In transient: Intel has had a tough time launching its freshman sequence of devoted graphics playing cards, struggling to get them to shoppers on time and presumably with unimpressive leads to gaming benchmarks. However, they symbolize the debut of AV1 {hardware} encoding, and early assessments present massive effectivity good points in opposition to Nvidia and AMD’s H.264 encoders.
The AV1 {hardware} encoder in Intel’s new Arc A380 destroyed Nvidia and AMD’s H.264 encoders in preliminary real-world assessments this week. The outcomes are sorely wanted excellent news for Intel’s entry into the GPU house and bode nicely for AV1’s future in content material creation.
Late final month, computer systems that includes Intel’s entry-level Arc Alchemist graphics playing cards hit the worldwide market after weeks of delays. YouTuber EposVox purchased one of many first obtainable A380s and measured its AV1 encoding in opposition to a number of H.264 encoders.
Also see: TechSpot’s Intel Arc A380 Review
Support for the brand new AV1 video codec has expanded quickly over the past a number of months. It guarantees extra environment friendly compression than opponents like VP9 or H.264 and is royalty-free, in contrast to H.265.
However, decoding AV1 requires comparatively latest {hardware} like Nvidia’s RTX 30 sequence graphics playing cards, AMD’s Radeon 6000 GPUs, or eleventh technology or later Intel CPUs.
Apple gadgets do not assist it but, however a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip will subsequent yr. Streaming companies like YouTube, Twitch, and Netflix at the least partially assist AV1 in the intervening time and can possible increase their assist sooner or later. Firefox added AV1 {hardware} decoding in May after relying solely on software program decoding.
While {hardware} decoding to view AV1 content material is gaining broad assist, encoding to supply AV1 movies was solely attainable by means of software program till Intel Arc. EposVox’s outcomes point out content material creators could need to change to the codec as its use widens.
When streaming video games like Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042, Intel’s AV1 encoder produced considerably cleaner video than H.264 encoders like Nvidia’s NVENC, AMD’s AMF, and Intel’s QSV, even at decrease bitrates. The Intel AV1 encoder at 3.5Mbps seems to beat AMD and Nvidia’s at 6Mbps. AV1’s lead shrinks at greater bitrates, however at 6Mbps it nonetheless outperforms the opposite GPU distributors’ 8Mbps outcomes.
These assessments recommend that as extra gadgets and companies add AV1 compatibility, they may ship better-looking streams utilizing much less knowledge. AV1 {hardware} encoding might be featured in next-gen GPUs from each Nvidia and AMD, set to reach later this yr.
