- Windows Subsystem for Linux now provides acceleration for video.
- The feature allows to offload operations from the CPU to GPU.
- You will need Unbuntu 22.4.1 LTS and specific graphics cards to use the feature.
Hardware acceleration for video is supported for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).Microsoft claims that the new technology enables Linux programs that implement the Video Acceleration API (VAAPI) to encode and decode videos.
Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics devices, as well as programs like GStreamer and FFmpeg, may now support the new video features.
The system can shift the encoding and decoding operations from the main processor to the graphics card thanks to the hardware acceleration function. The Windows Subsystem for Linux will use less energy and perform better while executing activities that need video acceleration as a result of this implementation, freeing up processing resources for other Windows 11 programs.
According to the business, this new functionality is an extension of the work done by the development team in 2020, when they added support for DXCore and D3D12 by giving Mesa 3D a D2D12 backend. This backend enables the offloading of 3D and compute operations to the graphics card.
Microsoft states that you must use Ubuntu 22.4.1 LTS or later and the Windows Subsystem for Linux version 1.1 or later if your workload would benefit from visual acceleration capabilities.
You can use the GeForce GTX 10 Series, RTX 20 Series, Quatro RTX, Nvidia RTX, or more recent hardware with Nvidia graphics.
AMD’s Radeon RX 5000 Series and 4000 Series offer video hardware acceleration.
Lastly, the capability is available for Intel’s 11th, 12th, and 13th generation processors, as well as the Intel Arc Graphics family of GPUs and Iris Xe discrete cards.