SMPlayer - Enable Hardware Decoding in Windows 10

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By default SMPlayer is set to 'software decoding' resulting in high CPU utilization and potentially choppy playback depending on your system.

Changing the settings to enable 'hardware decoding' will reduce CPU utilization and video playback will be much smoother.

Compare the screenshots below, at 46 seconds the same video (playing at full window size) caused 25% CPU utilization versus 2% CPU utilization.

SMPlayer Software Decoding


SMPlayer Hardware Decoding


How to enabled hardware decoding

In the preferences > performance, change the 'Hardware decoding' option from 'None' to 'Auto'.

Then click 'OK'.



You have now enabled 'hardware decoding' in SMPlayer. If you wish to confirm this, simply compare your CPU utilization before and after.

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