Techniques related to video encoding that provide for a decoupled prediction and coding structure for improved performance are discussed. Such techniques include determining final partitioning decisions for blocks of a picture by evaluating intra modes for candidate partitions by comparing the candidate partitions to intra predicted partitions generated using only original pixel samples and evaluating inter modes for the candidate partitions by comparing the candidate partitions to search partitions including original pixel samples and encoding using the final partitioning decision.