HandBrake Documentation

Nvidia NVEnc Encoder

Supported Hardware and Configurations

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 10 and RTX 20 Series graphics cards are supported.
• Driver “399.24” or later must be installed.
• Windows 7 SP1 and Later. (Linux may work but via the command line interface only)

Please note, these are not hard limits and the feature may work on older series and operating systems, but this is not officially supported.

Enabling support

Support for the NVEnc encoder can be enabled in preferences under the video tab. If your system is not supported, the option will be greyed out.

Performance

Take note that only the encode portion of the encode pipeline is done on the Nvidia ASIC hardware. Every stage prior and after in the pipeline including (decoding, filters, a/v sync, muxing etc.) all happen on the CPU. As a result, it is normal to have high, or 100% CPU utilisation during encodes.

It is common, particularly on lower end hardware that the CPU may be a bottleneck for the Nvidia encoder. To minimise this effect, turn off any filters that you do not require.

Using the Advanced Options

NvEnc does have a limited set of advanced encoder options that can be used. Generally speaking is is not recommended to change these parameters. The built-in presets offer a good range of options.

From the command line, you can use the –encopts parameter as follows:

--encopts="option1=value1:option2=value2"

From the graphical user interface, just set the options in the dedicated options text box on the Video tab.

option1=value1:option2=value2

Option Types

The following value types are supported (each option only accepts one value type):

• integer A number that can be written without a fractional or decimal component.

• boolean 0 means off (or disabled). 1 means on (or enabled).

• string Takes a setting defined as s string. See comment for details.

Available Options