Choosing NVENC encode GPU

[McBoothertonEsq 0]

I'm currently looking into making a 2 in 1 gaming + NAS system to power my downstairs TV, I plan to use an Nvidia GTX 690 in it for a while as the card has been sitting in my attic for about a year ever since I upgraded, but will at one point get a higher end GPU like a 1070, maybe Ti, or Vega 56 (unless the 11 series drops soon enough) for gaming as the 690s 2gb per GPU frame buffer is a choking point for almost any modern game. Then I could have the 690 in there as an encode/Physx card. If I go for the Vega 56 and select NVENC encoding I assume I won't have issues as Emby should just use the 690 for that.

 

Thing is, if I get the 1070/Ti over the Vega 56 and choose NVENC for encoding, will I be able to specify which graphics card I want the encoder to use? I'd prefer for the 1070/Ti to be reserved for gaming and general display out while the 690 encodes whenever needed. I don't see any options in settings for selecting a different GPU, I imagine there's a config text file option for it but idk where to find it or how to change which GPU it'll use. Second, does the encoding GPU need to be connected to a display? Or can it just be used as an accelerator with no video out? Any help would be greatly appreciated. This seems like a promising alternative to Plex, especially as it's free to use features like hw encode (for the record I plan to donate if this becomes my permanent media server, had to sink $2500 into my truck recently so it won't be for a while).

[Luke 37009]

Hi, currently no, you can't pick which gpu. @@Waldonnis any thoughts on that? Thanks.

[Waldonnis 148]

I guess you could use -init_hw_device, but it will probably take some experimentation to figure out which ID corresponds to the card you want (it can be very different on different systems).  I've never had a configuration like that here, so I'm not 100% sure how well it would work or if you'd need further options like -hwaccel_device as well.  Differing vendors is much easier     Honestly, I'd try it with just one card to see just how much of a hit it would be while also gaming - you may not really notice the difference; the 1070Ti should be pretty capable.