Question / Help AMD GPU Encoder

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C6H12O6

New Member
Hey everyone,

in my current system I am using a GTX 960 with an old i5 processor. I plan to renew my system with an AMD RX 580 or 590 and an other i7 processor.
At the moment I am using the NVENC encoder from Nvidia for capturing but with the new GPU this encoder won't work anymore. So my question is if there exists an AMD GPU Encoder in OBS and how good the quality, compared to the NVENC Encoder really is.

Thanks for your answers
C6H12O6
 
koala

koala

Active Member
There is a hardware encoder on AMD GPUs, and OBS supports it. However, from the 3 supported hardware encoders (Nvenc on Nvidia GPUs, Quicksync on Intel iGPU, AMD), AMD is the one with the lowest encoding quality. It also suffers severely (lags, choppy video) if the GPU is near maximum use by a game, since it seems to use some of the GPU resources itself. Nvenc is a dedicated circuit, so it doesn't suffer the same.

If you intend to use OBS and intend to use a hardware encoder to relieve the CPU from encoding, I recommend choosing a Nvidia GPU. Its nvenc encoder is really good and the best among the 3 supported encoders.

If you intend to stream, getting a Nvidia GPU for Nvenc is a good investment. Really.

If you intend to record only, you can choose Quicksync as encoder alternative, if you have a Intel CPU that comes with an iGPU. Quicksync in ICQ mode, suitable only for recording, is able to achieve as good quality as Nvenc. The only cost is a bit larger file size.
The Intel CPUs with an F as suffix don't have an iGPU, the others should have one. The mainboard must support it and you need to enable it in BIOS.

I see the AMD encoder only as fallback if no other encoder is available on a given machine. But if you design a new PC, you are able to invest in hardware with a better encoder.
 
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C6H12O6

New Member
Thank you very much. Maybe I'll try the Quicksync Encoder with my current CPU (i5 4570) and compare it to the NVENC encoder. I prefer buying an AMD GPU because the price of them is even lower, but when the encoding quality of them is really so bad, I have to buy an other NVIDIA GPU.
 
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ruhtragnorts

Member
AMD Encoder is bugged right now and AMD is aware of it with the issues with OBS.
It's a known issue inside of the driver release notes.
 
gggiovanny

gggiovanny

New Member
Lawrence_SoCal said:
Have new drivers resolved/addressed this?
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Well, I used AMD encoding yesterday on a rx 480 and I didnt see any chopy video or lags in the stream itself while playing Overwatch. I'm unaware of the encoding quality , 'cause i'm very new to streaming and I didnt already tested the other encoding options.
 
koala

koala

Active Member
The image quality of the AMD encoder is worse than the other ones. The image is more grainy and more foggy.
 
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undirty20

New Member
Im using Radeon HD 6700 and downloded the amd encoder but still, it doesnt show on list in OBS as option for encoder
 
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Deleted member 121471

StreamFX Beta zero-copy fix allows the AMD encoder to have significantly reduced performance impact, like AMD Relive or NVENC already did but it's still not great for streaming, as you need roughly 20% more bitrate for the same quality, compared to the x264 "very fast" and Pascal NVENC. Turing is way ahead in terms of encoding capabilities in bitrate limited scenarios.
 
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d967

New Member
6900xt user here, JUNE, 13.06.2021 and latest win10 / amd chipset/gpu driver.

Always been using Nvidia GPUs, but now due to miner madness i got 6900XT after 1080ti. No complains regarding GPU in games, its really fast, stable and ~3080-3090 level. But as for encoder at OBS - there are problems. Stutters, lockdowns, application hangs both OBS and game (Warzone mostly)

I would suggest OBS devs either to remove AMD encoder support, cause software x64 is way more stable, better or to improve its support. Because AMD driver have support for Radeon Relive (same thing as Nvidia Shadowplay) and its working excellent. It seems not like AMD problem, but poor support from OBS.

Also, AMD AMF support is present at a Mediacoder software tool (via ffmpeg) and there are zero problems - i have converted tons of videos to H265 - and its fine there.
 
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d967

New Member
Well, I need to add that with 6900xt OBS is unusable with games at all, even with software encoding. For some reason capturing from the card in games does not work properly (monitor or application capture any possible way) - many frame skips (I would say just a still image) Its sad that amd gpus are not supported well with OBS. AMD driver built in streaming/recording works fine, but there are much less possibilities with scene selection etc. Comon guys, show AMD some love :)

Is there a bug tracker for OBS somewhere? I can provide recordings or other info if needed.
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
d967 said:
Well, I need to add that with 6900xt OBS is unusable with games at all, even with software encoding. For some reason capturing from the card in games does not work properly (monitor or application capture any possible way) - many frame skips (I would say just a still image) Its sad that amd gpus are not supported well with OBS. AMD driver built in streaming/recording works fine, but there are much less possibilities with scene selection etc. Comon guys, show AMD some love :)

Is there a bug tracker for OBS somewhere? I can provide recordings or other info if needed.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a different problem, if you can't capture properly. THAT should work just fine, if set up correctly. It's just encoding with AMF that's the problem. It'd be a good idea to open a new thread with a logfile from a streaming/recording session where the issue was occurring, and track down your underlying issue.

The OBS dev formerly working on the AMF plugin quit, at least in part because AMD don't give a crap and their drivers keep misreporting feature levels among other hassles and zero support. AMD cares about AMF precisely enough to say "AMD cares about AMF", and no further.
 
S

Some1sm

New Member
AMD added in their latest driver release this statement, to be fair I didn't have problems recording with my RX 6800 with StreamFX until start of july +/- when a driver release made my drivers crash for few seconds causing crashes on OBS and the application I was recording. Streaming is totally fine, I come from a RTX 2070Super and I can't see any noticeable difference while streaming on 1440p so that's that idk
1628259987241.png
 
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d967

New Member
All true. still OBS is in memory even after application closed. starting/stopping recording using amd encoder is still unstable, it may stop or it may not. But its slightly better now. BTW i have found reason for OBS frame skipping on my 6900xt - at least it captures with software encoder fine now. Its resizable bar. When RS bar is on - there are problems, lots of stutters, frame skips, etc. Once its off - its good. However, AMD Driver builtin recording produces MUCH stable recording, video is smooth. I would say they miss only good scene manager. Its sad that " The OBS dev formerly working on the AMF plugin quit, at least in part because AMD don't give a crap and their drivers keep misreporting feature levels among other hassles and zero support. " But I agree that nvidia pays much more attention to developer support. I would go 3090/3080 for sure, the reason is 6900xt was 2x cheaper when i got it with ~ similar to 3080ti perfomance level. Its ok for gaming anyway :) For streamers Nvidia or dedicated pc is the only option now. AMD cards - no sorry.
 
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