This article is from last year. Things have improved slightly in favour of Intel.<p>I've found Intel QuickSync (I had to pay $ to LucidLogix for their Virtu MVP software to unlock this functionality since my Sandy Bridge motherboard wasn't one whose OEM paid LucidLogix) usable. Its appeal is for people with dual-core mostly I imagine.<p>Nothing beats quad-core for quality but I've found that I can get 80% of the transcode quality in 4x of the time. Using Arcsoft MediaConverter8, transcoding a 1080p MKV of The Hobbit takes 25 minutes vs 3 hours on my 3.10 GHz i5-2400 quad-core in Handbrake.<p>Unfortunately, this software only supports stereo audio profiles.<p>Handbrake is going to get QuickSync support soon.<p>I tried Badaboom with CUDA 1-2 years ago along with the AMD equivalent and both were ugly ugly pixelated messes that made me go back to Handbrake immediately.<p>This is less of an issue with robust transcode-supporting media server programs like AirVideo, StreamToMe/ServeToMe, Emit, XBMC, PS3 Media Server though I find sometimes I do need to transcode if I'm expecting to be offline somewhere.