CachyOS / CachyOS/distribution
[Bug]: ffmpeg 9.0 breaks NVENC on Pascal GPUs (nvidia-580xx, driver maxes at NVENC API 13.0)
- Dominant language
- No language data
- Stars
- 27
- Forks
- 2
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
### Kernel
7.1.8-1-cachyos
### Desktop Environment / Window Manager
KDE Plasma
### CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
### GPU / Driver
NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti / nvidia-580xx-dkms 580.173.02
### Description
Since the ffmpeg 8.x → 9.0 upgrade (Aug 8, 2026), all NVENC encoding fails on Pascal GPUs. ffmpeg 9.x is built
against NVENC API 13.1 headers, which requires NVIDIA driver ≥ 610, but the nvidia-580xx branch is the last
driver for Pascal (NVIDIA EOL) and only provides NVENC API 13.0. The 610 open-kernel branch does not support
Pascal. Affected: GPU Screen Recorder 6.0.0, OBS, and any ffmpeg/nvenc consumer. Verified by testing three cached
builds against the same driver — 8.1.2 works, 9.0 and 9.0.1 both fail.
### Steps to Reproduce
1. Have a Pascal GPU (GTX 10xx) on nvidia-580xx-dkms 580.173.02 with ffmpeg 9.x installed
2. Run: ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel error -f lavfi -i testsrc=size=320x240:rate=1 -frames:v 1 -c:v h264_nvenc -f null -
3. Observe the encoder fails to open
### Expected Behavior
h264_nvenc encodes successfully, as it did with ffmpeg 8.1.2 (verified: exit 0 on the same driver).
### Actual Behavior
```
[h264_nvenc @ 0x557dc909df00] Driver does not support the required nvenc API version. Required: 13.1 Found:
13.0
[h264_nvenc @ 0x557dc909df00] The minimum required Nvidia driver for nvenc is 610.00 or newer
[vost#0:0/h264_nvenc @ 0x557dc909d900] [enc:h264_nvenc @ 0x557dc909de80] Error while opening encoder - maybe
incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height.
```
### Logs / Error Messages
https://paste.cachyos.org/p/2f14850.log
### Additional Context
- Same issue in Arch's extra/ffmpeg (upstream of the CachyOS rebuild): filed at
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/-/issues — the fix belongs in the ffmpeg packaging (build
against NVENC ≤ 13.0 headers, patch the check to warn instead of abort, or ship a compat ffmpeg8).
- Test evidence (same GPU/driver/session): ffmpeg 8.1.2 → h264_nvenc works; ffmpeg 9.0-5.1 and 9.0.1-1.1 → both
fail with the identical error.
- Driver 580.173.02 is the final branch for Pascal; no driver-side fix exists.
- Current workaround: CPU encoding (-encoder cpu in GPU Screen Recorder). Downgrading ffmpeg breaks ~18
dependents (firefox, mpv, haruna, qt6-webengine…) due to the libavcodec soname bump.
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Research direction
Start with the Arch extra/ffmpeg packaging issue referenced here and reproduce the failure using the provided lavfi h264_nvenc command on a Pascal GPU with nvidia-580xx. Compare the cached ffmpeg 8.1.2, 9.0, and 9.0.1 results; done means the packaging decision is implemented and NVENC encoding works on the supported Pascal driver without breaking dependent packages.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- linux
- Domain
- build-system
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100