Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6

Xvid Encoding:

We tested video encoding performance using VirtualDub-MPEG version 1.6.15 and a multithreaded version of the Xvid codec, along with the LAME MT MP3 encoder for encoding audio. We did a two-pass encode of a 15-minute 276MB digital TV recording with a target file size of 100MB.

With the exception of DFI's Infinity 975X/G, the GA-965P-DQ6 is fractionally faster than the rest and is a whole five seconds faster than the Asus P5B Deluxe.

MP3 Encoding:

We used LAME MT for our audio encoding test - it's the multithreaded version of the popular LAME MP3 encoder. We ran tests with both Intel's and Microsoft's compilers - naturally, the Intel compiler resulted in some performance increases on Intel's processors. We converted all 18 tracks from Moby's popular Play album to a 192kbps variable bit-rate MP3.

Over the two tests, Gigabyte's GA-965P-DQ6 is a bit faster than the other boards we've compared it to.

Decoding suffers slightly and the DQ6 loses out by a couple of seconds against the fastest boards tested here. Using the Microsoft compiler, Gigabyte's P965 board performed the same as the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe WiFi Edition with an FX-62 installed.