4K60 FPS VP9 decoding performance

[Carfax83]

I'm using nvidias newest hot fix drivers aka 368.51

I downloaded the program you recommended and my gpu usage isn't going above 10% and the VPU is staying at 0. Any suggests or ideas as to why this would happen? The videos play just fine and checking my cpu it looks like this time around its sitting around 40% instead of the higher 70% ish that I was seeing prior, but im assuming it should be lower with the gtx 1080.

Let me know if there is another way I can test to see if the VPU (no idea what that stands for or is) is actually working on this card.

If NV Inspector shows the VPU (video processing unit) not showing activity whilst playing VP9, then it must be turned off in the drivers, and NVidia will have to enable it in a future driver update..

Why it wasn't ready for the Pascal launch is anyone's guess.. Still, I would report it as a bug over at Geforce forums if I were you, just to make sure they are aware of it. Very likely they already are though.

 

[SlowSpyder]

i5 5300U @ 2.3GHz (2C/4T mobile)
Not up to 4k playback, 972 / 2635 dropped frames before I turned it off, pretty bad framerate.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow, after re-formatting my Q9300 @ 2.85Ghz, with a R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 card, and installing the newest Radeon Crimson 16.7.2 hotfix drivers, it prompted me to set up VSR, on my desktop.

The highest resolution I can select in Windows 7 64-bit's Display Resolution control panel widget, is 2560x1440.

So I thought I would give both of these videos a watch, at 1440P. (With my internet now at 50/50.)

GREAT results. The BF1 4K60 video, at 1440P setting, used around 95% CPU usage on all four cores, but smooth, no dropped frames.

The 8K video, at 1440P, was also smooth, but that was only 24FPS I guess, so my CPU usage was around 35% total.

Pretty spiffy performance for this old box. I also wonder if the AMD recent drivers are offloading the VP9 decompression or something onto the shaders. Or does GCN 1.1 support VP9 decoding in hardware?

 

[Carfax83]

I just got my GTX 1080 Amp Extreme today!

I haven't installed it yet, but after I do I will test the VP9 decode capabilities to see if it's working..

 

[Carfax83]

OK tested VP9 decode with the 1080, and it doesn't work. However, I think this is due to Chrome not supporting hardware decode yet, rather than with the card itself.

 

[nerp]

Interesting. In Chrome, I was dropping a frame or two on my i3-6100 at 4k. CPU usage was in the 80 to 90 percent range. In edge, it's at 3 percent cpu and the video is perfect, no dropped frames.

 

[Carfax83]

Interesting. In Chrome, I was dropping a frame or two on my i3-6100 at 4k. CPU usage was in the 80 to 90 percent range. In edge, it's at 3 percent cpu and the video is perfect, no dropped frames.

That's because Edge wasn't using VP9. It was using h.264, which is GPU accelerated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's because Edge wasn't using VP9. It was using h.264, which is GPU accelerated.

What does "stats for nerds" show? Does it show VP9?

 

[Carfax83]

What does "stats for nerds" show? Does it show VP9?

Yes. In fact that's probably why your results were so good. You weren't using VP9 in your tests either most likely..

I think only Chrome and Firefox support VP9 at the moment.. Edge does as well, but only in the insider preview builds.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yes. In fact that's probably why your results were so good. You weren't using VP9 in your tests either most likely..

I think only Chrome and Firefox support VP9 at the moment.. Edge does as well, but only in the insider preview builds.

I'm not sure why you are saying that. I checked mine, and I was using Waterfox.

 

[Magic Carpet]

OK tested VP9 decode with the 1080, and it doesn't work. However, I think this is due to Chrome not supporting hardware decode yet, rather than with the card itself.

Maybe NV hasn't enabled it in the drivers yet? Neither has AMD, by the way.

Interesting. In Chrome, I was dropping a frame or two on my i3-6100 at 4k. CPU usage was in the 80 to 90 percent range. In edge, it's at 3 percent cpu and the video is perfect, no dropped frames.

Likely, Edge wasn't decoding VP9 at all. Skylake iGPU would be too "weak", for lack of a better word, for that kind of a single digit cpu usage in 4K VP9, imo. Kabylake should fix that.

 

[CakeMonster]

The video in the first post is between 32-49% cpu usage on my 4.5GHz 6700K, 1080 GTX, using Win7 and Chrome.

 

[Carfax83]

I'm not sure why you are saying that. I checked mine, and I was using Waterfox.

Did the stats for nerds show you it was using VP9? Waterfox isn't just a 64 bit version of Firefox I think. The development team is different, so whilst Firefox might support VP9, I'm not sure whether Waterfox does.

Maybe NV hasn't enabled it in the drivers yet? Neither has AMD, by the way.

That's possible but I think it more likely that none of the browsers support hardware based VP9 decoding yet.

I might try download a VP9 video somewhere, and playing it with MPC-HC or something..

 

[Carfax83]

Can finally confirm that the VPU is finally working in Pascal with the latest version of Windows 10, 1607. :thumbsup:

Windows Edge only though, and not Chrome which is very surprising. Microsoft said they were going to add VP9 functionality to Edge a while back, so it looks like they finally did it.

I find it strange however that Google themselves haven't gotten around to adding hardware acceleration to Chrome yet for VP9

 

[mnewsham]

I find it strange however that Google themselves haven't gotten around to adding hardware acceleration to Chrome yet for VP9

From reading some support threads about it on the google chrome dev pages it looks like they have support for below 1080p, but anything higher switches to HTML5 in chrome.

Pretty disappointing since it's been this way since mid 2014.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I find it strange however that Google themselves haven't gotten around to adding hardware acceleration to Chrome yet for VP9

Google isn't interested in getting the most out of your computer, apparently. They could of forced H264 content on slower computers instead, but no, they prefer to save their bandwidth. I am talking about all of those cheap laptops with Atoms and AMD "eSports" APUs which are struggling with VP9. This is how Software is killing Hardware.

Before that, we had Flash and Pentium 4's. What's next, lmao. Still, dial-up internet and the high-res JPEGs were the most fun, if you know what I mean, but not quite the same analogy, I agree

 

[ClockHound]

On my old web box, 2700k at 4.8 and a 380 with 50mb connection:

Chrome VP9:

4K:
CPU: Avg 15-20%, peaks to 30%
GPU: Avg: 25%
0 dropped frames

8K:
CPU: Avg 65-70%, peaks to 87%
GPU: Avg 45%
dropped: 411/3761

Not too bad for old Sandi B.

 

[escrow4]

Honestly VP9 is a dog (performance wise), just like HEVC (licensing wise, it ain't cheap). I fully suspect that both will be dropped for AV1 sooner rather than later. What are people's loads on this @ 1080/60p (select it manually if required from the cog):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV3HvFpYBX8

Mine:

hosting images

 

[Carfax83]

What are people's loads on this @ 1080/60p (select it manually if required from the cog)

With Chrome I'm getting 6 to 7%, and with Edge, I'm getting 1 to 2%..

I hope that AV1 codec is compatible with the VPU in the Pascal GPUs.. The AV1 codec might be why Google hasn't worked on implementing hardware acceleration in Chrome for VP9.

If VP9 is getting ready to be replaced, then why bother?

 

[Magic Carpet]

With a 5820k @ 4.4GHz I am idling around 170w power draw, while playing 4k youtube in chrome (CPU only) I was pulling between 215w and 255w. With 10-50% utilization per core.

When using the M$ Edge browser and my GTX 960 for hardware decoding I am pulling 190-210w with 0-20% utilization per core on the 5820k and 25-55% utilization on the GPU video engine.

So it appears to save a decent bit of power, a good 30w+ on average.

My computer pulled about 70-80w while playing it. Skipped frames were due to me doing other things. Pretty good, all things considered. CPU usage was around 80% (1150 i7 @ 3.1). Oh yeah, that was with Chrome. Edge isn't supported on my system yet.

This should perform well on ancient Thuban/FX CPUs w/ Pascal GPUs even without proper VP9 HW decode. Dunno, if I make the time to check it myself. Larry, what's your performance in Chrome w/ your i3 and Radeon GPU usage?

 

[mnewsham]

The AV1 codec might be why Google hasn't worked on implementing hardware acceleration in Chrome for VP9.

Google has already said they plan to move ALL UHD content to AV1 format within 6 months of a finalized spec (expected in march 2017) so they have some pretty high expectations.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Edge seems to work as expected. Power usage was about ~50w. A bit less, but CPU usage went down to like 5%. Nice.

I hope that AV1 codec is compatible with the VPU in the Pascal GPUs

Polaris is compatible with AV1 (have seen a slide), Pascal likely as well, but I'm not 100% sure. Remember, there is always 1050 or smth, to boost sales further, lol.

 

[nvgpu]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1776541#post1776541

Pascal GPUs support 8K VP9 Profile0 hardware decoding also as verified by DXVA Checker in addition to 8K HEVC Main10 hardware decoding. Pascal GPUs has the most advanced hardware decoder in the world on discrete GPUs.

 

[MangoX]

My 2500K@4.5ghz is unable to play it at 4K@60 smoothly in Chrome. In Firefox, the video gives an error. Haven't tried in Edge.

Lots. And I mean lots of dropped frames. Something like 1500/4000 dropped frames.

Wow, I am utterly shocked. Looks like I need a new platform upgrade. Btw my GTX1070 was sitting around 13% gpu usage. Doesn't Pascal have hardware VP9 decoding?

 

[mnewsham]

My 2500K@4.5ghz is unable to play it at 4K@60 smoothly in Chrome. In Firefox, the video gives an error. Haven't tried in Edge.

Lots. And I mean lots of dropped frames. Something like 1500/4000 dropped frames.

Wow, I am utterly shocked. Looks like I need a new platform upgrade. Btw my GTX1070 was sitting around 13% gpu usage. Doesn't Pascal have hardware VP9 decoding?

VP9 acceleration only works on 1080p or lower, if it goes to 4k it will switch over to H.264 which depending on your browser your GTX 1070 would be fine at playing by itself but im not surprised your CPU had issues.

In the edge browser your GPU should do just fine. For me firefox works as well but you said you were getting an error so not sure what that's about.