Media Encoder April 2018 - H.264 Hardware Acceleration - which Macs?

[markusw90010395]

I am curious - does anyone know which Macs have hardware acceleration for H.264 encoding in the just released updated version of Media Encoder.

My screenshot is from my 8-core iMac Pro, which for some curious reason does not qualify...

[Andrew Yoole]

Hardware accelerated H264 encoding is a Windows Only feature in the current release.

[markusw90010395]

But Adobe's "what's new" page specifically mentions Macs running 10.13 with "supported hardware".

Which hardware is supposed to support that feature, remains a mystery.

[Andrew Yoole]

My apologies, you are correct.  I posted about hardware accelerated DECODING rather than ENCODING - my bad.

I've Googled around and can't find any reference material that lists what supported hardware might be on either Mac or Windows machines.

Perhaps someone closer to Adobe knows the whereabouts of such a list and can post it.

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi Markusw,

Xeon CPUs (in Mac Pro 2013 and iMac Pros) are not supported for hardware encoding.

Hope this helps.

Rameez

[markusw90010395]

It answers my question, Rameez. It does not help me understand why

"Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 family, introduced in 2011, supported H.264 hardware-based encoding for the first time."

Supposedly Xeon processors have had H.264 hardware encoding  support since 2011...

[thnord]

markusw90010395  wrote

It answers my question, Rameez. It does not help me understand why

"Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 family, introduced in 2011, supported H.264 hardware-based encoding for the first time."

Supposedly Xeon processors have had H.264 hardware encoding  support since 2011...

While that is a true statement it is unfortunately not that simple. If you refer to Intel's site detailing which CPUs support QS (Intel® Product Specification Advanced Search ) you will see there are more Xeons that don't support QS than ones that do. That is our first barrier to being able to use hardware acceleration. There are a few more things down the line that can determine support, but without the supported hardware it's a non-issue.

[markusw90010395]

Thanks for shedding some light onto this.

Every owner of a new and expensive iMac Pro is a bit disappointed when it comes to Adobe CC products and their lack of multi-core CPU support.

And now we're finding out that our expensive hardware also doesn't support H.264 hardware-based encoding in Adobe Media Encoder. This is just another piece of news none of us likes to hear.

[Dreamy_hand15A8]

Wow, this definitely is a HUGE dagger to all of us who are now iMac Pro owners. Is there any possible road map for AME to render quicker on iMac Pros in the near future? I am just wanting even a little hope if at all possible.

[thnord · Accepted solution]

I would like to clarify that while most Xeon processors are not supported the iMac Pro IS supported. If you are seeing otherwise please let me know.

[markusw90010395]

Thank you, thnord. You are right. Hardware encoding does work on the iMac Pro.

Here's what's weird (and why I initially thought it was not supported)

1) H.264, VBR, 1-pass = Hardware accelerated

2) H.264, VBR, 2-pass = Software only

What could be the reason for that?

[thnord]

Ok, that's easier to explain: 2 pass is not supported for hardware acceleration (that's a limitation of the hardware, not the software).

[markusw90010395]

Thanks. I'll just switch to 1-pass from now on.

[Dreamy_hand15A8]

Thanks sooooo much for the clarification. And, yes, I had initially tested the 2 pass VBR myself and was getting the error message. I am MUCH happier now to at least get 1 pass VBR hardware encoding support working. Is CBR hardware acceleration supported too?

[thnord]

Unfortunately it is limited to VBR 1-pass currently.

[joxpa]

windows 10 here and after effects cc lastest version. with nvidia 1070 and says software only. in AME.

very slow with lastest updates. hardware encoding says not compatible... with VBR 1-pass

[danh802802]

You have to go into your bios and force enable your CPU internal graphics, this will allow the option of Hardware Encoding. Running my first test right now and it exported about twice as fast. Now just need to compare the quality of the exports!

[martins-pk2018]

Forcing only needed if you also have dedicated GFX card in your PC. And in case of an iMac or Macbook Pro you can use a switcher.

[Griff2wenty3]

What's this switcher you are referring to?

[martins-pk2018]

Think he's referring to gfxCardStatus:

info: GitHub - steveschow/gfxCardStatus: This is a fork of gfxCardStatus, this fork will handle integrated...

Downloads: Releases · steveschow/gfxCardStatus · GitHub

Works well ! I use it on a daily basis..

[EveryNameIsRejected]

This worked fine for me on a 3 year old computer (PC). Now only VBR 1 Pass works on a new Dell XPS 15

I find it incredible that Adobe charges an arm and a leg for software so full of bugs and setbacks at every update.

[octaviand]

Hardware encoding working flawlessly, astonishingly, on an early Macbook Pro 2015 with Intel Iris graphics.

[martins-pk2018]

Same here!

AME2019

H264 @ VBR1pass Hardware Encoding available on rMBP Mid-2015 (guess because of Intel Quicksync) which does the job a lot slower than my Mac Pro 12c on sw encoding. It almost flies up in the air cause of the fans hitting a trillion rpm! LOL
oh and in my case NOT available on:
Mac Pro 6,1 12core 2xD700
Mac Pro 5,1 Xeon Haswell 4core Nvidia GTX960 (HW H264/265 Encoder build in)

Worthless if you ask me..

😕