Decoder performance (single vs dual channel)

Discussion in 'GLK-UC2X' started by Ken, Jan 22, 2019.

  1. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    Dual channel configuration gives more headroom during HW decoding, resulting in less CPU & GPU loading %.
     

    Attached Files:

    Paul likes this.
  2. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    2nd tip, if dual channel is still not powerful enough, then go to BIOS and enabled the TDP unlocker to 12W, save and exit.

    Setting this to 12W will allow both CPU & GPU to run at their maximum clocks when needed.
    (Default is 10W)

    This is a unique feature offered by Pepper Jobs.
     

    Attached Files:

    Paul likes this.
  3. dlee

    dlee New Member

    Yeah it appears that video playback in a web browser is very demanding of memory bandwidth. I was seeing occasional dropped frames with 1080p60 VP9 on Youtube in Firefox until adding a second 4GB SODIMM and thus having dual channel.

    Looking at task manager shows hardware video decoding is happening, but the 3D GPU is also being heavily utilized. I guess to render the actual video image to the browser window.
     
  4. Ken

    Ken Administrator Staff Member

    have you tried with Edge browser with the HEVC decoder app installed?
    https://www.pepper-forum.com/index.php?threads/hevc-video-extensions-app-for-windows-10.7/
     
  5. dlee

    dlee New Member

    Hey Ken,

    Edge is more efficient but it too was having some problems with Youtube with only single channel RAM when playing video at 1440p or higher.

    With the dual channel RAM, Youtube is smooth at 4K in Edge. Firefox drops some frames at 4K but it is much better than with single channel RAM.

    Youtube doesn't use HEVC. It uses AVC or VP9. Hardware video decode is being used for Youtube according to task manager's performance tab.
     
    Ken likes this.
  6. dlee

    dlee New Member

    As an experiment I connected the Pepper box to my Samsung 4K HDR TV. I was only able to get above 1080p60 with "UHD color" disabled in the TV settings. This means 4K60 YUV 420, which I think is actually HDMI 1.4. Should the Pepper box be able to output 4K60 RGB or YUV 444? Picture quality looked fine even with YUV 420 color though.

    Firefox can't play any Youtube smoothly with the display at 4K. Even if the Youtube video is set to 1080p. In general FIrefox is quite laggy at this resolution on the Pepper box.

    Edge browser however seems to play 4K Youtube just fine. With dual channel RAM installed at least.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2019