title: Does H.264 encoding profile affect encoding performance?
body: <p>I want to encode in real-time using as little CPU and memory\disk I\O as possible, keeping a low CRF (currently 14). Will changing the encoding profile from Baseline to something else affect encoding CPU usage?</p>
  
  <p>My current settings are:</p>
  
  <p>Profile\Level: Baseline@L5.2</p>
  
  <p>Resolution and frame rate: 1920x1080 @ ~144.001 FPS (variable frame rate mode)</p>
  
  <p>Average overall data rate: 174 mbit\s (audio is ~320kbit\s VBR AAC)</p>
  
  <p>x264 settings: cabac=0 / ref=1 / deblock=0:0:0 / analyse=0:0 / me=dia / subme=0 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=24 / lookahead_threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=0 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=14.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=0</p>