One of the main innovations that arrived with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 GPU, the list of which is quite extensive and excellent, is support real-time AV1 video encoding and decoding by hardware, this means that we will not be dependent on the computer (and therefore on its performance all the time) for the compression-decompression to take place without problems in real time. This is a huge advantage for content creators, and streamers in particular, over the previous options, because in any software coding scenario, any process that changes system performance will cause that process to fail, and thus the outcome.

As for its part, OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio is the most used application even today by streamers of the main platforms. It is a free and open source development that has undergone more than remarkable development in more than 10 years of its existence, partly thanks to the work of the developers who participated in the project, and partly thanks to the possibility of “adding” it with plugins of all kinds. This, along with the fact that it has been able to adapt very well to the needs of streamers, has made it the preferred option for most today.

OBS Studio has just received the 29.1 update and among its new features one of the most notable is that it finally includes the expected AV1 hardware encoding support for all those users who have a GPT GeForce RTX 40. With this new feature, the entire real-time encoding process falls on NVENC (NVIDIA Encoder), avoiding the need for CPU intervention. In addition, since the operation is performed in a part of the card specifically designated for this purpose, it will not affect its performance for other tasks that are performed at the same time.

Moreover, and anticipating its implementation by the platform, This update also allows AV1 encoded videos to be sent to YouTube via improved RTMP (improved real-time messaging protocol). Although YouTube cannot currently play AV1 content, viewers will experience higher quality video when AV1-encoded data is sent. So if you use OBS Studio and have an RTX 40 graphics card, you can start using this encoding format, which, in addition to supporting resolutions up to 8K, offers a compression level up to 50% higher than H.264. and 30% higher than H.265.

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