Take one: High-End PC

Ok, so let´s get started with the results. First, let´s open a Full HD 1080p H.264 video. I took the BBC Blue 1080p video which you can directly download from Apple HD movie Gallery. It´s 1080p and fits since it´s H.264. You can try downloading any other video from there. Actually I tested many of them but because of the bitrates being almost the same makes no noticeable difference on CPU usage. Let´s check our Task manager:

As you can see our CPU usage is 5%. This sounds great, the CPU has plenty of room to do other things easily, but remember this is a Core i7 platform, so HD Videos are just a walk in the park for it. A Dual Core setup would be using around 20%. A single core CPU would be using around 40% (if it can take it and its powerful enough). Also check memory usage is 1.64GBs from 3GB total. Let´s enable AVIVO HD and see what happens:

What? Were you reproducing HD content at the time you took the screenshot? Yes Sir, sure I did. You really did? Yes!

As long as you can´t even see it, your i7 isn´t doing a thing for HD playback. Since the GPU used is still a mid-high product it can take the task very easily. But if you have a lower CPU, let´s say Core 2 Duo/Core2Quad/Phenom II, you might probably see a little CPU usage around 1-5% maximum, don´t worry about it. Don´t forget RAM used is now 1.33GB, so that´s a 300Mbs drop just for enabling AVIVO.

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