This article is for an older version of HandBrake. All versions.

Dieser Artikel ist für eine ältere Version von HandBrake. Alle Versionen.

NVIDIA NVENC

Supported Hardware and Configurations

NVIDIA GeForce GTX Pascal (1050+), GTX/RTX Turing (1650+, 2060+) or Ampere (3060+) series GPU or better
NVIDIA Graphics Driver 456.71 or later
Windows 10
Experimental Linux support is available in HandBrake’s command line interface

Please note, these are not hard limits. Hardware encoding via NVENC might work on older series GPUs and older operating systems, but this is not officially supported.

Enabling support

Support for the NVIDIA NVENC encoder is enabled in preferences on the video tab. If your system is not supported, the option will be disabled.

Presets

The following presets are available under the ‘Hardware’ category in the presets menu:

H.265 NVENC 2160P 4K
H.265 NVENC 1080p

These are a good starting point for configuring HandBrake to use these encoders.

Performance

HandBrake supports the NVIDIA NVENC encoder but does not support the NVDEC decoder.

The CPU will still be used for:

Video decoding
All video filters
Audio encoding
HandBrake’s engine, A/V sync etc
Subtitles
Muxing

These operations all happen in parallel as the job progresses. As such, it is normal to see high (or even 100%) CPU utilisation even when using NVENC.

It is also common, particularly on lower-end or older hardware, for the CPU to be a bottleneck which will cause lower than expected performance. To minimize this effect, disable any filters that you do not require.

Advanced options

The NVIDIA NVENC hardware encoder has a limited set of advanced encoder options. Generally speaking, it is not recommended to change these parameters, as the built-in presets offer a good range of options for common uses.

If using HandBrake’s graphical interface, you can set the options in the Advanced Options field on the Video tab in the following format:

option1=value1:option2=value2

If using HandBrake’s command line interface, use the --encopts parameter as follows:

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

Option value 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
An alphanumeric string of characters. See the option’s comments for acceptable values.

Options list

Option	Type	H.264	H.265	Detail
gpu	string	✓	✓	GPU selection. Values: `any` (default), `0` (first GPU), `1` (second GPU), etc.
coder	string	✓		Coder selection. Values: `auto` (default), `cabac`, `cavlc`.
temporal-aq	boolean	✓		Set to `1` to enable Temporal Adaptive Quality, `0` to disable (default). Note the hyphen for H.264.
temporal_aq	boolean		✓	Set to `1` to enable Temporal Adaptive Quality, `0` to disable (default). Note the underscore for H.265. Requires RTX Turing 1660 or better.
spatial-aq	boolean	✓		Set to `1` to enable Spatial Adaptive Quality, `0` to disable (default). Note the hyphen for H.264.
spatial_aq	boolean		✓	Set to `1` to enable Spatial Adaptive Quality, `0` to disable (default). Note the underscore for H.265.
aq-strength	int	✓	✓	When Spatial AQ is enabled, the values scale is `1` (low) – `15` (aggressive). Default: `8`.
nonref_p	boolean	✓	✓	Set to `1` to enable automatic insertion of non-reference P-frames, `0` to disable (default).
strict_gop	boolean	✓	✓	Set to `1` to minimize GOP-to-GOP rate fluctuations, `0` to disable (default).
weighted_pred	boolean	✓	✓	Set to `1` to enable weighted prediction, `0` to disable (default).
rc-lookahead	int	✓	✓	Number of frames to look ahead for rate control. Default: `0`.
b_adapt	boolean	✓		When lookahead is enabled, set this to `1` to enable adaptive B-frame decision (default), `0` to disable.
no-scenecut	boolean	✓	✓	When lookahead is enabled, set this to `1` to disable adaptive I-frame insertion at scene cuts, `0` to enable (default).