TMPGEnc is one of the more popular video encoders around and it has had CUDA support since August last year, but now it is set to get even faster video encoding performance thanks to added support for Toshiba's SpursEngine which is based on the Sony/Toshiba/IBM Cell processor technology.

The SpursEngine is a cut down version of the Cell Broadband Engine used in Sony's PS3 and Toshiba has been pushing it for a while as a high-end video processor. However, the lack of manufacturing partners and software support has held it back, despite bold claims of what it has to offer.

TMPGEnc's support for the SpursEngine might see an increased sale of cards, at least if the numbers provided live up to real world time savings. According to the news release, you can save anything from 10 to nearly 30 minutes of video rendering time depending on your setup. The SpursEngine cards can be combined with an Nvidia graphics card with CUDA support and this combination provides the best performance.

Interestingly, the tests were performed on fairly basic hardware, with one setup being an ageing Pentium D at 2.8GHz and the other being a Toshiba Qosmio notebook with a Core 2 Duo P8400. Both systems had 2GB of RAM, a 9600GT graphics card and a SpursEngine card.

One problem with the results is that they're somewhat confusing, although it seems like an unknown H.264 video took 46 minutes and 21 seconds to render using the Pentium D CPU alone from what we gather, while enabling CUDA alone took this down to 35 min 18 sec. Running the same test using the SpursEngine with CUDA disabled, the time to render the same video drops to 17 min 41 sec which is almost 30 minutes quicker than with the CPU alone. Finally using the SpursEngine in combination with CUDA renders the same video in an amazing 7 min 53 sec which is close to a 40 minute improvement compared to using the CPU alone.

Now as impressive as these figures might be, one big problem is that SpursEngine hardware isn't easy to get your hands on, nor is it cheap as the Leadtek PxVC1100 is retailing for around €170. However, if you're rendering a lot of video this could be a worthwhile investment by now, as with increased software support, the SpursEngine should save you a lot of time. The only downside at the moment is that the updated version of TMPGEnc isn't out yet, but it should be out sometime this quarter.

You can find the press release here