GPU and Encoding
The agent automatically detects the best available encoder on your system. Hardware encoding (using your GPU) provides the best performance with minimal CPU usage.
How Encoder Selection Works
On startup, the agent probes for available encoders in this order:
- NVIDIA NVENC -- if an NVIDIA GPU with encoding support is detected
- VA-API -- if AMD or Intel GPU with VA-API encoding support is detected
- x264 (CPU) -- software fallback, always available
The first working encoder is selected. You can override this in the config file if needed.
NVIDIA GPUs
NVIDIA GPUs from the Maxwell generation onwards (GTX 900 series, 2015+) support hardware encoding.
Setup:
- Install the proprietary NVIDIA driver (the installer does not install GPU drivers)
- Verify with:
nvidia-smi
The agent automatically uses NVENC when an NVIDIA GPU is available. NVIDIA GPUs also support 4:4:4 chroma subsampling on supported cards, which provides the sharpest possible text rendering.
NVENC DMA-BUF Mode
On NVIDIA systems, VDO_NVENC_MODE=auto lets the agent use DMA-BUF zero-copy when the driver accepts the imported frame and fall back when it does not. You can force a path for field diagnosis:
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