New MacBooks could be using GPU H.264 decoding
updated 09:55 pm EDT, Mon October 20, 2008
MacBook hardware decoding
Some owners of the new MacBooks have experienced a significantly reduced CPU load while playing H.264 encoded video files, suggesting that Apple may have chosen to use GPU decoding in the latest devices, according to several forum posts on MacRumors. After enabling the hardware monitor while playing HD videos through Quicktime, a number of users reported CPU usage of around 20 percent, compared to 100 percent on the previous generation of notebooks, even the MacBook Pro.
The observations, if true, would suggest that Apple is taking advantage of the new NVIDIA 9400m graphics processors for video decoding. The company has not publicly advertised or even confirmed the claims. NVIDIA lists PureVideo HD technology as a feature on the 9400M GPU, however, which it references as a "combination of drivers and a dedicated video-processing core."
Other users experienced unique performance characteristics between different playback programs on the new notebooks, with higher performance observed when using Quicktime compared to other programs. VLC, which was viewed by some as a more efficient alternative to Quicktime on the previous generation MacBooks, was lagging behind on the new products, which could mean that Apple reworked its own player for GPU decoding on the new NVIDIA platform.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2007
VLC OpenCL
I'd definitely like to see VLC integrate OpenCL to take advantage of the vast amount of power in the Geforce 9400M (as well as other dedicated graphics chips). The age of general purpose GPUs is upon us!