Hardware (CPU/GPU) performance overview (1 Viewer)

Ruud

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  • December 5, 2004
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    Hello,

    looking at the wider availability of e.g. HD content, the market trend to less power hungry hardware and the many questions on our forum for hardware/codec/performance info, I thought is was time to start a performance thread.
    Goal of this thread is to capture performance and experience of the CPU / GPU combination. The results would be three-fold:
    1. giving advise on hardware selection;
    2. better tweaking of our already installed / purchased hardware in combination with codes and last but not least:
    3. ah well, just a show off of our (HTPC's) muscles ;)
    When we have enough results they could be collected and put in the wiki.

    To get this of the ground I need some initial help in setting up a test script that captures performance in an easy way. Any thoughts / hints are welcome. This is what I have come up with initially.

    Used Tools:
    * Graphedit (to produce used codecs per test movie) [google for download]
    * Procexp (sysinternals) (to capture CPU load during playback)

    Test files:
    Analog recording: mpeg2 / ts file: to be produced
    SD file: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ED theme SD video [Watching h.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA). My collection of short anime reviews test file 1]
    HD 720P file: Elfen Lied ED theme 720p [Watching h.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA). My collection of short anime reviews test file 2]
    HD 1080P file: Utawarerumono OP theme 1080p [Watching h.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA). My collection of short anime reviews test file 3]

    Testscript:
    1. start graphedit
    2. start procexp
    3. start MP
    4. goto windowed mode (MediaPortal)
    5. switch to procexp and select MediaPortal.exe → properties / performance graph
    6. switch back to MP and start test file 1
    7. switch to graphedit and display running remote graph
    8. switch to procexp and register lowest / highest CPU load during playback of the file
    9. goto 6

    Performance results: (in italics my specs / results)
    Windows Version: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
    CPU brand / type: AMD Geode NX1750
    Memory: 1024 MB
    Video card brand / type / memory: Nvidia GT8500 256 MB
    Video card connection: onboard / agp (speed) / pcie / pci PCI
    Renderer: VMR9 / EVR VMR9
    MPEG-2 Video Decoder: MPC-MPEG2Video Decoder (Gabest)
    H.264 Video Decoder: MPC Video decoder
    Audio Decoder: MPC – MPA Decoder filter

    Test file HD 720P
    remote graph video: MPC - Video Decoder → Video Mixing Renderer 9
    remote graph audio:MPC – MPA Decoder filter → Default Direct Sound Device
    CPU low / high / average: 7% - 19% -12%

    Test file HD 1080P
    remote graph video: MPC - Video Decoder → Video Mixing Renderer 9
    remote graph audio:MPC – MPA Decoder filter → Default Direct Sound Device
    CPU low / high / average: 15% - 24% -19%

    Questions:
    Is there a better tools to capture more precise the CPU load for an application?
    Are the testfiles representative for load / performance testing?
    Do we need to register / test other variables in our system?

    Looking forward to your feedback!
    regards,
    Ruud.
     

    tourettes

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 7, 2005
    17,301
    4,800
    When testing CPU usage remember to turn off CPU speed throttling so that the results are valid :)
     

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