Video Playback Performance
For those hoping to use one of these CPUs in their next HTPC build these results will be of interest as they show us how well they handle 720p and 1080p content.
The PCMark7 video playback test uses 1080p samples at 24fps. So as you can see all CPU's managed to pass this test with 24fps meaning smooth playback without frame loss should be achieved.
Not wanting to just take PCMark's word for it we conducted our own 720p and 1080p tests using MPlayer. Using the benchmark mode MPlayer allows the system to play the video as fast as it can without frame loss. With 720p content we hit a bottleneck of around 60fps pretty quickly and even the slowest CPU's delivered more than twice the necessary frame rate at 56.5fps.
Naturally the 1080p content is more demanding and here we are looking for at least 25fps for flawless playback. As it so happens even the slowest processor tested, the Sempron 3850 is capable to exceeding 25fps. The Athlon 5350 managed a more comfortable 33fps while the Celeron J1900 was much faster hitting 45fps.
It is interest to note that the AMD A4-4000 was significantly faster than the AM1 processors in this test and we are not exactly sure why that is.