Tesla for NVENC capture and encoding w/ AMD primary GPU?

[imrazor]

Currently I have a AMD Vega 56 w/ Fedora 32 that I've been playing a lot of games on. Since OBS doesn't support any sort of AMD based encoding, I was wondering if I could drop in an old Nvidia compute card (e.g., Tesla) and then use NVENC to capture and encode video.

Is this possible? I've been told it's impossible to use NVENC to capture video on a GPU other than the one the game is being played on. Is this true? Is it true in the case of a computer card like a Tesla or mining card?

Thanks for any feedback...

 

[Tuna]

Since OBS doesn't support any sort of AMD based encoding [..]

That is incorrect. AMD cards are supported via VA-API.

I've been told it's impossible to use NVENC to capture video on a GPU other than the one the game is being played on.

Eventual possible. Defininately not supported. Most likely to be more inefficient as any other solution.

Is it true in the case of a computer card like a Tesla or mining card?

As for all of these kind questions - asks your card manufacturer what is supported on what hardware.

 

[imrazor]

That is incorrect. AMD cards are supported via VA-API.

Do you know what libraries/packages need to be installed to make AMD encoding available? I believe I have installed the VA-API drivers for gstreamer, but that didn't enable any AMD encoding options in OBS. I'm not sure what else needs to be installed.

 

[Tuna]

On OBS you need to go to the "advanced" tab and find FFMPEG VA-API. Your drivers need to be installed and FFMPEG needs to be compiled with VA-API support (is usually the case, unless you build something weird yourself).

Check on the commandline via "vainfo" (package with same name may need to be installed) for listing supported features of your hardware.

 

[imrazor]

Thanks, I found the "Simple" option and changed it, and now there is an FFMPEG VA-API option. I'll have to give it a try later this week. Any particular reason the hardware encoder is 'hidden' in the advanced options?

The Tesla would be a used one, since I can't reasonably afford a new $10K video card. Some of the older models can be found dirt cheap. I was hoping I could leverage an old, cheap Tesla into a powerful capture/editing machine.

 

[Tuna]

Linux has the lowest user base of this app. Things are not that well tested.. that's why this option is not a primary option. It is all open source and depends on free will and time invested by people.

An integrated Vega core probably gives you similar result. The only considerable option imo is to use a current gen NVidia card as primary video card due to its better hardware encoder chip.

All other theoretically options have drawbacks diminishing your theoretical advantage.

 

[imrazor]

I actually did get this working, but with a GTX 1050 Ti rather than a Tesla. Gaming on Linux often involves a heavy performance penalty since a graphics API translation layer is usually involved. Taking some load off the Vega will hopefully result in a smoother experience with somewhat higher frame rates.

But yes, it is possible to use NVENC to encode gameplay whilst playing on a Radeon GPU. I'm not sure why there's misinformation about only being able to capture gameplay on the GPU running the game.