Can my laptop handle 1080p 60fps videos?

[darraghmcgarry877]

My specs
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N284O @2.14 GHz

 

[stdragon]

That specific CPU does support Quick Sync which is a hardware encode/decoder for video that's based off H.264. However, it's only the 2nd generation of Quick Sync because the iGPU portion of it is based off Ivy Bridge.

Basically, unless you've got a modern dedicated graphics card, the ability to decode 1080@60fps will vary based on the content and the codec used in the video.

Test it out with the video "Earth from Space Full HD 1080p 60fps" on Youtube on the link below. Be sure to set the quality to 1080@60 instead of AUTO to be sure you're watching that stream. If you don't have any dropped frames, and the CPU load isn't always at 100% load, then safe to say it's possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKM--8fzDpo

 

[TJ Hooker]

According to wikipedia, the integrated graphics in that chip should be able to decode 1080p/60 fps for MPEG-4 (H.264), a popular video codec.

 

[darraghmcgarry877]

Thanks for the quick reply stdragon
I looked at the video you send me. On Firefox it stuttered but not as much as chrome. I found that Microsoft edge is the only one that doesn't stutter do you know why? I wouldn't mind using Microsoft edge but it is extremely slow to load videos, sites etc. Would the cause for it to be slow because the video is using up all the CPU? Sorry not very tech savy.

 

[stdragon]

Depending on the browser being used to watch Youtube, it may request the content encoded with a different codec. Chrome defaults to requesting VP9 codec based content which is entirely CPU based. However, Edge requests H.264 which is hardware accelerated with Quick Sync (iGPU).

You might be able to disable VP9 in Chrome to force it to use H.264.

Not sure about Firefox.

You might find this link interesting, It's right on topic regarding this issue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3fe29e/chrome_versus_edge_cpu_usage_while_watching/

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/vMAu9dTHXU8

 

[TJ Hooker]

@stdragon I'm pretty any particular video on youtube will only be encoded one way, I don't think it'd depend on the browser. Unless it's getting transcoded on the fly by youtube servers every time you view it, which seems very unlikely. I'm not sure if google enforces a coded to be used for youtube videos, or if uploaders are allowed to choose. Based on your links, it looks more like chrome isn't properly taking advantage of HW decoding regardless of codec, rather than it being an issue of different browsers using different codecs.

 

[stdragon]

So VP9 is based on the H.265 codec. His iGPU will only decode (in hardware) H.264 streams. As for Youtube, it will host multiple transcodes for a single video. Which is offered/requested first depends on the browser.

If you really want to use Chrome, you can force it to H.264 with an extension called h264ify

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/h264ify/aleakchihdccplidncghkekgioiakgal

"Makes YouTube stream H.264 videos instead of VP8/VP9 videos
New: Block 60fps option for lower end machines.

Try h264ify if YouTube videos stutter, take up too much CPU, eat battery life, or make your laptop hot.

By default, YouTube streams VP8/VP9 encoded video. However, this can cause problems with less powerful machines because VP8/VP9 is not typically hardware accelerated.

In contrast, H.264 is commonly hardware accelerated by GPUs, which usually means smoother video playback and reduced CPU usage. h264ify makes YouTube stream H.264 videos instead of VP8/VP9 videos.
"

 

[stdragon]

According to Wiki. Intel Quick Sync didn't start supporting H.265 (VP9) until the 5th revision (Skylake). So if Chrome has HW acceleration enabled for VP9 content, you'll need at least a Skylake or newer CPU, or a GPU that supports decoding H.265 as well. Otherwise, the "HW acceleration" option will just be ignored as non-applicable and default to 100% CPU usage via software decoding.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Ah, had no idea they stored multiple copies of each video in different formats. Interesting!

 

[stdragon]

Apparently, and it was announced a few months ago, that AV1 will be the new royalty-free codec web standard that will replace Google's VP9. However, there's nothing that will decode it in hardware that I'm aware of. But, that might change if it truly becomes the new standard. Once that happens, expect hardware acceleration to arrive in 1 to 2 years thereafter for it to be baked in silicon. This will especially be important for ARM based mobile devices.

AV1 uses about 40% less bit-rate than VP9. And being that most hardware will decode H.264, I'm thinking that will stick around a lot longer while Youtube and Netflix transitions from VP9 to AV1.

Downside is that encoding AV1 takes an immense amount of processing power. It's almost as bad as mining BitCoin in terms of the requirements to transcode the video! I have no doubt that there will be specialized AV1 ASIC cards racked and stacked in Youtube's data centers to do nothing but convert video to the new format.

Anyways, all very interesting. But yeah, I'm sure we'll hear all about how Intel, AMD, and nVidia will be supporting AV1 soon.