GPU Accelerated Flash 10.1 Prerelease tested

[Stefan]

Adobe is using DXVA to accelerate Flash video playback, which means you need a GPU that properly supports DXVA2. From NVIDIA that means anything after G80 (sorry, GeForce 8800 GTX, GTS 640/320MB and Ultra owners are out of luck). In other words anything from the GeForce 8 series, 9 series or GeForce GT/GTX series, as well as their mobile equivalents. The only exceptions being those G80 based parts I just mentioned.

Anything based on NVIDIA's ION chipset is also supported, which will be the foundation of some of our tests today.

AMD supports the following:

    - ATI Radeon™ HD 4000, HD 5700 and HD 5800 series graphics
    - ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics (and higher)
    - ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 integrated graphics (and higher)
    - ATI FirePro™ V3750, V5700, V7750, V8700 and V8750 graphics accelerators (and later)

It's a healthy list of supported GPUs from both camps, including integrated graphics. The only other requirement is that you have the latest drivers installed. I used 195.50 from NVIDIA and Catalyst 9.10 from AMD. (Update: The Release Notes now indicate Catalyst 9.11 drivers are required, which would explain our difficulties in testing. ATI just released Catalyst 9.11 but we're having issues getting GPU acceleration to work, waiting on a response from AMD now)

Intel's G45 should, in theory, work. We tested it on a laptop for this article and since the acceleration is DXVA based, anything that can offload H.264 decode from the CPU using DXVA (like G45) should work just fine. As you'll see however, our experiences weren't exactly rosy.

Full story at AnandTech