Best Budget Laptop CPU for H.264/265 Encoding

wisdomtooth on 03/08/2020 - 17:11
Last edited 05/08/2020 - 09:35

UPDATE 2: I now sieve through all the laptops in the market putting the CPUs that meet my requirements here.

UPDATE: Found it!

Turns out R5 4500U and R7 4700U do not rank at the top! And oddly enough the 4700U ranks lower than the 4500U!! (I wonder if these tests are done with exact same other hardware… Probably not. Here a 4500U with 16GB RAM was on par with a 4700U with 8GB.)

As I zero in on my quest for a laptop replacement, I now know what to look for: H.264/265 encoding performance, as that was my only grievance with my MBA, and the only computationally intensive task I need (for which I don't want to wait hours). But I'm having a hard time finding comprehensive benchmark results for more recent CPUs (including the Ryzens 4500U, 4700U, etc). Anyone seen one or have opinions about it? Ryzens are all the rage now, but I read it here that:

Simply put, the main difference between the AMD Ryzen and Intel 9th Gen processors is that Intel is better at processing H.264/H.265 footage, while AMD Ryzen processors are better at processing RED footage. … The Intel advantage for H.264/265 media is pretty easily explained by the fact that Premiere Pro supports hardware accelerated encoding/decoding of H.264/265 media via Intel Quick Sync. AMD does not have this feature (nor does the Intel X-series for that matter), which explains why the Intel 9th Gen CPUs are simply going to be better at processing H.264/265 footage.

I'm not sure that applies to lower end processors encoding outside Premiere Pro (say, on DaVinci Resolve Free, which is what I'll be using).

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • 20percentcorrect on 03/08/2020 - 17:43
    +1

    Any Intel processor from the past few years will handle hevc fine for playback.

    For encoding more cores (Rysen) will most likely be more important.

    What are you trying to do? Reencode 264 to 265?

    • wisdomtooth on 03/08/2020 - 18:37

      Essentially (when exporting clip collages from nonlinear video editing software).

  • scrimshaw on 03/08/2020 - 17:45
    +1

    When you're looking at CPU's with more modest core counts of 4-6, I think the performance gap between Intel and AMD isn't too far apart. More likely you will pick the laptop based on it's GPU performance as well because Davinci Resolve also relies on GPU heavily to do playback and rendering.

    Make sure you've got some kind of discrete GPU for video editing.

    This graphh shows how important the GPU is for Davinci Resolve. the score absolutely tanks when GPU is absent.

    Looking at this chart for HEVC encoding benchmark

    https://static.techspot.com/articles-info/2045/bench/10.png

    The Ryzen 5 4500U, a fairly 'low end' CPU found in sub $1k laptops can efficiently encode x265 using half the power compared to the Core i7-9750H even in a TDP-Up configuration. The Core i7 processor is found on big bulky gaming laptops with big heatsinks costing over $1.5k.

    • wisdomtooth on 03/08/2020 - 18:43

      DaVinci Resolve Free has GPU processing disabled, though (and my amateurish use doesn't really justify dishing out $300 for it).

      All else taken on board, cheers.

  • bazingaa on 03/08/2020 - 17:49
    +1

    I think you need DaVinci Resolve Studo for QSV or NVENC as per this. Personally NVENC is not working for me with free version.

    I have used QSV and NVENC with Handbrake though, but speed comes with a trade off with quality. CPU Software encoding gives better quality output. I have no idea about AMD.

  • Blue Cat on 03/08/2020 - 17:55
    +1

    Also it is important to think about thermal-throttling in a laptop…
    Sure, newest MacBook has an i5 CPU, but give it 1 minute sustained load (e.g. encoding a video) and it's gonna turn into a Celeron because the cooling is not adequate.
    Make sure your laptop has big air exhaust(s) and preferably 2 fans if you plan to do a lot of non-stop encoding.

    • wisdomtooth on 03/08/2020 - 18:48

      Yeah, that happened to my MBA 2011 allllll the time. I'd leave it overnight open in a V facing down on the bare floor to maximise cooling when I had to export hour-long videos from iMovie. If I had to export during the day, I'd leave it in the bathroom, as it was coolest part of the house. Honestly, ridiculous for such basic use.

      • ssquid on 04/08/2020 - 14:09

        It's going to happen to pretty much any laptop. They're not built for sustained max CPU usage.

        • wisdomtooth on 04/08/2020 - 14:49

          Dunno… I've seen some impressive tests with the Ryzens (and have my fingers crossed).

        • Blue Cat on 05/08/2020 - 20:43

          Yeah, that's why I bought this Dell Vostro 7570 which looks fat (plenty of cooling) and has 2 huge exhausts and 2 fans.
          It couldn't sustain i7 with hyperthreading, but now when I disabled hyperthreading and turbo-boost, it sustains it's temperature with 4 cores @ 2.8 GHz each and a 100% GPU usage.
          Meanwhile I know a guy who owns a Razer Blade Stealth and that thing throttles like hell after 1 minute lol

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join