Watts Up With Your Encoder? Akamai & Cires21 Benchmark VPUs vs. GPUs

Voices of Video

Energy efficiency is quickly becoming the new battleground in video processing infrastructure, and a groundbreaking benchmark study has revealed just how dramatic the differences can be between competing technologies. In this eye-opening conversation, Chris Milstead from Akamai and Dennis Mungai from Cires21 share findings from their joint research comparing Video Processing Units (VPUs) to traditional GPUs for encoding workloads.

The benchmark shows that VPUs deliver 4.7X better energy efficiency than GPUs for video encoding, while maintaining equivalent quality.

Highlights from the study:

• VPUs consumed only 12 watts while running 19 simultaneous encoding jobs, compared to GPUs using 59 watts for 16 jobs.
• Custom silicon is back: modern VPUs offer both efficiency and flexibility.
• NVMe interface makes VPUs exceptionally easy to deploy in cloud environments with no special drivers.
• Predictable, linear scaling across resolutions and codecs enables precise capacity planning.
• Energy efficiency is critical as data centers face power constraints in many regions.
• Simplified deployment shortens the gap between R&D prototyping and production use.
• Benchmark used Netflix’s Meridian film to test both H.265/HEVC and AV1 encoding performance.
• Akamai now offers cloud instances with NetInt VPUs starting at $0.42/hour.

The results are staggering: VPUs achieved a 4.7X efficiency advantage while delivering equal quality. Running 19 simultaneous jobs at 12 watts versus a GPU’s 16 jobs at 59 watts is not just incremental - it signals a fundamental shift in how future video platforms can be architected. As Chris notes, with regions like the Netherlands halting new data center construction due to energy limits, these gains are becoming essential for continued growth.

What makes this discussion particularly valuable is the depth of technical insight. Dennis explains how the NVMe interface dramatically simplifies deployment, creating a “level of certainty with speed” that narrows the gap between prototype and production. Predictable scaling across codecs and resolutions means operators can plan capacity with confidence - something GPU-based systems can’t match. As Dennis puts it: “Cost savings is not the goal. It’s the outcome of systems so well designed that it becomes an inevitability.”

Whether you’re scaling a video platform, navigating data center power constraints, or simply looking to cut operational costs, this conversation offers crucial insights into how purpose-built silicon is reshaping the video processing landscape. Listen now to understand why custom ASICs are making a comeback - and how they might fit into your future infrastructure.

READ THE BENCHMARKING STUDY:
https://www.linode.com/blog/compute/benchmarking-vpus-and-gpus-for-media-workloads/

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Chapters

1. Introduction to Voices of Video (00:00:00)

2. The Energy Efficiency Study (00:01:22)

3. Akamai's VPU Cloud Infrastructure (00:06:09)

4. Benchmarking Methodology & Results (00:10:15)

5. 4.7X Power Advantage Explained (00:17:08)

6. VPU Deployment Advantages (00:21:33)

7. Future of Video Systems Design (00:34:24)

8. Closing Thoughts & IBC Preview (00:42:10)