

Starting in Windows 11, the supported codecs are H.264 and HEVC, although the D3D12 video encoding framework provides open extensibility for newer codecs such as AV1.


The video encode framework provides access to the video encode hardware acceleration capabilities for different scenarios such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, media APIs, machine learning and game streaming. This feature provides a coherent set of encoding APIs/DDIs that are consistent with the existing D3D12 framework, and allows developers to perform video encoding using GPU-accelerated video engines. Starting in Windows 11, D3D12 added a video encoding feature to the existing video API/DDI family. Prior to Windows 11 (WDDM 3.0), DirectX 12 provided application- and driver-level interfaces (APIs and DDIs) to support GPU acceleration for several video applications, including video decoding, video processing, and motion estimation. For additional information, including application-level specifics, see the D3D Video Encoding Specification. This page provides general information for driver developers regarding the Direct3D12 video encoding feature.
