That's interesting. Did finaly Cyberlink manage to ditch the reliance on Windows selection (Optimus for Nvidia) and created their own path of selecting the GPU's video encoders?
Or did nvidia actually changed the behavior of Optimus in the latest drivers to pass also the NVENC to the OS and Cyberlink is just making use of that?
This is applicable to AMD platform too?

Because IMO, until now, that selection in nvidia CP (drivers) was applicable only to the 3D CUDA cores. Useful just for a handful of effects, but not for the video decoding/encoding ASIC block.

Hi Jeff,

We've forwarded the query and checked with CL, who have said the following:
"the new behavior only affects video encoding. The new architecture is to resolve the legacy complaints that PowerDirector can’t use dGPU to encode videos on a hybrid laptop. This complaint only exists on a hybrid laptop and that’s why we specify laptop in the release note. The new architecture is also implemented on desktop to sync up the behavior on all platform"

Cheers
PDM

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Quote That's interesting. Did finaly Cyberlink manage to ditch the reliance on Windows selection (Optimus for Nvidia) and created their own path of selecting the GPU's video encoders?
Or did nvidia actually changed the behavior of Optimus in the latest drivers to pass also the NVENC to the OS and Cyberlink is just making use of that?
This is applicable to AMD platform too?

Because IMO, until now, that selection in nvidia CP (drivers) was applicable only to the 3D CUDA cores. Useful just for a handful of effects, but not for the video decoding/encoding ASIC block.

I think all they did was expose NVENC during encoding, basically like other apps have done for a long time. This feature extension not really a Optimus feature and/or Nvidia, just CL accessing NVENC through Nvidia provided API during encode operation. Primary GPU still does decode, no toggle there to use NVDEC if primary is Intel on the hybrid platform.

I don't know what happens on multiple GPU AMD platform and/or mixed mode.

I often have a dual GPU (somewhat similar to your Quadro and GeForce configuration) and this new feature (although nothing to select or change in PD) affects the encoding behavior. As you, I do not have an iGPU. This effect would probably be difficult to detect on your platform as both your GPU's are 6th gen NVENC.

Appears CL's main intent was laptop owners to expose NVENC encoding, the current feature implementation can also affect other platforms too, even non hybrid platforms.

Jeff

Quote Hi Jeff,

We've forwarded the query and checked with CL, who have said the following:
"the new behavior only affects video encoding. The new architecture is to resolve the legacy complaints that PowerDirector can’t use dGPU to encode videos on a hybrid laptop. This complaint only exists on a hybrid laptop and that’s why we specify laptop in the release note. The new architecture is also implemented on desktop to sync up the behavior on all platform"

Cheers
PDM

Thanks PDM, not much additional clarity but everything always helps.

For reference, complaint also discussed on desktops multiple times:
https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/49546.page
https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/81933.page

two posts to span a few years and releases. As posted in those threads, some of us used switchboxes on the desktops to expose alternate GPU capability in PD when desired. This approach changed both encode and decode vs new PD19 GPU switch logic which appears to only address encode switching.

Jeff

Quote
The new architecture is to resolve the legacy complaints that PowerDirector can’t use dGPU to encode videos on a hybrid laptop. This complaint only exists on a hybrid laptop and that’s why we specify laptop in the release note. The new architecture is also implemented on desktop to sync up the behavior on all platform"

This is great news for all the users that bought gaming laptops with dGPU only to see that the NVENC was not exposed to PD!
Eliminates the need for the more expensive workstation class laptops with hardware mux swicthing.

FWIW, this change might have been in conjunction with nVidia too. I say this because, ever since the past few nVidia (Studio) driver updates (starting about four months ago or so), whenever I update the nVidia driver, Windows will temporarily - until I reboot - show 3 display monitors, even tho I only have two. And my 2ndary monitor (Intel) will temporarily become my Primary.

(I'm guessing I get a count of three because the GTX-1050 Super will support two monitors. The next time I update the video driver, I'll try to remember to use the Identify tool in Windows to see if one of my two monitors reports as #3.)

As I reported elsewhere in this forum, ever since Windows Hardware scheduling and Intel's DCH video driver, I've been able to force PD 18 to use my nVidia for hardware encoding via the Windows Graphics Setting. Since PD 18 hasn't changed (via a patch), this shows that something else has changed in the Windows ecosystem.