debian 12.11
system memory size: 31GiB, 2 15.5 GiB cards
cpu: Intel® Core™ i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz, version: 6.142.9, size: 3268MHz, capacity: 3500MHz, width: 64 bits
no graphics card whatsoever
computer can play h.265 and equivalent without troubles, provided video file is no higher than 1080 p.
Computer can play av1 files no higher than 1080 p only if I shut every other application down. If for example I run a browser and an av1 file with either mpv or vlc, system shuts down.
Can I put all that memory to use and avoid overloading the cpu?
I had an i5-7200u equipped laptop and I could do AV1 playback, not well but it didn’t do what you described.
Also is it maxing out memory or cpu? I would check btop during playback. Look at CPU usage, memory usage and temps while doing so and report here.
Edit: Something is definitely wrong with your machine, that is abnormal behavior. Maybe it’s overheating, maybe it’s trying to do some sort of gpu decode and has no idea what to do with it as it doesn’t support it. Can you check what encoder mpv is using? I would assume it would failback to CPU.