA NVENC, and software program choices accessible in streaming packages, similar to OBS streaming software program.

The YouTuber used Netflix’s VMAF benchmark software which permits the consumer to research video high quality with a rating of 0 (which might be thought-about unwatchable) to 100 (one of the best video high quality possible). The benchmark software compares video high quality to uncompressed video and is examined at 3.5 Mbps, 6 Mbps, and eight Mbps.

The video used was footage from the sport Battlefield 2042. At 3.5 Mbps, Intel’s AV1 video encoder scored 83 factors, whereas at 6 Mbps it hit 90 factors out of 100 accessible. Then again, NVIDIA NVENC scored 71 at 3.5 Mbps, however 8 Mbps hit 85 factors. AMD and its AMF encoder have been much like NVIDIA, and Intel’s Fast Sync encoder hit 76 and 87, respectively. Intel at present makes use of the Fast Sync encoder within the Alder Lake platform.

The benchmark take a look at produced by EposVox reveals that the Intel AV1 video codec has a sixteen p.c higher efficiency improve than NVIDIA and AMD.

OBS provided wonderful outcomes with its H.264, x264 VerySlow software program encoder preset. The built-in software program provided 78 factors at 3.5 Mbps and 88 at 6 Mbps. Nonetheless, for streaming, it isn’t a usable format, so streamers are higher off avoiding the setting altogether.

As EposVox has educated customers on streaming on the whole, it ought to be famous that 3.5 Mbps is extra accessible to viewers and the gentle setting when utilizing Intel and AV1 encoding. It produces extra accessible stream high quality whereas utilizing fewer assets than competing corporations.

Sources of knowledge: Tom’s {Hardware}