An apparatus having a circuit is disclosed. The circuit may be configured to (i) generate a complexity value by encoding a current picture in a video signal, where the current picture is encoded using a current one of a plurality of configurations, (ii) calculate an estimate in response to the complexity value and (iii) reconfigure the encoding into a new one of the configurations in response to the estimate relative to one or more thresholds. The configurations may include a normal configuration and one or more simplified configurations. The estimate generally describes a computational stress that the encoding of the current picture placed on the circuit. The new configuration may be different from the current configuration.