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Sep 27, 2026
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NVEnc is a free, open-source command-line encoder by rigaya that drives the dedicated NVENC chip in NVIDIA graphics cards, turning video into H.264, HEVC or AV1 far faster than a CPU can, on both Windows and Linux.
NVEnc is a free encoder that hands your video to the dedicated encoding chip built into NVIDIA graphics cards.
Two things share almost the same name here, and the difference matters.
NVENC in capitals is the hardware, while NVEnc, by the developer rigaya, is the free program that drives it.
What NVEnc Actually Is
Every modern NVIDIA card carries a small block of silicon that does nothing but encode video. It is separate from the part that renders games, which is why encoding on it costs you almost no frame rate.
NVENC is that block. It has been there since the GTX 600 series, and NVIDIA improves it every couple of generations.
NVEnc is what you actually download. It is a free, open-source program that talks to that chip, handles your input files, applies filters, and muxes the result. It runs from a command line rather than a window, which is the main thing to know before you click.
It runs on Windows and Linux, and it ships an AviUtl2 plugin for people already working in that editor. The Windows download is a .7z archive: unpack it anywhere and run NVEncC64.exe from a terminal.
Hardware or Software Encoding?
This is the question worth getting right, because the honest answer is not the one most pages give you.
Hardware encoding is faster, not better. At the same file size, a good software encoder still produces a better-looking result than NVENC does. What NVENC gives you is speed measured in multiples rather than percentages, and a CPU left free to do something else.
That trade is overwhelmingly worth it in some situations and clearly wrong in others. Use NVEnc when the encode has to finish soon, when you are recording or streaming live, or when you have a large batch and the CPU is needed elsewhere.
Use a software encoder like x265 or x264 when the file is going into an archive, when you are squeezing a release down to a target size, or when quality per megabyte is the whole point.
The gap has narrowed a lot since the early NVENC generations, and on recent cards it is smaller than most people assume. It has not closed.
Which Codecs Your Card Can Handle
This depends entirely on how old the GPU is, and it is the single most common reason a command fails.
- H.264 - every card from the GTX 600 series onwards. Still the safest output if the file has to play on someone else's device.
- HEVC - from the GTX 900 series onwards, roughly half the file size of H.264 at similar quality.
- AV1 - RTX 40-series and newer only. Better compression again, royalty-free, and the reason a lot of people upgraded.
Checking before you commit. If a command fails with a codec-not-supported message, the card is the limit rather than the software, and no version of NVEnc will change that.
Weighing HEVC against AV1 properly? Our guide on whether AV1 is better than H.265 covers the trade-offs, and the best 4K HEVC encoder looks at the high-resolution end.
What Changed in 9.36
NVEnc 9.36 was released on 27 September 2026, and most of it is about NVIDIA's AI video filters rather than the encoder itself.
- New frame interpolation filter. --vpp-nvvfx-framegen generates in-between frames, for example to smooth a 30fps clip towards 60fps.
- Better AI upscaling options. The ngx-vsr mode of --vpp-resize gains extra quality levels and new streaming modes from NVIDIA's updated Video Effects SDK 1.3.
- One filter removed. --vpp-nvvfx-artifact-reduction is gone, because NVIDIA dropped it from the SDK - old scripts that use it will need editing.
- Denoise models are a separate download. The AI denoise files are too large for the main package, so they now ship in their own archive, NVEncNVVFXDenoise_20260925_x64.7z.
- Better support for older cards. Builds now include code for Kepler GPUs such as the GTX 600 and 700 series, which avoids problems on the R470 driver those cards are stuck on.
- Bug fixes. --frames now works together with --trim, and fixes land for --vpp-tweak, --vpp-afs and pixel format conversion.
The AI filters build on NVIDIA's Video Effects SDK, which is aimed at RTX cards. The plain encoder still works on everything listed above.
The previous release, 9.35 on 11 September 2026, moved NVEnc to NVIDIA's NVENC SDK 13.1. It added AV1 hierarchical B-frames through --bref-mode and handling for mid-stream resolution changes through --adapt-resolution.
Where NVEnc Fits in a Workflow
Very few people run NVEnc on its own. It is usually the encoding step inside something larger.
StaxRip is the usual front end on Windows, giving you a proper interface over NVEnc along with filtering and container work. FastFlix is a lighter alternative built around FFmpeg with HDR10 metadata handling.
For AV1 specifically, Av1ador is worth a look. HandBrake also drives NVENC directly if you would rather stay in one familiar application.
On the input side, DGDecNV decodes MPEG-2 and Blu-ray sources using the same GPU, which keeps the whole chain off the CPU. NVEnc also accepts Vapoursynth and AviSynth scripts directly if you filter that way.
Afterwards, MKVToolNix tidies tracks and chapters without re-encoding, and FFmpeg covers anything else the pipeline needs.
What You Need to Run It
- An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600 series card or newer, with the codec support listed above.
- A current NVIDIA driver, since NVEnc has used NVENC SDK 13.1 since version 9.35. GTX 600 and 700 owners on the final R470 driver are covered by the Kepler fix in 9.36.
- Windows or Linux. There is no macOS build, because Apple hardware has no NVENC.
- Comfort with a command line, or a front end like StaxRip to supply one for you.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
The tell is your graphics card. On AMD or Intel hardware NVEnc will not run at all, because NVENC is NVIDIA silicon and there is no software fallback.
If quality per megabyte is what you actually care about, a software encoder is the right answer and the speed penalty is the price. Our write-up of the x265 4.2 release covers where that encoder has got to.
And if the command line is genuinely not for you, start with a front end instead of this page. The full video encoders category lists the alternatives.
Playing What You Encoded
VLC Media Player and MPC-BE both open HEVC and AV1 files without extra setup.
For the Windows Movies and TV app you need the HEVC Video Extensions or the AV1 Video Extension installed.
To check what actually ended up in a file, our free Codec Finder reads the codecs inside it, and the online HEVC Player tests playback in the browser with nothing installed.
Quick questions
Is NVEnc free?
Yes, and open source. It is a personal project by the developer rigaya, with no paid version and nothing bundled in the download.
What is the difference between NVEnc and NVENC?
NVENC is the encoding chip inside NVIDIA graphics cards. NVEnc is the free program on this page that tells that chip what to do.
Is hardware encoding worse than x265?
At the same file size, yes, a good software encoder still produces a better picture. NVENC's advantage is that it finishes many times faster and barely touches your processor.
Can my card encode AV1?
Only on RTX 40-series and newer. Older cards can still encode H.264, and anything from the GTX 900 series onwards can also do HEVC.
Does NVEnc work on AMD or Intel graphics?
No. NVENC is NVIDIA hardware, so there is nothing for NVEnc to talk to on other cards. The same developer maintains separate tools for Intel and AMD hardware.
Download NVEnc 9.36 and see how fast your card gets through a file, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.
