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>I see the benefit when you run on a battery (laptop / smartphone) but on a desktop or server, unless you critically need the CPU at that time, I am not sure ho

>I see the benefit when you run on a battery (laptop / smartphone) but on a desktop or server, unless you critically need the CPU at that time, I am not sure how useful it is. Yes it is. Very useful. The vast majority of people use laptops now, not desktop computers with 120mm tower coolers anymore, and if you want to switch to Linux then not having video decode nuke your battery life and turn your tiny fans into a Pratt & Whitney, then this is another welcome change to closing the gap to Windows. People, especially on the Linux side, need to stop viewing the world as if everyone still has desktop towers PCs tucked under their desks while disregarding the software issues and deficiencies that only plague laptops, which are the majority of the marketshare and have vastly different constrains than desktops.

Dalewyn 3y ago
Software video decoding isn't some monstrous workload, though. We're not in the era of Pentium 4 and h.264 decoding drowning every CPU out there to a screeching halt anymore, the CPUs of today hardly acknowledge the load even in the low-end tiers. The benefits of hardware decoding are lower power consumption (read: electricity bills) and offloading the work to dedicated co-processors freeing up resources on the CPU proper, which are indeed far less relevant on desktops and even laptops which can just pack big batteries. The biggest beneficiaries are by far mobile devices and really low power hardware. Computers which either cannot practically carry more batteries or which use hardware that simply aren't performant for more important reasons. Desktops and laptops meanwhile are better geared to benefit from the perks of software decoding: Better quality and versatility, and fine-tuning of filters and rendering paths.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  With all due respect, I think you must be out of touch if you don't acknowledge the negative effects of lacking HW decode on video playback and content consumption on regular notebooks. People do notice this even if they don't know where the fault comes from. Even on a modern Ryzen laptop APU, if I run H265 or AV1 4k decode in software the CPU usage is vastly noticeable. On my older Intel i5 6300HQ they're pegging it at 100% .
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    I watch software decoded video all the time because I like watching anime. I have never, ever had any problems for quite literally over a decade thanks to how powerful CPUs have gotten. Way back 20 years ago, you would have had a point. But today? CPUs are several orders of magnitudes of overpowered for the task.
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      >. I have never, ever had any problems for quite literally over a decade thanks to how powerful CPUs have gotten. I wasn't talking about having problems decoding, I was talking about software decode screwing your battery life due to high CPU usage on certain streams. Which is a problem, but not something most people who don't have laptops care about. Do you watch your anime on a desktop or a laptop on battery?
      - Dalewyn 3y ago
        I watch on battery if I'm out traveling. The very slight increase in CPU processing and thus power use doesn't bother me at all. The screen takes more power than the CPU. I habitually have Task Manager minimized in the tray area because I like monitoring my CPU usage at a glance, and decoding video in software simply does not even register as a noticable blip anymore.
        iforgotpassword 3y ago
        So yes for 720p low bitrate stuff it's not so much of a difference, but as others said watch some real content in 1080p or better 4k and your CPU will definitely break a sweat and the fans spin up. Now that I think of it with your claim of it not even registering as a blip in taskmanager I'd actually argue you're probably using hardware decoding without noticing, because I wouldn't know which player (esp if on Windows) wouldn't make use of it.
        steve_rambo 3y ago
- jug 3y ago
  Haha, a normal 1440p / 4K YouTube video is a pretty monstrous workload for my Intel Core i5-8259U CPU at least! I get by completely thanks to the Intel Iris Plus 655 HW decoder. Otherwise my Intel NUC would indeed be a screeching, hot mess, and then I'm only talking of H.264 and H.265.
- kaliqt 3y ago
  You have to consider hardware limitations, you want maximum battery (thus minimize power burn, by reducing CPU and GPU load), and that can only be achieved by optimizing for the highest possible speed. Battery life is everything, no one cares about electricity bills on a laptop or phone, but they do care if the phone or laptop dies sooner than it has to.
jorvi 3y ago
> People, especially on the Linux side, need to stop viewing the world as if everyone still has desktop towers PCs tucked under their desks while disregarding the software issues and deficiencies that only plague laptops, which are the majority of the marketshare and have vastly different constrains than desktops. Linux (especially the kernel) isn’t even tuned for towers. It’s tuned for servers. The defaults make horrible optimizations all in the name of throughput > latency.

Dalewyn 3y ago

Software video decoding isn't some monstrous workload, though. We're not in the era of Pentium 4 and h.264 decoding drowning every CPU out there to a screeching halt anymore, the CPUs of today hardly acknowledge the load even in the low-end tiers. The benefits of hardware decoding are lower power consumption (read: electricity bills) and offloading the work to dedicated co-processors freeing up resources on the CPU proper, which are indeed far less relevant on desktops and even laptops which can just pack big batteries. The biggest beneficiaries are by far mobile devices and really low power hardware. Computers which either cannot practically carry more batteries or which use hardware that simply aren't performant for more important reasons. Desktops and laptops meanwhile are better geared to benefit from the perks of software decoding: Better quality and versatility, and fine-tuning of filters and rendering paths.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
With all due respect, I think you must be out of touch if you don't acknowledge the negative effects of lacking HW decode on video playback and content consumption on regular notebooks. People do notice this even if they don't know where the fault comes from. Even on a modern Ryzen laptop APU, if I run H265 or AV1 4k decode in software the CPU usage is vastly noticeable. On my older Intel i5 6300HQ they're pegging it at 100% .
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  I watch software decoded video all the time because I like watching anime. I have never, ever had any problems for quite literally over a decade thanks to how powerful CPUs have gotten. Way back 20 years ago, you would have had a point. But today? CPUs are several orders of magnitudes of overpowered for the task.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >. I have never, ever had any problems for quite literally over a decade thanks to how powerful CPUs have gotten. I wasn't talking about having problems decoding, I was talking about software decode screwing your battery life due to high CPU usage on certain streams. Which is a problem, but not something most people who don't have laptops care about. Do you watch your anime on a desktop or a laptop on battery?
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      I watch on battery if I'm out traveling. The very slight increase in CPU processing and thus power use doesn't bother me at all. The screen takes more power than the CPU. I habitually have Task Manager minimized in the tray area because I like monitoring my CPU usage at a glance, and decoding video in software simply does not even register as a noticable blip anymore.
      - iforgotpassword 3y ago
        So yes for 720p low bitrate stuff it's not so much of a difference, but as others said watch some real content in 1080p or better 4k and your CPU will definitely break a sweat and the fans spin up. Now that I think of it with your claim of it not even registering as a blip in taskmanager I'd actually argue you're probably using hardware decoding without noticing, because I wouldn't know which player (esp if on Windows) wouldn't make use of it.
        steve_rambo 3y ago
jug 3y ago
Haha, a normal 1440p / 4K YouTube video is a pretty monstrous workload for my Intel Core i5-8259U CPU at least! I get by completely thanks to the Intel Iris Plus 655 HW decoder. Otherwise my Intel NUC would indeed be a screeching, hot mess, and then I'm only talking of H.264 and H.265.
kaliqt 3y ago
You have to consider hardware limitations, you want maximum battery (thus minimize power burn, by reducing CPU and GPU load), and that can only be achieved by optimizing for the highest possible speed. Battery life is everything, no one cares about electricity bills on a laptop or phone, but they do care if the phone or laptop dies sooner than it has to.

jorvi 3y ago

> People, especially on the Linux side, need to stop viewing the world as if everyone still has desktop towers PCs tucked under their desks while disregarding the software issues and deficiencies that only plague laptops, which are the majority of the marketshare and have vastly different constrains than desktops. Linux (especially the kernel) isn’t even tuned for towers. It’s tuned for servers. The defaults make horrible optimizations all in the name of throughput > latency.