GPU transcoding: AMD new flagship 6900XT beaten by old NVIDIA GTX1080

Video decoding, encoding, and transcoding are an important task for GPU graphics cards today, and each company has different solutions.

Today, let’s compare the VCN of AMD RDNA2 architecture and the NVENC of NVIDIA Turing/Pascal architecture to see the difference in encoding, transcoding speed and image quality.

The test graphics cards are RX 6900 XT, RTX 2060 Mobile, GTX 1080 , the video encoding format is H.264 , and the comparison software encoding scheme is libx264 v164 – this scheme is very efficient, and does not require high CPU, and quad-core can meet the requirements , so it can better compare GPU encoding efficiency.

In the future, Intel Quick Sync will be added, and AV and H.265 (HEVC) formats will be examined.

Game Live:

Overwatch, 1080p resolution

2060M performed the best, leading or flat with libx264 throughout, especially at low bit rates.

The 1080 also performed well, only slightly slower than the 2060M.

The 6900XT is much worse, it can’t keep up with libx264 at all, and it has nothing to do with the bit rate.

In terms of image quality, NVIDIA and AMD have lost a lot of motion details, with obvious color blocks and afterimages, and AMD’s is worse.

The Elder Scrolls Online, 1080p resolution

On the contrary, libx264 is the best, with the speed leading all the way, 2060M is slightly second, 1080 is slower, and 6900XT is still far behind.

The picture quality of NVIDIA and AMD is also not very good. Even at a bit rate of 10Mbps, details are seriously lost, especially at the edges of text. 2060M is relatively slightly better.

Record code:

Overwatch, 4K resolution

The hardware solutions are all good, 2060M is still the best, 1080 is slightly second, and 6900XT also exceeds libx264, but after the 45Mbps bit rate, there is no difference.

The Elder Scrolls Online, 4K resolution

The libx264 software solution is very laborious, regardless of any bit rate. In terms of hardware, the 2060M has more advantages.

The 2060M has better picture quality and details, especially note that the stones are sharper. The word processing is also passable, but the loss of red and purple is large, and it is almost impossible to see.

Transcode:

Overwatch 4K Transcode Quality

During the 10-25Mbps bit rate period, libx264 has obvious advantages. 2060M is almost the same at lower and higher bit rates, and 1080 is worse at low bit rates. The disadvantage of 6900XT is obvious, and everyone is similar until it exceeds 10Mbps.

The picture quality can be expected, the bit rate above 30Mbps is excellent, and it is basically impossible to watch below 10Mbps.

The Elder Scrolls Online 4K transcoding quality

libx264 leads almost all the way, 2060M and 1080 are almost indistinguishable, and the bit rate of 6900XT below 40Mbps is obviously behind.

Transcoding speed:

The 6900XT maintains an amazing speed (about 45FPS) at all bit rates and different videos, and the other three quickly slow down between 5-10Mbps bit rates, and then slowly slow down.

Looking at the speed of 1080 is the best, libx264 is the slowest because there is no hardware acceleration.

Whether you want quality or speed is up to you.

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GPU transcoding: AMD new flagship 6900XT beaten by old NVIDIA GTX1080