Intel Core i7-2820QM – Sandy Bridge For Notebook PCs

Blu-ray Video Playback

To test CPU Utilization during Blu-Ray playback we used CyberLink
PowerDVD 10 Ultra (build 10.0.2325.51) and hardware acceleration
within the application was enabled by default (as seen below).

CPU utilization
was logged for 90 seconds of playback with each movie, and the results
were taken. Movies were played back in full screen mode on a secondary HDMI display with the resolution set to 1920×1080, or full 1080p.

The movie tested:

• VC1 – Inception (Chapter 1)

CPU Usage:

• Blue Line – HP DV4-1555dx notebook w/ Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (Intel Core 2 Duo)
• Red Line – Compal notebook w/ Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge)

As you can see from the chart above the CPU usage during Blu-ray
playback looks great on the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processors! Let’s graph
out the performance.

Murphy’s law attacked and the Blu-ray player in the ASUS K42F stopped working and the AMD powered Acer notebook doesn’t have a Blu-ray player, so we will have to settle for a look at the Core i7-2820QM versus the Core 2 Duo P8700 processors. As you can see from the performance monitor results both systems easily played the Blu-Ray movies. The Intel Core i7-2820QM has impressive Blu-ray playback performance as the CPU averaged less than 2% CPU usage during 1080P playback. When it comes to rendering video with Intel Quick Sync Video and playing Blu-ray movies, the Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs are very impressive!