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Performance settings

The Advanced section controls how much parallel work C-Slice schedules for loading, rendering, capture, and encoding.

Encoder threads​

Encoder threads is the maximum encoder thread count per output window. High values can help software codecs, but many selected windows can multiply the total CPU load quickly.

Capture GPU slots​

Capture GPU Slots controls GPU readback buffering per window. Increase it when capture stalls, but remember that more slots consume more GPU memory.

Loading threads and memory​

Loading threads controls how many image loading jobs can run in parallel. This applies to image sequence input. Load Max CPU/RAM % limits decoded image cache pressure.

If the machine starts paging memory to disk, reduce loading threads or the memory percentage.

Loader GPU slots​

Loader GPU Slots controls the texture upload ring buffer. Increase it when loading is fast but rendering waits for texture availability.

Video decoding mode​

When Input type is set to Video, the Video decoding mode control sets how MPV decodes the source file:

  • Software — CPU decoding. Compatible with all systems. Use this as a fallback if hardware decoding causes artifacts or errors.
  • Hardware — GPU-accelerated decoding. Faster on supported hardware. Requires a compatible GPU and driver.
  • Hybrid — Hardware decoding for the left-eye video, software decoding for the right-eye video. Use this when the GPU cannot sustain two concurrent hardware-decode streams in stereo mode.

Benchmark modes​

Enable Run without encoding to test loading, rendering, capture, and readback without encoder cost.

Enable Run without readback while running without encoding to test loading and rendering only.

Use benchmark modes on short frame ranges when tuning a workstation.