Haswell Media Engine: QuickSync the Third

Although we still have one more generation to go before QuickSync can apparently deliver close to x86 image quality, Haswell doesn't shy away from improving its media engine.

First and foremost is hardware support for the SVC (Scalable Video Coding) codec. The idea behind SVC is to take one high resolution bitstream from which lower quality versions can be derived. There are huge implications for SVC in applications that have varied bandwidth levels and/or decode capabilities.

Haswell also adds a hardware motion JPEG decoder, and MPEG2 hardware encoder.

Ivy Bridge will be getting 4K video playback support later this year, Haswell should obviously ship with it.

Finally there's a greater focus on image quality this generation, although as I mentioned before I'm not sure we'll see official support in a lot of the open source video codecs until Broadwell comes by. With added EUs we'll obviously see QuickSync performance improve, but I don't have data as to how much faster it'll be compared to Ivy Bridge.

Haswell's GPU Final Words
Comments Locked

245 Comments

View All Comments

  • Peanutsrevenge - Friday, October 5, 2012 - link

    What the hell are you guys bitching about?

    Of course the iPhone articles are going to be longer and more numerous than GS3 articles.

    iPhone releases come with new iOS releases and have their own eco-system.

    Android phone releases use a common OS across them and therefore much of what's in one article doesn't need repeating in another.

    Anand liking Apple is not our problem, I can see why people like them (not so much Anand) and that's fine, personally I dislike them (hate was originally typed, but was edited due to being incorrect), but still respect them and respect people who purchase their products (and pay for their litigation).

    An entire page of comments talking about how Anand isn't allowed to like or talk about Apple products because you guys don't like is ridiculous, they're a PC company and should exist on a PC website.

    Grow up.
  • Kepe - Friday, October 5, 2012 - link

    Sure, but I'm talking about dedicating entire, long articles to such things as the iPhone display or why it doesn't have a certain feature and so on. The SGS III has a very interesting display, too. Still it didn't get nearly as much attention. Of course Anand is allowed to talk about Apple products. What I want, though, is Anand(tech) to be as thorough in reviewing other products, too, or then stop making those huge articles only about Apple products. Because that is biased.
    In the Macbook Pro Retina article Anand talked about the cooling system and the fan blades for one page. When I read any other laptop review on Anandtech, cooling is briefly described in a sentence or two.
    Dedicating so much attention to just one company's products makes it look like Anandtech is biased. And that is not good.
  • Magik_Breezy - Sunday, October 14, 2012 - link

    Hopefully because of these comments they'll finally see what we want, not some Apple crap. Good engineering stupid management
  • Spunjji - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link

    Nailed it.
  • vFunct - Saturday, October 6, 2012 - link

    Android products would get more coverage if they bothered to do any engineering on them. Since they don't push the technology the way Apple does, they don't need a more in-depth review.
  • StevoLincolnite - Saturday, October 6, 2012 - link

    You're kidding right? Hardware wise Apple has always been behind the curve compared to the competition in every facet of it's product line-ups or very quickly beaten.
  • lmcd - Saturday, October 6, 2012 - link

    Umm, I would disagree there. Apple has always been ahead of the curve in GPUs and this is the FIRST TIME SINCE BEFORE THE A-SERIES that Apple has had a GPU without an overwhelming lead on the competition for more than half a year.*

    While GPU selection isn't always huge, it's one of the biggest points of differentiation in mobile chips, along with power use.

    *excluding the A4 if you count from when it was first in a phone as opposed to in a tablet.
  • Magik_Breezy - Sunday, October 14, 2012 - link

    The last time I played a game on my phone was about 8 months ago and I'm 15! To say that Apple pushes their hardware is naive as it gets.
    The Galaxy S III was the best purchase Ive made, even my mum doesn't like my iPhone 4.
  • vFunct - Sunday, October 7, 2012 - link

    Yes, Apple products are always ahead of compromised Android products.

    Android devices are badly engineered, like incorporating LTE when the battery can't handle it, for example. Apple doesn't compromise on their design.
  • Kepe - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link

    How much does Apple pay you for a comment praising them?

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now