Intel quietly enables Quicksync on Select Celeron and Pentium processors, bigger than you think.

[Procrastinating]

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23639/eng/ReleaseNotes_GFX_3412_64.pdf
Recently, and without any fanfare, Intel enabled quicksync video for select Celeron and Pentium processors.
 
Supported processors include:

Intel® Celeron® Processor™|| Intel® Pentium® Processor™2957U                     || 3558U 2961Y }Mobile             || 3561Y } Intel® "Ultrabook™ "                          ||2981U                     || G3220G1820                     || G3220T G1820T  }Desktop          || G3320TE }DesktopG1820TE                   || G3420G1830                     || G3420T                          || G3430With"Intel® HD Graphics™ "|| With "Intel® HD Graphics™ "

With a quick search on wikipedia, this would appear to consist of some, but not all of intel's Desktop and Mobile Haswell line of Pentium and Celeron CPUs.
 
Quick Sync takes advantage of a combination of custom ASIC and GPU components of all intel Core i5 and higher processors, and select i3 and below processors. Quicksync allows for Decoding and Encoding of h264 video as well as a variety of other formats. Haswell Quicksync has reported to be of better quality compared to X264 "Very Fast" Presets, and includes other, slower presets which rival x264 "Medium" quality, and can be encoded with little to no direct CPU performance impact.
 
^{(for those wondering, shadowplay is not even comparable http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=28254, it adds so many artifacts it might as well be x264 "ultrafast". Plus, we are talking in the context of cheap media setups)}
 
This is bigger than you might think:
 
^{<Vague intel marketing, on intel website, but pictures look nice, so I wanted to include a picture.}
Firstly, Quicksync allows for multiple HD streams of video playback, which is excellent for barebones HTPC devices.
Secondly, and more interestingly, Quicksync allows for very inexpensive Video recording and Streaming hardware. A twitch streamers entire streaming setup could consist of the lowest end Haswell Celeron.
 
For example, the Celeron G1820 costs $49.99 on most online retailers ie Newegg. Lets say someone is into speedrunning, but doesn't have the nessecary equipment to start streaming.
For decent video quality, they would have at least required either a powerful i5 to spare the CPU for other tasks, or an i3 with HD Graphics 2500. These cost at least $120.
The streamer could now save $70 on the processor, which could go to other resources, such as a capture card.
 
So while this driver might not mean much to many, it will mean a lot to some, especially those looking to jump into the Media PC, Streaming PC or low-storage Video Capture game with a semidecent, very low cost solution.

[Osmium]

I can see it being useful but couldn't you also use a Geforce card to do the same thing? I think that twitch streaming is either on the way or already implemented(I don't pay close attention to that stuff since I don't care).

[bcredeur97]

I think quicksync is actually faster than Nvidia and AMD graphics cards at rendering. So this is really good. (i might be wrong, please correct me if I am)

[Legion]

Got to love intel for not making a big song and dance about everything they do..

[Procrastinating]

Updated with some research, Haswell quicksync actually compares to x264 "veryfast" and even "fast"-"medium", with Included screenshot comparison to shadowplay, which looks awful by the way.

 

I didn't want to compare shadowplay with quicksync, as I was talking in the context of low-cost media solutions. But there you go, it looks far better than shadowplay, which you should never use unless you want to make your video look like an old oil painting.

[Guest]

Got to love intel for not making a big song and dance about everything they do..

That's why they have that rapper of course. (Forgot who it was)

[Legion]

coolkingler1, on 27 Feb 2014 - 4:46 PM, said:

That's why they have that rapper of course. (Forgot who it was)

 

To be fair every company should have a rapper...

 

Probably someone like Ice-t, Ice-Cube, Coolio, LL Cool J or the like because their processors run so cool yo!

 

 

 

that is all the rappers I know..

[LAwLz]

I think quicksync is actually faster than Nvidia and AMD graphics cards at rendering. So this is really good. (i might be wrong, please correct me if I am)

Not sure about pure encoding, but it was (at least when Sandy Bridge was announced) faster at transcoding. One of the reasons for that was because it was so much faster at decoding.

 

For archiving movies, you should still use x264 (higher quality). For streaming and such Intel QuickSync is great though. How if only Steam's in-home streaming could use it...

[brownninja97]

Fuck apus, i fed up of people recommending the 6400k when it struggles with youtube 1080p, and some youtube vids have 2160p now.

[silencerbob]

Would like to see quicksync support in a LOT more applications... NOW. I have shadowplay and its brilliant.. The only issue isn't with quicksync or shadowplay.. Its my damn slow upload speed... Australia.. Fix it!

[totjup5]

Not sure who would use a low end processor for rendering...

[Lord_Kitty]

Not sure who would use a low end processor for rendering...

It means rendering is now a viable option on Ultrabooks. I'm not sure how powerful it will be, but maybe it can replace those efiting rigs some YouTubers took with them to CES.

[spoofer]

finding this thread gives me new hope to getting an answer to a question i've had for weeks...im in the market for a cpu and im curious as to whether the celeron g1820 has the same "haswell" intel hd graphics as the pentium "haswell" intel hd graphics. it seems true identification is few and far between and the info i do find is conflicting. specifically, i would like to know where the g1820 fits into this chart. in my quest for these answers i have posted to many forums, and most of the answers i have recieved have been that it shares the same gpu as the haswell pentiums. then i find this, which shows that it only has 6 EUs???.....does ANYONE really know?

[silberdrachi]

To be fair every company should have a rapper...

 

Probably someone like Ice-t, Ice-Cube, Coolio, LL Cool J or the like because their processors run so cool yo!

 

 

 

that is all the rappers I know..

 

My company has a big conference every year... last year i guess they got Flo Rida to play a concert at night. Still trying to figure out why they even wanted him to play at a convention about ERP solutions and financial management software.

[wpirobotbuilder]

I think quicksync is actually faster than Nvidia and AMD graphics cards at rendering. So this is really good. (i might be wrong, please correct me if I am)

It is. Linus did a video about it years ago.