DivX 6.8 Encoding

Website: Divx.com

We tested video encoding performance using VirtualDub-MPEG version 1.6.15 and DivX 6.8 with multi-threading enabled and SSE2 or SSE4 enabled where appropriate. We did a two-pass encode of a 15-minute 276MB MPEG-2 digital TV recording with a target file size of 100MB.

While this benchmark does use SSE4, which is currently unique to Intel's 45nm processors, the latest DivX 6.8 has enhanced multi-threading support and also uses SSE2 enhancements, which applies to all of the processors tested.

Although Intel has admitted to bit-tech that it throws out some "best case scenario" numbers to the press, we took our usual MPEG-2 digital TV recording that we use for our XviD tests and DivXed it instead using the same VirtualDub we always do.



The DivX 6.8 performance is very good, although the Intel quad cores still out perform even the Phenom X4 9850 even in its fastest mode. Interestingly, the Phenom 9500 outperforms the 9550 by a few seconds, and the 9850 in the yellow turbo mode is almost half a minute behind the red mode – we checked this result again and again to be sure, and it was consistent.

The balance between core quantity and core speed is favoured with DivX 6.8 and the new Phenoms also don't have the SSE4 enhancements like the 45nm Penryn CPUs offer.

AutoMKV x264 Encoding

Website: Doom9

We tested x264 compression using AutoMKV version 0.90 and x264 to compress a 1.1GB DVD VOB file into 350MB MP4 file using a two-pass encode and we used a 112kbps LAME encoder to compress the audio. The whole process is dependent on both single and multi-core performance and the entire encoding time was recorded.

There's quite a shift to using MKV or MP4 wrappers for x264 content now, especially for movie content and those in the large anime fansubbing community. x264 doesn't have the same SSE enhancements as DivX 6.8, but the benefits of extra cache and better memory performance should still show notable improvements.


x264 encoding sees the same sort of trend as the WinRAR file compression – the 2.4GHz Q6600 sits between the 2.4GHz 9750 and 2.5GHz 9850, yet is closer to the 9850: clock for clock Intel still has the edge here when DDR2 is used on both systems. The quad core on the Phenoms make it score highly here because of the highly threaded parts to this test (not all are), extending a quite considerable lead over even the fastest dual core processor. If you're heavily into your video encoding – quad core is certainly the way to go.

The yellow turbo mode is just three seconds slower than the red turbo mode on the 9850: an inconsequential amount in a 22 minute test!