Minimum CPU for 720/1080p Flash?

[Eureka]

I was playing around with my old EEEPC 900 with a N270 Atom, and I realized it can't do 720p flash video (watching hulu or youtube is nearly impossible). What is the minimum I'd need to look for in a laptop (or desktop) to watch 720p flash? IIRC, I remember a dual core AMD E-350 couldn't do it either.

 

[Idontcare]

Assuming Adobe actually tested hardware before making their spec'ed minimum hardware, here are their min requirements depending on resolution.

For 720p, Adobe says:

Intel Pentium 4 3GHz processor (or equivalent)
128MB of RAM
64MB of VRAM

So make sure single-threaded performance is comparable to 3GHz P4?

 

[jpiniero]

Well I imagine it would work if you had some sort of GPU acceleration.

 

[SPBHM]

without GPU acceleration, from what I remember my single core s754 K8 at around 1.8-2GHz could run 720P youtube without any problem (but with very high CPU usage, some 200MHz less could be problematic), but I tested maybe 3 or 4 years ago,

 

[Vectronic]

So make sure single-threaded performance is comparable to 3GHz P4?

That's pretty much what I came up with too, my Pentium D 915 (2.8GHz) could play 720p, but would never play 1080p.

Pretty much anything above 700 on this chart.

Which, I think is basically any CPU made in the last 3 years...lol

 

[SPBHM]

my k8 X2 at 2.1GHz plays 1080p youtube fine without GPU acceleration, but CPU usage is over 80%.

edit: perhaps my post was overly optimistic,
the trouble with youtube testing is, web browser, flash version and video driver have a significant impact

anyway, with the X2 at 2.1GHz using win 8 with IE,Big Buck Bunny was easily over 90% with 1080p, dropping some frames (but it was almost OK), 720p was way easier, with CPU usage a little over 70%

video was a 6100 IGP.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I was playing around with my old EEEPC 900 with a N270 Atom, and I realized it can't do 720p flash video (watching hulu or youtube is nearly impossible). What is the minimum I'd need to look for in a laptop (or desktop) to watch 720p flash? IIRC, I remember a dual core AMD E-350 couldn't do it either.

E-350 should have ZERO problems running Youtube 1080p, like every other CPU with an integrated GPU onchip. It only struggles in players that doesn't support HW acceleration. (is it Hulu? Not sure myself)

 

[nismotigerwvu]

The E-350 and low power CPUs will struggle with Netflix as Silverlight and DXVA don't play nice (at least the version they were/might still be using as I haven't looked into it in awhile)

 

[Eureka]

Well, this is quite unfortunate. Just using Passmark, the N270 is quite a bit below a P4 3.0 Ghz and well below the "700" mark given above.

Now, I assumed the E-350 would do it, but this was a few years back when I bought a E-350 laptop from Best Buy and found that it struggled with 1080p youtube. This may not have been the APU version.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Well, this is quite unfortunate. Just using Passmark, the N270 is quite a bit below a P4 3.0 Ghz and well below the "700" mark given above.

Now, I assumed the E-350 would do it, but this was a few years back when I bought a E-350 laptop from Best Buy and found that it struggled with 1080p youtube. This may not have been the APU version.

All Bobcats are APU's (E-350 included). Perhaps HW acceleration wasn't enabled or it was running an outdated version of flash.

 

[Piroko]

I've noticed as well that the E-350 can have problems playing back hd stuff, probably boils down to specific HW acceleration implementations. The E2-1800 together with more mature drivers might have already solved that one though. Pretty much any Llano, Trinity or dualcore Sandybridge should be enough as well.

The E-350 will still behave better than any Smartphone I've come across (*mumbling*).

 

[zCypher]

I sold my E350 netbook because the performance was just too low for me to get used to. It couldn't play Netflix HD, though I don't recall it having any problems with YouTube or any type of playback that could use hardware acceleration. I guess it's not that surprising, it was a 1.6GHz chip after all and its whole reason for existence is being an APU, not being a powerful CPU. Still, it was kinda disappointing.

 

[2is]

The E-350 and low power CPUs will struggle with Netflix as Silverlight and DXVA don't play nice (at least the version they were/might still be using as I haven't looked into it in awhile)

Unless you're using the netflix app in Windows 8 which is GPU accelerated.

 

[el aye]

My E5300 and GF9300 (integrated video) won't play any HD streams full screen without stuttering. The video card doesn't support flash hardware acceleration.

I feel like there is something wrong with the system, because pretty much anytime I click fullscreen the playback goes to crap. I've even reinstalled recently to Windows 8.

 

[Torn Mind]

My 3.2 GHz Prescott can't handle higher quality content without choking, not even 480p sometimes. Seems like I need a video card.

I also have a Dothan Pentium M at 1.86 GHz, with a X600 Radeon. It has trouble with 720p.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Just as a small note, I think flash video uses around 5 times more processing power than running the same video in say WMP. I dont know what the demand with HTML5 will be.

 

[DominionSeraph]

my k8 X2 at 2.1GHz plays 1080p youtube fine without GPU acceleration, but CPU usage is over 80%.

Yup, my X2 5200+ (2.6GHz) was around 80% as well.

 

[sm625]

without GPU acceleration, from what I remember my single core s754 K8 at around 1.8-2GHz could run 720P youtube without any problem (but with very high CPU usage, some 200MHz less could be problematic), but I tested maybe 3 or 4 years ago,

A couple months ago I tested my 2.0 GHz socket 754 AMD system. It has a Nvidia FX5700LE AGP card. Youtube performance is not acceptable. It used to work fine for years, up until around 2010 something in both flash and netflix changed. (the bloat conspiracy ®)

 

[sm625]

My E5300 and GF9300 (integrated video) won't play any HD streams full screen without stuttering. The video card doesn't support flash hardware acceleration.

I feel like there is something wrong with the system, because pretty much anytime I click fullscreen the playback goes to crap. I've even reinstalled recently to Windows 8.

Now this is surprising. I would seriously expect those specs to work fine. You are talking about Nvidia 9300 right?

http://techreport.com/review/15690/nvidia-geforce-9300-chipset

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-nforce-730i,2044.html

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Chipse...set-Review-IGP-Intel/Video-Decode-Performance

That IGP supposedly can play crysis. Do you have dual channel memory enabled and functioning properly? Can you overclock the gpu?

 

[ShintaiDK]

A couple months ago I tested my 2.0 GHz socket 754 AMD system. It has a Nvidia FX5700LE AGP card. Youtube performance is not acceptable. It used to work fine for years, up until around 2010 something in both flash and netflix changed. (the bloat conspiracy ®)

Wasnt 2010 the time flash for hardware 3D?

Our SmartTV also already got its Youtube app updated a gazillion times to even be somewhat able to play Youtube after the constant changes, and thats just 2012.

 

[vladicaris]

it depend on graphics card also,but cpu for that quality of video should be dual-core 1.8

 

[tweakboy]

i5 3570 is a good choice for you.

 

[pantsaregood]

My mom's Athlon 64 X2 5000+ at 3.0 GHz runs YouTube at 1080p without an issue.

My aunt is on a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 Prescott, and it has a much harder time with 1080p Flash. It doesn't seem to have a huge issue with HTML5, though.

 

[cytg111]

Assuming Adobe actually tested hardware before making their spec'ed minimum hardware, here are their min requirements depending on resolution.

For 720p, Adobe says:



So make sure single-threaded performance is comparable to 3GHz P4?

That is just so wrong on multiple levels .. flash needs to die.

 

[Insomniator]

An E5300 should handle 1080 absolutely fine.