Windows 10 Gets AV1 Hardware-Accelerated Video Support This Fall

Microsoft is set to introduce hardware acceleration support to Windows 10 for the AV1 video coding format, but taking advantage of it may require a processor or graphics card upgrade.

AV1 is an open, royalty-free video coding format first released back in 2018. It was developed as a successor to the VP9 codec by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), which counts Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics, and Tencent as governing members. It's a highly-desirable codec not only because it's royalty free, but due to the huge efficiency gains it brings.

AV1 offers up to 34 percent higher data compression than VP9, and up to 50 percent higher than x264. However, using AV1 on Windows 10 currently doesn't take advantage of hardware acceleration, which means it runs in software and therefore requires more power. If you're on a mobile device such as a laptop, that's going to negatively impact your battery life.

Although we don't have a specific date yet, Microsoft has confirmed AV1 hardware acceleration will appear this fall. However, it requires up-to-date hardware to run. You won't be able to take advantage of the acceleration unless you have an 11th-gen Intel Core processor with Xe Graphics, or a Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series GPU. You'll also require Windows 10 build 1909 or later, a web browser with AV1 hardware acceleration support, and the AV1 Video Extension.

In other words, laptop owners are out of luck taking advantage until they next upgrade and 11th-gen Intel chips are commonplace. Desktop PC owners have more freedom to take advantage, assuming they can actually find an RTX 30 Series card in stock somewhere, or wait for AMD's RX 6000 cards to appear. Looker longer term, the efficiency gains AV1 offers is sure to make it the default video codec used everywhere, so keep that in mind if you're about to upgrade your PC or laptop. Of course, we can't forget about H.266, which also holds a lot of promise, but should be able to take advantage of the same hardware AV1 requires.

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