Which Xeon processors have hardware support for H.265 encoding/decoding?

Question

Looking to build a rendering machine for H.265 video: would I be better off with a Core i7/i9 because of built-in hardware accelerated H.265 encoding/decoding, or can Xeon processors support it as well? If so, which ones?

Solution

Generational Implementations of HEVC (H.265)

Since consumers expect you to optimize your media applications for all types of devices, it’s important to look at the capabilities of the recent generations of Intel processors.

• 4th Generation Intel Core processors (Haswell CPU 2- 3.5GHz, 4 Cores): Includes an HEVC Software Decoder capable of real time decode of HEVC 4K streams.
• 5th Generation Intel Core processors (Broadwell): Supports HEVC 8-bit software/hybrid encode.
• 6th Generation Intel Core processors (Skylake) Supports hardware accelerated HEVC 8-bit decode and encode.

Source

Several dozen Xeon processors fall in these categories, all 6th Gen Skylake and the newer 7th Gen Kaby Lake based Xeon processors have hardware encode/decode support.

Comments

[allquixotic]

If this is for serious work (especially with a lot of different simultaneous encodings) you need GPU(s).

[bwDraco]

Intel's HEDT processors (including Skylake-X) do not have integrated graphics processors and cannot accelerate video encoding. Get a GeForce 10 Series or Quadro P-series card instead; even the GT 1030 can do HEVC.

[bwDraco]

-1. The OP's looking at HEDT processors ("Core i7/i9") which don't have an IGP and can't accelerate video encoding.

[Pavel P]

What does that even mean that a CPU includes an HEVC Software Decoder?