Question / Help Minimum GPU required for hardware encoding

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nboy0782

New Member
Hello!

I currently have a NVIDIA G Force 210 GPU but the latest version of OBS won't detect it (despite updating the drivers many times). Thus, I wanted to inquire if anyone has recommendations for the minimum quality GPU I need for hardware encoding? I'm looking for something I can purchase off eBay at a reasonable price (under $300). Thanks in advance!
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Yes, but ONLY the super. They've been super unclear and misleading about all of this; the original 1650 had the Volta encoder, and the 1650 SUPER (but only that one, AFAIK) has the Turing encoder, and the phrase "Turing architecture" was used for both because the original 1650 had Turing shaders, but NOT the encoder...

I end up suggesting the 1660 because I have one and I *know* it has the Turing encoder :)

But yes, the 1650 Super with the new encoder is under $200, but the 1660 can still be had for under $300.
 
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nboy0782

New Member
Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion. I see on the matrix that the Nvidia 1660 maxes out at 2 concurrent sessions. Is this actually the case in practice? I'm looking to hardware encode several streams simultaneously so I'd need it to run more than 2 streams at once
 
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nboy0782

New Member
Gotcha. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like i'll need a Nividia Quadro T2000 at the minimum to hardware encode multiple streams in the latest OBS? The Pascal family won't do the trick - just the Turning encoders?
 
koala

koala

Active Member
It's a business decision by Nvidia to allow only 2 sessions on consumer cards. The chip is probably the same on all cards of the same chip generation. The reasoning behind is probably that no server provider should be able to provide nvenc encoding with consumer cards in their server farms but have to buy the expensive business cards. This is becoming a real thing as of lately, since all the upcoming cloud gaming server providers like Stadia need to buy business cards instead of consumer cards, as hardware encoding for streaming is a must for these providers.

The high quality nvenc on the consumer cards is probably just a byproduct of the development for cloud gaming-able GPU cards. This high quality is a must for cloud gaming, otherwise gamers don't accept gaming via internet.
Use it as far as it fits you, be happy with what it provides, and don't ask why such a good but rarely used feature (seen on the whole gamer customer base) can be found on consumer cards at all. As I said, I assume it's just a byproduct. If it were only an alibi-feature, it would be as meh as AMD VCE. AMD probably tried to develop for the same target some years ago, but was outperformed by Nvidia's nvenc, so they stopped real development of their hardware encoder and ship the same meh quality for years. Nvidia's nvenc, on the other hand, took a leap on the Turing chip.
 
koala

koala

Active Member
I assume every GPU listed there will work with OBS, but I don't know it for sure. I never used one of the professional ones, and I don't know anyone and don't remember forum posts of anyone who owns one and is using OBS successfully with multiple streams. I assume it will work, but don't blame me if there is some other issue that may thwart your intentions.
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
The matrix doesn't indicate "compatibility with OBS" it indicates what kind of encoding the card can do.

For instance, the first card on that list, the 1030, uses their GP108 chipset, and includes *no* encoding capabilities-- hence the row of "NO" indicators and "max number of concurrent sessions": zero.

2 sessions if enough to simultaneously record and stream, and I think since the replay buffer is just using the record session, that's all OBS is able to use anyway.

If you're doing VR, though, that uses one, and other apps might also use one (ShadowPlay, GameDVR).

I'm concerned about your mention of "unlimited" streams because that makes me think you're planning on doing something with OBS that it isn't really intended for. One copy of OBS can run two NVENC sessions-- one stream, one record. Doing more than that means running *multiple instances of OBS* and you may well run into problems if you start doing that.

If what you're really running is something like a Plex server, then yeah, you want a Quadro and not a gaming card.
 
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Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Let me clarify. Those are the limits *per instance of OBS*.

And if you're using NVENC, care about quality, and are simultaneously streaming and recording locally, that's your two right there.
 
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