That depends on your needs. As a HTPC, starting with Apollo Lake (Goldmont) the iGPU was upgraded sufficiently that it can decode 4K HEVC. I haven't tested 4K HEVC, personally. But I have played 1080p60 HEVC without a single dropped frame.
I have a Goldmont tablet, 4K HEVC works fine as long as the bitrate doesn't surpass the limits of its eMMC storage, in which case artefacts and stuttering is present. Maybe I should look into replacing it with a SSD if that's even possible.
Even the slowest eMMC storage can do 50MB/s sequential read. There is no way, you have 400Mbps+ HEVC video (and if that is the case, Atom is obviously not for you). The limit must be somewhere else. Most likely it supports hardware HEVC decoding up to some bitrate only and you are hitting this limit.
400Mbps no, but I have some 100+ Mbps videos and most sit around 60 so it can definitely push the eMMC to its limits especially considering it also needs to run the OS processes at the same time.
Unless the storage is so crap that can't even sustain 12.5 MB/s (a.k.a 100 Mbps), it's probably the decoder itself that is unable to properly accelerate such high bit-rate videos.
Quite a few eMMC implementations run off a USB 2.0 bus, so yes, it can bottleneck a system hard. Same thing frequently happens with networking components in devices. It will have AC/GbE, but can't reach those speeds.
Not if the bus is shared with 2 network controllers, a bluetooth controller, etc. I haven't looked at how Atom is set up admittedly, but that is one of the major issues with SBCs. Everything hangs off the USB 2.0 bus. The USB 2.0 bus also can't really maintain true USB 2.0 speeds in quite a few cases due to hitting micro-usb power limits.
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29a - Thursday, October 24, 2019 - link
Did Atom processors ever stop sucking?solidsnake1298 - Thursday, October 24, 2019 - link
That depends on your needs. As a HTPC, starting with Apollo Lake (Goldmont) the iGPU was upgraded sufficiently that it can decode 4K HEVC. I haven't tested 4K HEVC, personally. But I have played 1080p60 HEVC without a single dropped frame.vladx - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
I have a Goldmont tablet, 4K HEVC works fine as long as the bitrate doesn't surpass the limits of its eMMC storage, in which case artefacts and stuttering is present. Maybe I should look into replacing it with a SSD if that's even possible.qap - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
Even the slowest eMMC storage can do 50MB/s sequential read. There is no way, you have 400Mbps+ HEVC video (and if that is the case, Atom is obviously not for you). The limit must be somewhere else. Most likely it supports hardware HEVC decoding up to some bitrate only and you are hitting this limit.vladx - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
400Mbps no, but I have some 100+ Mbps videos and most sit around 60 so it can definitely push the eMMC to its limits especially considering it also needs to run the OS processes at the same time.s.yu - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
A common confusion between B and b...eddman - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
Unless the storage is so crap that can't even sustain 12.5 MB/s (a.k.a 100 Mbps), it's probably the decoder itself that is unable to properly accelerate such high bit-rate videos.nathanddrews - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
Quite a few eMMC implementations run off a USB 2.0 bus, so yes, it can bottleneck a system hard. Same thing frequently happens with networking components in devices. It will have AC/GbE, but can't reach those speeds.eddman - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
Even a USB 2.0 eMMC should be able to sustain a 12-13 MB/s sequential read.It has to be the decoder. He doesn't know the difference between bit and byte and thinks 60 Mbps is too much for 50 MB/s.
eek2121 - Monday, October 28, 2019 - link
Not if the bus is shared with 2 network controllers, a bluetooth controller, etc. I haven't looked at how Atom is set up admittedly, but that is one of the major issues with SBCs. Everything hangs off the USB 2.0 bus. The USB 2.0 bus also can't really maintain true USB 2.0 speeds in quite a few cases due to hitting micro-usb power limits.