[mythtv-users] Mac Mini L2 Cache Size

[Eric Pheatt]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 9:06 PM, Wade Maxfield <mythtv at hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
> Sarah Katherine Hayes wrote:
>  > Eric Pheatt wrote:
>  >> I'm looking to buy a refurbished Mac Mini 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo to
>  >> replace my main FE and wondered if the current L2 Cache (4 MB) offers
>  >> significant performance benefits over the previous rev (2 MB) in
>  >> relation to Mythtv HD MPEG2 or h.264 decoding?
>  >>
>  >> I'm planning on running the FE under OSX and only currently have HD
>  >> MPEG2, but I am trying to future proof for the possibility of HD h.264
>  >> comming from a Hauppauge HD PVR.
>  >>
>  >>
>  > More = Better, generally speaking.
>  >
>  > Although (and I think it is) my Core 2 Duo laptop only has 2MB cache and
>  > can do h264 720p and 1080p using mplayer without melting; at least it
>  > can play back movie trailers and the like from the various websites.
>  >
>  > Of course thats in Linux and not OS X, but I'd assume it'd be somewhat
>  > similar.   I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for h264, the P4-M
>  > laptop of my other half stutters (yet reads 75% load) and my laptop sits
>  > around 25% - 50%...  tis a very silly codec (to steal from the Pythons).
>
>  I don't think there's going to be much of a performance difference,
>  since the majority of the data (the video file itself) is going to be
>  constantly streaming from RAM buffer<-network/hard drive, and not
>  residing in the L2 cache for very long.  The code to process the video
>  is probably going to be small enough to fit inside the L1 cache, let
>  alone the L2.
>
>   - Wade

Thanks for your thoughts, I have thought Moore = Beter too for quite
some time, but with the architecture tweaks between the last P4 I
bought in 2003 to the current offering of multi-cores I figured there
should  be some changes in my assumptions.

I've been reading up on TomsHardware and saw performance differences
due to L2 Cache with encoding .... but was having trouble googling for
differences on the decode of MPEG.

Cheers!
-Eric