- FFMPEG’s biggest speedup still affects only one feature that few people have heard of
- Handwritten collection makes a comeback in a niche filter that most users will never even touch
- AVX512 gives FFMPEG an absurd 100x gain – but only if your CPU supports it
The FFMPEG project, which is known for operating some of the most commonly used video editing software and media tools, makes headlines again.
Developers claim to have achieved what they call “the biggest speedup so far”, and deliver a 100x benefit gain in a recent update.
The catch? It only applies to a single, unclear function, and the means to achieve it is to raise the eyebrows – handwritten assembly code, a technique that is largely considered outdated by most of today’s developers.
Assembly coding sparks both nostalgia and skepticism
Assembly language that was once important to make the most of limited hardware in the 1980s and 1990s have become a niche practice.
Still, FFMPEG developers continue to depend on it for extreme optimization and call themselves “assembly evangelists.”
In their latest patch, they wrote a filter called RangDetect8_AVX512 using AVX512 instructions, part of a modern SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) tool set that helps CPUs perform multiple tasks in parallel.
On systems without AVX512 -Support, the AVX2 variant still supplies an improvement of 65.63%.
As the team points out, “It’s a single feature that is now 100x faster, not the whole FFMPEG.”
This news follows a similar boost reported in November 2024, with another patch bringing certain operations up to 94x faster.
In this case, part of the previous performance gap came from inconsistent filter complexity: The Generic C version used an 8-pressure convolution, while the SIMD version used a simpler 6-pressure approach.
Even the compiling of the C version in release mode with a better compiler like Clang could close over 50% of the gorge, suggesting that some of the alleged speed gains may be exaggerated by comparing worst cases with best-case ratio.
“Register assigns sucks on compilators,” DEVS said on social media, highlighted compiler efficiency.
Despite the warnings, this renewed focus on low -level coding has caused fresh conversations about performance optimization.
FFMPEG drives everything from VLC media player to countless YouTube -download tools, so even small improvements in isolated filters can ripen through widely used software.
However, it is worth noting that such results are often difficult to replicate and apply across wider parts of the code base.
Although these kinds of deep optimizations are impressive, they may not reflect improvements in the real world of everyday users who edit recordings with video editing software.
Unless other core functions receive similar treatment, the promise of a faster FFMPEG may remain limited to technical benchmarks.
Via Tomshardware
