I have an Android-app which uses LAME to encode an audio live-stream to MP3. Right now, I'm using a constant bitrate (CBR) of 128 for this.
Now I wonder, if I switch over to a bitrate of eg. 320, will this cost more CPU/take longer?
This is a mandatory part of the app as it's as mentioned a live-stream.. therefor I won't risk a higher CPU-usage or so.
MP3 encoders/decoders usually need more processing power for higher bit rates. I could find two data points, MP3 encoder datasheet and MP3 decoder datasheet to support this.
On a modern phone, the difference in the CPU loading should be insignificant, as MP3 decoding/encoding is less CPU intensive.