These new AV1 codec results are very impressive overall. This will be great for viewers, as the new encoder will require significantly less internet bandwidth to watch videos at the same quality as H.264, and will put less strain on the internet as a whole. This is especially true of Intel's AV1 encoder which only gains 2.2% better image quality at 8 Mbps (the Twitch limit) over 6 Mbps.Īs a result, we can expect bitrates to drop substantially when streaming platforms make the switch to AV1. This encoder is so good at 3.5 Mbps that it was able to outperform both Nvidia's and AMD's encoders at 6 Mbps with nearly half the bitrate.Īs you get into bitrates higher than 6 Mbps, however, there seem to be diminishing returns. The 3.5 Mbps results are where we see the most gains out of Intel's AV1 encoder.

3.5 Mbps is the Sweet Spot for AV1 Live Streaming These results are impressive for the AV1 codec since OBS's VerySlow preset is so resource-intensive it can't be run in real-time (and is therefore useless for live streaming).įor more details on the AV1 tests - including software accelerated AV1 testing - check out EposVox's video. The only H.264 encoder that came close to the AV1's results was OBS's x264 VerySlow H.264 software encoder preset, which scored 78 points at 3.5 Mbps and 88 points at 6 Mbps. This makes Intel's new AV1 encoder 16 percent 'better' than both the Nvidia NVENC and AMD AMF encoders. The AMD AMF encoder scored close to Nvidia, while Intel's Quick Sync encoder (the Alder Lake variant) scored higher with 76 and 87 points at the same bitrates. The Nvidia NVENC encoder - surprisingly - produced one of the lowest test results: 71 points at 3.5 Mbps and 85 points at 8 Mbps.

(This first example was taken from videos recorded from Battlefield 2042.) The AV1 results are impressive: the new Intel encoder scored 83 points at 3.5 Mbps and 90 points at 6 Mbps - the highest of all the H.264 encoders at these bit rates. Testing was performed at 3.5 Mbps, 6 Mbps, and 8 Mbps using Netflix's VMAF benchmarking tool which analyses video quality with a scoring system of 0 to 100 (0 is unwatchable,100 is perfect video quality - compared to uncompressed video). EposVox tested Intel's new AV1 encoder against a variety of H.264 encoders, including Intel's own Quick Sync technology, Nvidia's NVENC, AMD's AMF, and software-based H.264 encoders such as the one found in OBS.

Ffmpeg h264 hardware encoding