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Screenshare codec always uses software, not hardware

(#2914) Bug Closed: Fixed desktop performance video
by FullestReviewer

Reproduction steps

  1. In settings, choose a screenshare codec you know your GPU has encoders for (e.g. H264 on an RTX 3080)
  2. Start a screenshare
  3. Look at stats for nerds, console, or the obvious nag banner telling you software encoding is being used

Observed behaviour

Software encoding is used. I have also tried VP8 and VP9 with similar results. I realized that we've discussed this issue a lot, but there is no actual bug report for it.

Build information

Canary Desktop 2026.531.33409, Web 2026.531.34415, Linux 7.0.10-101.fc43.x86_64 (x64), Electron 41.2.2, Chrome 146.0.7680.188, Node 24.14.1, Locale en-US

Platform

Linux

Evidence

Voice diagnostics while doing a screenshare with software-backed Openh264.

Details

Expected behaviour Hardware encoding should be used when available.
  1. Rex changed the status from Needs triage to Confirmed
  2. Rex changed the status from Confirmed to Fix pending
  3. mesub changed the status from Fix pending to Fixed

9 comments

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Comment by ᛗᚪᚷᚾᚢᛋ | Magnus
ᛗᚪᚷᚾᚢᛋ | Magnus 4 votes
Can reproduce Stable Desktop 2026.1006.171735, Web 2026.1008.22643, Linux 7.2.9-200.fc44.x86_64 (x64), Electron 44.4.1, Chrome 152.0.7977.78, Node 24.21.0, Locale en-US Operating System: Fedora Linux 44 KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.30.0 Qt Version: 6.11.2 Kernel Version: 7.2.9-200.fc44.x86_64 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 32 × Intel® Core™ i9-14900HX Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.0 GiB usable) Graphics Processor 1: Intel® Graphics Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU Manufacturer: LENOVO Product Name: 83FD System Version: Legion 7 16IRX9
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Comment by Comfy_Deer
Comfy_DeerReviewer 3 votes
Can reproduce CR - H264 selected, orange bar warning for software encoding, GPU - RTX 3080; Canary Desktop 2026.531.33409, Web 2026.531.34415, Linux 6.17.0-35-generic (x64), Electron 41.2.2, Chrome 146.0.7680.188, Node 24.14.1, Locale en-US
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Comment by penguin
penguin 2 votes
Can reproduce H.264 selected, OpenH264 (software encoding) instead of hardware encoding. GPU: RTX 3090; Canary Desktop, Linux.
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Comment by Aqua
Aqua 1 vote
Can also reproduce. No hardware video encoders are available according to Fluxer. Using software encoding causes frequent frame drops to less than 5 FPS while streaming at 1440p. GPU: RTX 3080 
Stable Desktop 2026.1018.223338, Web 2026.1018.223338, Linux 7.2.10-1-cachyos (x64), Electron 44.4.1, Chrome 152.0.7977.78, Node 24.21.0, Locale en-US
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Comment by HopsNeko
HopsNeko 1 vote
Can reproduce 
Stable Desktop 2026.1018.223338, Web 2026.1018.223338, Linux 7.2.10-200.fc44.x86_64 (x64), Electron 44.4.1, Chrome 152.0.7977.78, Node 24.21.0, Locale en-US
Fluxer reports no compatible devices for hardware encoding and thus uses software encoding. GPU: 2070 Super
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Comment by Twonkle
Twonkle 1 vote
Can reproduce Stable Desktop 2026.1018.223338, Web 2026.1018.223338, Linux 7.2.11-arch1-1 (x64), Electron 44.4.1, Chrome 152.0.7977.78, Node 24.21.0, Locale en-GB AMD 7900XTX All video codecs report the "software encoding in use" banner. Screen share when connected to the channel in my web browser works fine. Windows and Linux clients viewing the stream get the same banner about software decoding.
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Comment by Astral
Astral 1 vote
Can reproduce. Tested on both av1 and h.264. Client: Canary Platform: Linux GPU: AMD 9070 XT
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