A method for encoding video data is provided that includes determining whether a parent coding unit of a coding unit of the video data was predicted in intra-prediction block copy (IntraBC) mode and, when the parent coding unit was not predicted in IntraBC mode: computing activity of the coding unit, determining an IntraBC coding cost of the coding unit by computing the IntraBC coding cost of the coding unit using a two dimensional (2D) search when the activity of the coding unit is not than an activity threshold, and computing the IntraBC coding cost of the coding unit using a one dimensional (1D) search; and when the activity of the coding unit is less than the activity threshold, using the IntraBC coding cost to select an encoding mode, and encoding the coding unit using the selected encoding mode.