What hardware does hardware encoding use exactly?

[GriffGaming]

I am looking to start streaming and I'm not sure if i should use software encoding or hardware encoding.  I have a ryzen 1700 and a 1060 3gb

[jj9987]

Nvidia NVENC, Intel Quick Sync Video are two most common technologies. You only have the first available.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, jj9987 said:

Nvidia NVENC, Intel Quick Sync Video are two most common technologies.

Just to clarify to the OP: Quick Sync Video is only available, if you have an Intel CPU with built-in GPU. Both NVIDIA and AMD, on the other hand, offer a hardware-encoder/-decoder in all their current gaming-GPU; since you have a GTX1060, you already have the NVENC-encoder and can use that.

[jj9987]

Just now, WereCatf said:

Just to clarify to the OP: Quick Sync Video is only available, if you have an Intel CPU with built-in GPU. Both NVIDIA and AMD, on the other hand, offer a hardware-encoder/-decoder in all their current gaming-GPU; since you have a GTX1060, you already have the NVENC-encoder and can use that.

Edited my post already

[jooroth18]

Software encoding uses the CPU to encode and hardware encoding uses Nvidia Cuda through NVENC. Generally, Software encoding looks much better but hardware encoding is much more efficent. Since you have a ryzen 1700, with 16 threads, just use software encoding.

[PlayStation 2]

Hardware encoding takes advantage of a specific part of the GPU which allows hardware-level encoding and decoding of certain videos. It has different names for its different implementations (Intel QuickSync, Nvidia NVENC and AMD VCE) but they all do the same thing. They enable significantly faster and lighter encoding and decoding at the cost of quality when encoding.

Software encoding makes use of the CPU instead and doesn't rely on using hardware that can do encoding to do encoding. Usually, the quality is significantly higher at the cost of performance if your encoding settings get more demanding.

 

Depending on what software you use, I'd recommend different things. Using Shadowplay? Well, use the GPU. Using OBS? Play around with settings and use the 1700.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Hardware encoding takes advantage of a specific part of the GPU which allows hardware-level encoding and decoding of certain videos. It has different names for its different implementations (Intel QuickSync, Nvidia NVENC and AMD VCE) but they all do the same thing. They enable significantly faster and lighter encoding and decoding at the cost of quality when encoding.

Software encoding makes use of the CPU instead and doesn't rely on using hardware that can do encoding to do encoding. Usually, the quality is significantly higher at the cost of performance if your encoding settings get more demanding.

 

Depending on what software you use, I'd recommend different things. Using Shadowplay? Well, use the GPU. Using OBS? Play around with settings and use the 1700.

Well, with higher bit rates, the quality isn't necessarily lower, and would still be quite applicable for offline recording. For live streaming, going with a software encoder gives the highest quality for a given (usually very limited) bit rate.

[GriffGaming]

1 hour ago, jooroth18 said:

Software encoding uses the CPU to encode and hardware encoding uses Nvidia Cuda through NVENC. Generally, Software encoding looks much better but hardware encoding is much more efficent. Since you have a ryzen 1700, with 16 threads, just use software encoding.

thanks!

thats just what i needed

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Whether or not hardware encoding ends up being used is another question. After Effects was supposed to use CUDA on my system and ended up just pinning my CPU at 100% on all 6 cores with the GPU doing absolutely nothing.