Heres some more data points. AthlonXP 2600+ @ 2230MHz
D:\lame3_97a7\new>lame -V3 --vbr-new test.wav test.mp3
LAME version 3.97 MMX (alpha 7, Feb 26 2005 17:23:10) (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE (ASM used)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 17960 Hz - 18494 Hz
Encoding test.wav to test.mp3
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=3) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 8.2x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10081/10081 (100%)| 0:13/ 0:13| 0:13/ 0:13| 19.485x| 0:00
32 [ 1] *
40 [ 0]
48 [ 0]
56 [ 0]
64 [ 0]
80 [ 2] *
96 [ 177] ***
112 [ 1309] *********************
128 [ 2775] *********************************************
160 [ 4220] %******************************************************************
192 [ 1010] %%***************
224 [ 351] %*****
256 [ 199] %***
320 [ 37] %
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR MS % long switch short %
151.7 2.0 98.0 90.1 5.2 4.7
Writing LAME Tag...done
ReplayGain: -6.7dB
That's currently my preferred encoder and preferred settings. For 3.96.1 it's only very slightly slower.
I cant wait for Lame4 to go beta, it's speed is really amazing.
D:\lame4\alph12>lame -V3 test.wav test.mp3
LAME version 4.0 MMX, [E]3DNow!, SSE(alpha 12, Jan 15 2005 12:46:34) (http://www
.mp3dev.org/)
warning: alpha versions should be used for testing only
CPU features:MMX (ASM used), MMX2 (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), E3DNow! (ASM us
ed), SSE (ASM used)
Using MDCT filter
Lowpass filter, transition band: 17923 Hz - 18009 Hz
Encoding test.wav to test.mp3
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=3) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 8.2x) qval=5
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
10079/10081 (100%)| 0:08/ 0:08| 0:08/ 0:08| 31.206x| 0:00
32 [ 0]
40 [ 0]
48 [ 0]
56 [ 0]
64 [ 0]
80 [ 2] *
96 [ 133] **
112 [ 940] **************
128 [ 2321] *********************************
160 [ 4676] %*****************************************************************
192 [ 1406] %%%%%***************
224 [ 403] %%****
256 [ 155] %**
320 [ 45] %
average: 156.5 kbps
LR: 500 (4.960%) MS: 9581 (95.04%)
LR+i: 0 (0.0000%) MS+i: 0 (0.0000%)
Writing LAME Tag...done