AMD 690 Chipset Update: More Power, More Performance

Next up, we have the HQV DVD video benchmark from Silicon Optics. HQV is comprised of a sampling of SD video clips and test patterns that have been specifically designed to evaluate a variety of interlaced video signal processing tasks, including decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction, film cadence detection, and detail enhancement.

DVD Video Quality: HQV Benchmark with PowerDVD 7 www.hqv.com/benchmark.cfm

As each clip is played, the viewer is required to "score" the image based on a predetermined set of criteria. The numbers listed below are the sum of the scores for each section. We played the HQV DVD using the latest version of Cyberlink's PowerDVD, with hardware acceleration for AVIVO extensions enabled.

For all intents and purposes, the updated 690-based board (Radeon X1250 After) performed at the same level as the older board.  We gave the updated board a 3 in the first 'jaggies' test pattern, but it was right on the edge in our opinion.

HD Decode Acceleration AVIVO Performance Explored

To illustrate CPU utilization while playing back HD content, we used the Performance Monitor built into Windows XP. Using the data provided by Windows Performance Monitor, we created a log file that sampled the percent of CPU utilization every second, while playing back the 1080p versions of a an HD video clip encoded using H.264.  This was NOT a protected disc, but rather a freely available HD clip available for download from the QuickTime HD gallery. 

We ran this test with both with an without hardware acceleration enabled in PowerDVD with identical results.  The average CPU utilization for both configurations was about 48%.