Abstract: A motion compensation image processing apparatus includes an external memory, a cache, a motion compensation module, a determination module and a fetching module. The external memory stores a reference frame associated with an image block. The motion compensation module sequentially performs motion compensation on a previous image block and the image block. When the motion compensation module performs motion compensation on the previous image block, the determination module determines a motion vector relative to the reference frame. Before the motion compensation module performs motion compensation on the image block, the fetching module fetches a reference region, corresponding to the motion block, in the reference frame from the external memory to the cache.