Boost Your GPU Usage with FFMPEG During Video Encoding

Описание: Learn how to optimize FFMPEG for efficient GPU usage while encoding high-quality videos. Improve performance and avoid bottlenecks with dedicated NVENC cores.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63285578/ asked by the user 'Entropy' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10820136/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63288801/ provided by the user 'szatmary' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/210785/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Boost Your GPU Usage with FFMPEG During Video Encoding

In video processing, especially with tools like FFMPEG, maximizing GPU usage is crucial for efficient encoding, especially when handling high-quality images and striving for real-time streaming. If you’ve encountered issues with low GPU utilization during your encoding process, you’re not alone. Let’s dive into the specifics of this issue and explore how to enhance your GPU performance effectively.

The Situation

Imagine receiving 20 to 30 uncompressed images per second, each ranging from 40 to 50 MB in size. You need to encode these images into a lossless 265 video format at 1920x1080 resolution, and while you're pushing for efficiency, you're still in the testing phase. Despite having powerful hardware (a modern Quadro GPU, a 6-core Intel CPU, and an NVMe hard drive), your GPU is only hitting about 10% utilization during encoding. This performance level is far below your expectations, especially when you anticipate working with a more potent GPU in the future.

Understanding GPU Usage in Video Encoding

When it comes to video encoding, the way GPUs function is different than many might expect. Here’s a breakdown of why you might not be seeing the GPU usage you desire:

Dedicated Hardware: Unlike general-purpose computational tasks that benefit from more cores, video encoding relies on specific hardware circuits called NVENC cores. These cores are designed to handle video encoding tasks efficiently.

Encoding Primitives: The GPU uses dedicated circuitry for video encoding, but when this circuitry is maxed out, the GPU will not increase its utilization further. Adding more general GPU cores won’t help in these cases; what really matters is the number of NVENC cores available.

Solutions to Optimize GPU Usage

To enhance your GPU performance and get closer to that target of 80% utilization, consider the following strategies:

1. Upgrade Your Hardware

If you want to improve GPU performance specifically for encoding tasks:

Choose a GPU with More NVENC Cores: When you're looking to upgrade, focus on a model that has a higher number of NVENC cores. This will directly impact your encoding efficiency and overall GPU utilization.

2. Optimize Your FFMPEG Command

While your FFMPEG command looks solid, consider these tweaks to further enhance GPU performance:

Explore Different Presets: The -preset option influences encoding speed and quality. While 'lossless' is essential for your needs, consider experimenting with other settings that could balance speed and quality better at different stages of your processing.

Adjust Bit Rate Settings: Ensure you're using an appropriate bitrate that matches your output requirements without overwhelming the encoding process.

Use Faster Input Methods: Instead of connecting to individual images, consider batch processing or using different input formats that might optimize throughput.

3. Monitor and Test Your Configuration

Use Monitoring Tools: Tools such as GPU-Z can help you monitor real-time GPU usage while encoding. This way, you can spot bottlenecks and amend your approach promptly.

Test with Different Workloads: Experiment with various input sizes, resolutions, and encoding formats to see how they impact GPU performance.

Conclusion

Increasing GPU utilization in FFMPEG when encoding high-quality video can be challenging but is achievable through hardware upgrades, careful command configuration, and effective monitoring. Focus on investing in a card with more NVENC cores to see a marked improvement in performance.

By understanding how GPUs handle video encoding and by implementing these strategies, you’ll be better equipped to maximize your encoding setup for efficiency and speed.