Have the exact same problem on an old i7-3770. Already reported in another thread…
I keep reading about how QuickSync was crap in older chips but I am blown away with how good the i7-3770 looks when doing hw transcoding… I honestly cannot tell the difference in hw/software quality it is that good. Note that I am only transcoding 1080p x264. Unfortunately my cpu can definitely tell the difference as it idles around 3-5% cpu usage when doing a single hw transcode but closer to 50% when doing a single software transcode. The most hw transcodes I have ever seen running was 4 and this old chip was still only bouncing around the 15% usage mark. So please don’t rule out these old guys, they are extremely capable!
