Testing AMD and Intel Graphics

Testing AMD and Intel graphics

ShadePlay guide › Your hardware

How to run ShadePlay's built-in encoder test on your graphics card, and how to send us the report. It helps most on AMD Radeon and Intel Arc cards, which haven't been tested yet.

What the test does

• It encodes a moving test picture with each video format (AV1, HEVC and H.264) on the graphics card that drives your main monitor, writes a few seconds of each into a test file and reads it back.
• It records nothing from your screen or microphone.
• It takes about a minute, then writes a short report: your graphics card, its driver, and how each video format did.
• It doesn't need ShadePlay to be running, and it doesn't change your settings.

Run it

1. Install ShadePlay (Installing ShadePlay).

2. Open a Command Prompt: press Win+R, type cmd, press Enter.

3. Run these two lines:

   cd /d "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ShadePlay"
   start /wait ShadePlay.exe --encoder-test --out desktop
   

4. When it's done, shadeplay-encoder-test.json is on your desktop (wherever Windows keeps it, also when your desktop is backed up to OneDrive).

start /wait is needed because ShadePlay.exe is a Windows program: without it, the Command Prompt doesn't wait for the test. The exit code is 0 when at least one video format worked.

Send the report

1. Read it first. It is a small text file; open it in Notepad. If something failed, an error message in it can show a file path with your Windows user name. Remove that before you share it.
2. Open the feedback page, choose Hardware report, and attach shadeplay-encoder-test.json.
3. If you also recorded a real clip, tell us how it went: which codec, HDR on or off, the frame rate, and any warning in the tray menu or on the Status page.

Thank you: every report helps move a card from "experimental" to "tested".

Options

For a closer look, the test takes these options:

Option	What it does	Default
--codec av1|hevc|h264	Tests one format only.	all three
--seconds N	How long each format is encoded, 1 to 60 seconds.	3
--fps N	The frame rate to test, 10 to 500.	240
--adapter A	Which graphics adapter to test: a number, or an adapter ID as the log prints it.	the card that drives the main monitor
--out FILE	Where to write the report: a file path, or desktop. Without it, the report is only printed.

For example: start /wait ShadePlay.exe --encoder-test --codec hevc --fps 120 --out desktop

The test's own log is %APPDATA%\ShadePlay\logs\encoder-test.log.

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Next: Monitors and displays

See also: Graphics cards and encoders · Feedback and bug reports · Status page