[Cin] Prepping HW upgrade options for AV1 de-/encoding

[Terje J. Hanssen]

Den 03.12.2023 22:29, skrev Terje J. Hanssen:
> Already touched this topic barely in another thread
> https://lists.cinelerra-gg.org/pipermail/cin/2023-December/007346.html
>
> But so many SW and HW pieces are mentioned around, it is almost a 
> full-time reading and study:
> VAAPI, MESA, VULKAN, Intel Quick Sync Video etc......
>
> I realize my aging hardware which is fast enough for other tasks, 
> needs some "AV1 upgrade", if possible.
>
> But first I wonder, what is expected possible to do (obtain) with AV1 
> de-/encoding on my existing 64bit hardware:
>
>     1) laptop 2018: Dell XPS 13-9370: quad core i7-8550U CPU (8. gen
>     Kabylake) and Intel UHD Graphics
>
>     2) WS infinity:  MSI Z170A mobo:  quad core i7-6700K CPU (6. gen
>     Skylake), NVIDIA GeForce GT-730 graphics
>
>
> A budget friendly first "AV1 HW upgrade" of the workstation 2) if 
> possible, would be to add a new GPU as Intel Arc A380.
> But the question is if this will work at all on that much older (2015) 
> Skylake platform with i7-6700K CPU?
> I've seen CPU bottlenecks has been mentioned and that Arc A380 is 
> targeted at newer generations CPU ...

Extracted from the first wikipedia reference below about Intel Alchemist 
GPUs:

  * Featuring 8 Xe-cores, the*A380 supports PCI Express 4.0* and has a
    total board power (TBP) of 75W. The graphics card is equipped with
    6GB GDDR6 memory and a graphics memory interface of 96 bits,
    providing a memory bandwidth of 186GB/s.
  * Bus interface A380:         PCIe 4.0 x8 and for >=A580: PCIe 4.0 x16

That is, the keyword here seems to be PCIe 4.0 bus speed as a 
requirement to utilize the Arc A380 GPU for HWA AV1 encoding (maybe also 
for other GPUs?)
My existing Skylake WS 2) above has PCie 3.0 only.

PCIe 4.0
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
https://www.techreviewer.com/learn-about-tech/what-is-pcie-40/

Motherboards Support PCIe 4.0
https://www.makeuseof.com/best-budget-pcie-4-motherboards/
https://www.techreviewer.com/tech-answers/which-motherboards-support-pcie-40/

Maybe also information of interest for WS building will be clarified 
within a week, when Intel release their new "Meteor Lake, Core Ultra 
mobile processors(?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Lake

>
> References:
> AV1 Encoding on a Budget: The Intel Arc A380 Approach
> https://medium.com/@contact_45426/av1-encoding-on-a-budget-the-intel-arc-a380-approach-d72367f2f349
> https://history-computer.com/intel-arc-a380-full-review-of-intels-entry-level-gpu/
>
> AV1 fixed-function hardware encoder is included in Alchemist GPUs as 
> part of the Intel Quick Sync Video core.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Arc#Alchemist
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#Hardware
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video#Hardware_decoding_and_encoding
>
>

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