# Hardware encoding - really confused after switching from Manjaro to EOS **URL:** \ **Category:** Gaming, sound and video\ **Created:** [December 25, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809 "2021-12-25T16:45:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/1 "2021-12-25T16:45:56Z")
I recently switched from Manjaro to EOS on my main machine. It’s a laptop with a i5-10210U and I often use this computer to encode videos. Since the CPU is much too slow for HEVC CPU encoding I rely on HW encoding, using the GPU of the Intel chip. I use Shotcut and these are the settings I always used for encoding: ![settings](https://forum.endeavouros.com/uploads/default/original/3X/1/d/1d33b1f0c25d4cdcfb525b729c5308c9127b159b.png) On Manjaro, using those settings, I got export times of ~1.25. What I mean is that it took about 1h 15min to export 1h of video. Strangely, now on EOS, using the same settings, export time is much longer: ![hevc_vaapi](https://forum.endeavouros.com/uploads/default/original/3X/5/8/582f5834eb33bc522a63893d2d23d99a5febf496.jpeg) As you can see it’s now about 55 minutes for a 30 minute test video, so about 1h50min for a 1h video. You can also see that the CPU usage is rather low, but that was also the case on Manjaro. Since this is far from ideal, I looked through the settings and found another HW encoder besides hevc\_vaapi. It’s called hevc\_qsv and I remember that I tried it on Manjaro only once but never used it because it was slower while using more CPU. Now, on EOS, this encoder is actually the faster one: ![hevc_qsv](https://forum.endeavouros.com/uploads/default/original/3X/b/d/bda064e7485a0343420c4a71829611961cf82416.jpeg) This is about 43 minutes for the test video, so about 1h26min for a 1 hour video. Still slower than hevc\_vaapi was on Manjaro and it also uses around twice as much CPU. OK, I hope you can see, why I’m confused. Why was hevc\_vaapi so much faster on Manjaro? Why was hevc\_qsv slower on Manjaro but is actually faster on EOS? And, another thing I don’t really get, what’s even the difference between hevc\_vaapi and hevc\_qsv? I always thought that VAAPI is just an API to use HW encoding, so shouldn’t those options be the same? Can anybody shed some light on this all? ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 4:49pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/2 "2021-12-25T16:49:32Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > Why was hevc\_vaapi so much faster on Manjaro? Why was hevc\_qsv slower on Manjaro but is actually faster on EOS? You’d have to compare the setup on both, for example the running kernel and the driver in use for the Intel GPU, as well as things like power settings, desktop compositor, and other running applications using the GPU. This page is also worth reading: [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hardware\_video\_acceleration](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hardware_video_acceleration) ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/3 "2021-12-25T16:58:52Z")
Kernel was current LTS on both. Can’t compare drivers anymore ofc. And yeah, I’ve read the Wiki page. I have both, intel-media-driver and libva-intel-driver installed. Strangely, the WIKI page only mentions support up to coffee lake (2017). My CPU is a 10th Gen from 2019. Is it possible that Manjaro has newer drivers than what’s available for Arch? Hard to imagine, but who knows? ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/4 "2021-12-25T17:00:05Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > Can’t compare drivers anymore ofc. It might be that Manjaro was using the `intel` driver whereas EnOS is using `modesetting`, but that’s a pure guess. > [@NX-01](#): > > Is it possible that Manjaro has newer drivers than what’s available for Arch? No. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/5 "2021-12-25T17:02:59Z")
> [@jonathon](#): > > It might be that Manjaro was using the `intel` driver whereas EnOS is using `modesetting`, but that’s a pure guess. No idea what `modesetting` is but is there any way to check this? ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/6 "2021-12-25T17:05:12Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > No idea what `modesetting` is [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel\_graphics](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_graphics) > [@NX-01](#): > > is there any way to check this? ```auto inxi -Ga ``` is as good as place as any to start. ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/7 "2021-12-25T17:09:16Z")
I love Igni, so why not use Inxi also 😆 ```auto Graphics: Device-1: Intel CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9b41 class-ID: 0300 ``` Is this helpful? edit: Is it possible that I need to enable GuC / HuC firmware loading? ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/8 "2021-12-25T17:20:55Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > Inxi What happened to the rest of the output? But anyway, looks like you’re probably using `modesetting` given it’s using a driver from the kernel. > [@NX-01](#): > > Is this helpful? I don’t know - is it? > [@NX-01](#): > > Is it possible that I need to enable GuC / HuC firmware loading? Maybe? I’d have thought it would be done by default for compatible GPUs though… ? What does the wiki page say? ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/9 "2021-12-25T17:29:43Z")
> [@jonathon](#): > > What happened to the rest of the output? The rest is about the Nvidia GPU, the web cam, the display…not useful here I guess. > [@jonathon](#): > > I don’t know - is it? Well, if I knew I wouldn’t ask… > [@jonathon](#): > > Maybe? I’d have thought it would be done by default for compatible GPUs though… ? What does the wiki page say? > On supported Skylake and newer processors, some video features (e.g. CBR rate control on SKL low-power encoding mode) may require the use of an updated GPU firmware,[[3]](https://github.com/intel/media-driver#known-issues-and-limitations) which is loaded by default only on Gen 11+ hardware since Linux 5.4. Seems like it’s not enabled by default on 10th Gen CPU. I just don’t know if this is even connected to my problem. It just mentions CBR, which I don’t use. ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/10 "2021-12-25T17:33:42Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > The rest is about the Nvidia GPU Wait - you have an NVIDIA GPU and you’re doing encoding on the Intel GPU? Why not use NVENC? ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/11 "2021-12-25T17:37:11Z")
Because it’s a MX250 which doesn’t support NVENC 🙁 ---
**Author:** ![jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jonathon/32/18722_2.png) [@jonathon](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jonathon)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/12 "2021-12-25T18:21:44Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > MX250 which doesn’t support NVENC MX250 is Pascal-based, which according to the Arch wiki that supports NVENC… ? ---
**Author:** ![inffy](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/inffy/32/8160_2.png) [@inffy](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/inffy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/13 "2021-12-25T18:22:38Z")
> [@NX-01](#): > > have both, intel-media-driver and libva-intel-driver installed. Strangely, the WIKI page only mentions support up to coffee lake (2017). My CPU is a 10th Gen from 2019. Same cpu and gpu here. intel-media-driver is the va-api driver for the gpu (all the newer igpu from intel use this one). ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/14 "2021-12-25T19:13:26Z")
> [@jonathon](#): > > > [@NX-01](#): > > > > MX250 which doesn’t support NVENC > > MX250 is Pascal-based, which according to the Arch wiki that supports NVENC… ? > In laptop graphics, NVIDIA MX Graphics do not include **NVENC** as they are based on a Maxwell -generation GM108 or a Pascal-generation **GP108** chip. > **[Nvidia NVENC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_NVENC)** > > Nvidia NVENC (short for Nvidia Encoder)\[citation needed\] is a feature in Nvidia graphics cards that performs video encoding, offloading this compute-intensive task from the CPU to a dedicated part of the GPU. It was introduced with the Kepler-based GeForce 600 series in March 2012 (GT 610,GT620 and GT630 is Fermi Architecture). > The encoder is supported in many livestreaming and recording programs, such as vMix, Wirecast, Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and Bandicam, as well as video editing ap... ---
**Author:** ![NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/nx-01/32/36098_2.png) [@NX-01](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/NX-01)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/hardware-encoding-really-confused-after-switching-from-manjaro-to-eos/21809/15 "2021-12-25T19:31:48Z")
> [@inffy](#): > > > [@NX-01](#): > > > > have both, intel-media-driver and libva-intel-driver installed. Strangely, the WIKI page only mentions support up to coffee lake (2017). My CPU is a 10th Gen from 2019. > > Same cpu and gpu here. intel-media-driver is the va-api driver for the gpu (all the newer igpu from intel use this one). Guess that’s correct. I tried with just this one and with libva-intel-driver installed also. No difference.