In context: It is no secret Nvidia’s NVENC media engine in GeForce GPUs has been the popular choice for streamers for years, however AMD and Intel have not too long ago accomplished a good job of catching up. That stated, Group Inexperienced claims its RTX 40 sequence GPUs are nonetheless higher than AMD and Intel equivalents in relation to AV1 {hardware} encoding.
Not too long ago, AMD has been extolling the VRAM capability of its Radeon RX 6000 and RX 7000 sequence graphics playing cards, whereas criticizing Nvidia choices just like the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti which provide lower than comparable Radeon fashions regardless that they’ve a better price ticket.
This occurred simply as Nvidia was on the brink of launch certainly one of its Ada choices, so it was solely a matter of time earlier than Group Inexperienced would fireplace again at AMD. In a brand new weblog detailing the launch of OBS Studio 29.1, the corporate explains how GeForce RTX 40 sequence GPUs are extra succesful than each AMD and Intel alternate options in relation to AV1 encoding.
The brand new model of OBS comes sizzling on the heels of YouTube including assist for AV1 reside streaming over Enhanced RTMP, which is supposed to enhance video high quality whereas additionally decreasing bandwidth necessities. AV1 is way more computationally intensive than the extra generally used H.264 (AVC) codec, however now there are a number of built-in and devoted GPUs on the market that include partial or full assist for decoding it in {hardware}, so it is no shock corporations are utilizing each event to market it over the older format.
Nvidia says the AV1 encoder in its RTX 40 sequence GPUs is able to real-time AV1 {hardware} encoding, permitting you to stream in 4K at 60 frames per second. That is anyplace between 30 to 50 % extra environment friendly than reside streaming utilizing H.264, that means you may solely want round 10 Mbps of add bandwidth for a 4K60 stream.
Group Inexperienced claims you too can get a lot better video high quality utilizing the NVENC unit inside RTX 40 sequence versus opponents’ {hardware}, however we’re solely getting a screenshot for comparability the place Intel and AMD encodes do look a bit underwhelming. The corporate says it examined a 4K60 AV1 stream utilizing a GeForce RTX 4080, a Radeon RX 7900 XT, and an Intel Arc 770 with the OBS Studio default settings at 12 Mbps.
In fact, unbiased reviewers do not at all times arrive on the identical conclusions of their testing of those applied sciences. YouTuber EposVox not too long ago regarded on the new OBS Studio function whereas it was in beta and located that media engines within the latest Nvidia, AMD, and Intel GPUs are fairly comparable in relation to AV1 stream high quality. The one subject is that RX 7000 sequence GPUs wrestle with 4K60 streaming, however that can little question be corrected by way of software program updates.
It is also price noting Nvidia’s GeForce software program stack has areas the place it’s sorely missing compared to AMDs. The Nvidia Management Panel is arguably a relic at this level, GeForce Expertise can’t be used with out an Nvidia account, and the Nvidia ShadowPlay function has seen a lot much less love than AMD’s ReLive lately.
If something, we would like to see AMD work on one thing much like Nvidia’s RTX Remix for the sport modding neighborhood. It might additionally deliver Home windows assist for ROCm (AMD’s different to Nvidia CUDA) on shopper Radeon GPUs.
The latter will really occur someday within the coming months, however the former will doubtless stay a pipe dream. In the meantime, Intel’s Arc Management software program has typically been well-received by players and affords a pleasing consumer expertise, save for some small quirks.
