AMD C50 - Can it play 1080p or not?

[Fjodor2001]

Hi,

I just wonder if the AMD C50 is supposed to be able to play 1080p movies flawlessly? That includes all 1080p movie source/container formats, e.g. avi, mkv, flash, and blu-ray (and codec formats e.g. H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ...).

From earlier info I've read it should be capable of that. However, after reading some reviews it seems like it's only able to handle some 1080p movie sources.

Check out for example this review of the AMD C50 based ASUS 1015B:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn_M6wJErU8

See e.g. @ 5m00s and onwards where a couple of different 1080p video formats are tested.

Does anybody know what to expect of the AMD C50? Does one have to get an AMD E350 to be certain that it will play all 1080p formats flawlessly?

 

[aigomorla]

thats because the software and how it does decoding greatly effects the performance on a machine thats cpu limited like that.

Formats which the gpu can do hardware decoding, it will play flawlessly.

However .mkv's i believe are very cpu heavy, so it will fail hardcore on a file format like that.

For 1080p H.264, minimum, unless u have hardware decode on your gpu, is a AMD X2 class @ 2.0ghz..

atoms even without hwdecode cant play all 1080p's source files flawlessly...

 

[Fjodor2001]

Ok, so then the question arises: What container and codec formats can the AMD C50 do hardware decoding for?

 

[nismotigerwvu]

thats because the software and how it does decoding greatly effects the performance on a machine thats cpu limited like that.

Formats which the gpu can do hardware decoding, it will play flawlessly.

However .mkv's i believe are very cpu heavy, so it will fail hardcore on a file format like that.

For 1080p H.264, minimum, unless u have hardware decode on your gpu, is a AMD X2 class @ 2.0ghz..

atoms even without hwdecode cant play all 1080p's source files flawlessly...

I don't have the hardware to test specifically, but I see no reason why any DXVA compliant stream in an MKV wrapper would have any significant CPU utilization in something like MPC-HC. Such a file runs 2% utilization on my 955BE with the clocks never getting kicked up from their lowest state (800mhz). So yeah, single digit loads on 1 phenom II core @ 800mHz, not a direct comparison but a useful note. Now, step outside these fully gpu accelerated conditions and into the world of flash and/or non-compliant streams and you'll have a much different tale.

 

[Cerb]

However .mkv's i believe are very cpu heavy, so it will fail hardcore on a file format like that.

No, it won't. Only hacked-together containers like OGM even might have any problems.

Ok, so then the question arises: What container and codec formats can the AMD C50 do hardware decoding for?

Containers? None. Why have hardware container support? An embedded DVR box, with a slow ARM CPU, might benefit from hardware MPEG-TS and MPEG-PS support, but no usable PC will need any such thing.

Formats: MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1, and DivX/Xvid. I'm pretty sure one or two WMV formats, but I can't confirm that.

If in doubt, don't settle for less than a E350.

 

[nanaki333]

i have the dual core version of it and it never hits 25% total usage during 1080p.

 

[frostedflakes]

The UVD3 engine in these chips should be able to easily handle about any 1080p content you can throw at it. Usually if there are problems with playback it's software related. Looks like that guy posted another video and the problem was that DXVA wasn't enabled for the clip he was having trouble with. If DXVA isn't being used, there's no way the CPU alone is going to be able to handle the decoding and playback performance will be very poor.

 

[velis]

If I understand things correctly, it will have major issues with interlaced content.
Otherwise everything supported in hardware will play back with minimal CPU usage.
As explained, containers are a non-issue here, only video codecs / bitrate / profile matter.

The above is the only reason I'm waiting for llano for my HTPC even though this would be a much better proc <-- much lower power usage.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Well be advised that playback requirements for XBMC (ex. Boxee) based HTPC frontends are much higher than for something like MPC-HC. They default to a single threaded FFMPEG player and I'm not certain all DXVA issues have been ironed out yet. You can, however, configure them to use MPC-HC as an external player, just don't expect much help in their forums for setting this up.

 

[Bill Brasky]

No, it won't. Only hacked-together containers like OGM even might have any problems.

Containers? None. Why have hardware container support? An embedded DVR box, with a slow ARM CPU, might benefit from hardware MPEG-TS and MPEG-PS support, but no usable PC will need any such thing.

Formats: MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1, and DivX/Xvid. I'm pretty sure one or two WMV formats, but I can't confirm that.

If in doubt, don't settle for less than a E350.

So in your opinion, the E350 like in the HP dm1z, should be able to handle 1080p content that isn't supported with hardware acceleration?

 

[Dark Shroud]

Basically with Win7 & Vista use either Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic HD (CCCP) to get proper DXVA playback support.

 

[Cerb]

So in your opinion, the E350 like in the HP dm1z, should be able to handle 1080p content that isn't supported with hardware acceleration?

No. I mean maybe, with CoreAVC or something. There's always a chance. But, more that it would have less of a chance of choking on non-accelerated video.

 

[Bill Brasky]

No. I mean maybe, with CoreAVC or something. There's always a chance. But, more that it would have less of a chance of choking on non-accelerated video.

Thanks for the input! I appreciate it.

 

[Wolfpup]

Prior to installing AMD's newest drivers (c-50), I was seeing really bad interlacing and as much as 80%+ on a single core for DVD playback.

Haven't yet seen if it's changed with the update though.

 

[sm625]

i have the dual core version of it and it never hits 25% total usage during 1080p.

A C-50 is the dual core version of it.

 

[Topweasel]

A C-50 is the dual core version of it.

That's the 1GHz DC right? Whereas the E-350 is the 1.6GHz DC?

 

[nonameo]

A friend of mine purchaced one of those C-50 aspire ones from target. He had trouble getting 1080 to work at first, but he did something or another and he at least says it's working now. I have yet to observe it myself.

That said, awesome deal for a 11.6 c-50 powered laptop

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I'm using an older AMD Athlon Neo X2, just use Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC) or a similar program - it uses the graphics for hardware acceleration. I can play back 1080p with single digit CPU load on one core. Tested with .mkv, .mov. YouTube is a different story, CPU usage spikes way up on both cores. The C-50 should be faster than my old chip.

 

[sangyup81]

so long story short, only if the GPU portion of the C-50 is allowed to help

 

[Zorander]

so long story short, only if the GPU portion of the C-50 is allowed to help

Yes. Mine hovers around 25% CPU usage when playing 1080 content with DXVA engaged.

I also tested briefly with playback of files compressed with older codec (e.g. XviD) and surprisingly CPU usage hovers at about the same level even without DXVA. It was a 640x480 material but I remember my old 1.8GHz P4 having trouble playing it so this still came as a surprise.

 

[aj654987]

I'm using an older AMD Athlon Neo X2, just use Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC) or a similar program - it uses the graphics for hardware acceleration. I can play back 1080p with single digit CPU load on one core. Tested with .mkv, .mov. YouTube is a different story, CPU usage spikes way up on both cores. The C-50 should be faster than my old chip.

On the CPU side the neo will be faster. I had the lenovo x100e and then the x120e with the x100e having a Mobility Radeon HD 3200 and AMD Turion Neo X2 L325 processo and the x120e having the Amd E350.

The older neo had a faster CPU but slower graphics than the E350 but they were in the same ball park and the E350 had better battery life and less heat. Both ran at 1.6ghz

The C50 will certainly be slower than the Turion as its only 1ghz.

Windows Experience scores I had were:

Neo x2
CPU 4.2
graphics 3.2
gaming graphics 4.6

E350
CPU 3.8
graphics 4.1
gaming graphics 5.6


The C50 would have way better battery life though than the old Turion probably more than double. The neo x2 I was getting maybe 3-4 hours with some undervolting tricks. The E350 is supposed to be 5-6 hours and reviews of a C50 11" netbook were placing it around 6-8 hours. For anything plugged in I would rather get an E350 but if battery life is more important that performance then the C50.

 

[aj654987]

For the c50, someone got

CPU 2.8
graphics 4.1
gaming 5.6

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1111505/?query=experience+index

 

[RobertPters77]

I believe that all radeon 5k and 6k series dedicated and integrated have the uvd decoder for 1080p playback.

 

[ctmk]

Well, anyone can test the DXVA capability and peformance for AMD C50 using DXVA Checker?

Tools to use:
DXVA Checker (use 32bit version for Benchmark) - http://bluesky23.yu-nagi.com/en/#DXVAChecker
CCCP Codec - http://www.cccp-project.net/

Sample Benchmark:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4380/discrete-htpc-gpus-shootout/10

I have a E-350 running windows7
I did a rough benchmark using latest CCCP codec pack and DXVA Checker 32-bit.

Video: AVC-1 1080P (EVR)
In FFDShow DXVA mode i get like average of 40fps decoding (<10% CPU usage and avg 45% GPU usage)
In FFDShow Software rendering (libavcodec) i can get 30fps (avg 95% CPU usage and <10% GPU usage)

Note: i was able to playback 1080p 24fps video smoothly with audio and simple SSA/ASS subtitle using software rendering using windows 7 with latest CCCP without using DXVA but CPU usage was avg 80%. (<20% CPU with DXVA BTW)

Another Note: Windows Aero Must be turned off to achieve optimum performance.

not yet tested with a h264 clip tho but i expect will be 20% slower. (means less likely to have smooth playback without DXVA enabled.)

So anyone got c50 to do the benchmark?

 

[Zorander]

I've got one here but can you tell me how to 'benchmark' with the DXVA checker? All I can see are device and capabilities listing. And the C-50 definitely must have DXVA active to smoothly play 1080p materials.

Edit: Ok, I figured out how to do the benchmark. The checker, however, defaults to "AMD Fast DnD" as decoder and it crashes every time. How do I make the checker to use a different decoder?