Jetson Video Benchmark

Benchmark workflow

Live measurements invoke authenticated released samples directly. The documentation-only estimate remains a separate calculation path in documented-performance-estimates.md.

Live preflight

1. Canonicalize the input and preserve URL or null, license, attribution, bytes, SHA-256, codec, format, width, height, FPS, and frame count. For a URL, disable redirects; bound connection time, total time, and accepted bytes using an explicit user ceiling or trusted local metadata. Resolve the host first and accept only HTTP(S) addresses outside loopback, private, link-local, multicast, and reserved ranges. Recheck the connected peer address on every connection and preserve hostname-based TLS validation.

2. Carry the surface-selection result from SKILL.md and obtain a fresh read-only readiness result from setup for every selected branch.

3. Native uses the installed package and allowlisted samples. Python uses the exact interpreter, loaded extension, wheel RECORD, and wheel-owned sample. Decode performance may use pynvc-smoke; Python encode or comparison needs a separate full-samples environment.

4. Encode, compare, and encode-capacity require a validated schema-2 recipe; decode routes do not. Hold every non-preset fact equal for P4/P5.

Return dependency_required for an ineligible selected branch before a measurement launch. An independently eligible peer may continue, producing a partial aggregate.

Exact benchmark allowlist

Native paths are relative to the authenticated SDK build/source roots.

PyNvVideoCodec wheel members:

The reference owns this allowlist. The fresh setup readiness result supplies the package root or exact interpreter and package location. Resolve required tools directly, and authenticate the selected entries immediately before use. The allowlist does not prove readiness, support, or operation success.

Build native benchmark samples

Build the selected target directly. Authenticate one installed public nvidia-video-codec-sdk 13.0.x package and one package-owned, unmodified, non-symlinked Samples tree with /usr/bin/dpkg-query -W, /usr/bin/dpkg-query -L, and silent successful /usr/bin/dpkg --verify. Resolve cmake, the C++ compiler, nvcc, pkg-config, and the selected generator with standard system commands; record their canonical paths and versions. Create a fresh mode-0700 BUILD_ROOT outside the SDK. With TARGET restricted to AppEncPerf or AppDecPerf, invoke:

If the exact package is absent or its 13.0.x ownership resolves to zero or multiple complete Samples roots, return dependency_required and route repair to setup; never infer another package name or choose one root by path order. A nonzero configure, build, or native option-validation exit fails that branch: return failed with the exact command and captured output, and never launch or substitute another binary.

"$CMAKE" -S "$SDK_ROOT/Samples" -B "$BUILD_ROOT" \
  -G "$GENERATOR_NAME" \
  "-DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=$GENERATOR" \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  "-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=$CXX" \
  "-DCUDAToolkit_ROOT=$CUDA_ROOT" \
  "-DCUDAToolkit_NVCC_EXECUTABLE=$NVCC" \
  "-DCMAKE_CUDA_COMPILER=$NVCC" \
  "-DPKG_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE=$PKG_CONFIG"
"$CMAKE" --build "$BUILD_ROOT" --target "$TARGET" --parallel 2

The only accepted outputs under BUILD_ROOT are AppEncode/AppEncPerf/AppEncPerf and AppDecode/AppDecPerf/AppDecPerf. Require confinement to the fresh build root, hash the binary, and prove its table-row libraries resolve with ldd to real non-stub files. Recheck package, source, tools, binary, and libraries after every warmup/measurement series.

Direct argument arrays

Build one list of arguments and retain it verbatim with every warmup and measurement. Never pass -loop.

native decode:
  APPDECPERF -i INPUT -gpu GPU -thread WORKERS [-single] [-host]

native encode:
  APPENCPERF -i INPUT -s WIDTHxHEIGHT -if NATIVE_FORMAT -gpu GPU
    -frame FRAMES -thread WORKERS -codec CODEC [RECIPE_CONTROLS...]

Python decode:
  PYTHON -I DECODE_PERF -i INPUT -n WORKERS -m PROCESS_MODEL
    -g GPU -f FRAMES

Python encode:
  PYTHON -I ENCODE_PERF -m PROCESS_MODEL -i INPUT -s WIDTHxHEIGHT
    -if FORMAT -n WORKERS -f FRAMES -g GPU -c CODEC -json CONFIG

Native format mapping is exact: NV12→nv12, YUV420→iyuv, P010→p010, NV16→nv16, P210→p210, YUV444→yuv444, YUV444_16BIT→yuv444p16, ARGB→bgra, and ABGR→abgr.

Native encode recipe controls are the exact native projection excluding the base options -s, -if, -gpu, and -codec; these are supplied once from the evidenced workload. Python CONFIG is the canonical JSON projection for that recipe and the sole -json operand.

Native option validation

Run both authenticated AppEncPerf -h and AppEncPerf -A; both must exit zero. Collect their complete combined stdout/stderr as the advertised-option set.

Before launching, check the planned argument list against this checklist. Any failure blocks the launch; report the failing item verbatim.

• The launcher path and every argument are nonempty strings containing no NUL.

• Every emitted option (each argument beginning with -, excluding a bare -) appears in the advertised-option set from the two help texts. Report the full sorted list of options that are not advertised.

• -loop is never emitted; it is forbidden regardless of advertisement.

Launch exactly the checked list with shell=False. Do not reconstruct, edit, or append to the argument list after checking it -- the checked list and the launched list must be identical. This is a deterministic procedure the agent performs, not an automatically enforced runtime hook.

Frame accounting

The PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 encode_perf.py helper caps each worker at 1,000 frames.

• If Python encode participates, use min(source_frames, 1000) per worker for every compared surface, including native, so the same leading frames run.

• Native-only encode retains all requested frames. Decode is never capped.

• Expected aggregate frames are effective_frames_per_worker * workers.

• Preserve the original input identity and source frame count; do not trim or rewrite the input or recipe.

• require_source_frames is true only when the user explicitly requires exact source-frame fidelity; it is false otherwise.

• If require_source_frames is true and the cap would apply, stop before any launch and require native-only or an input at/below the cap.

For each surface, report source and effective frames per worker, worker count, expected aggregate frames, whether the cap was applied, and its authenticated PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 sample authority. A fixed object schema is not required.

Measured lifecycle

For each variant/surface independently:

1. Authenticate the sample and helper identities and recheck input, recipe, and config identities.

2. Run one whole-process warmup. Retain its exact argv and outcome but exclude it from statistics.

3. Run at least three new whole processes sequentially. Number repetitions from one and label each measure.

4. Parse the official terminal markers below, require the expected aggregate frame count, and reject non-finite/non-positive or contradictory values.

5. Compute MP/s only with sample-bound dimensions, then apply the concise acceptance checklist in the output contract before accepting the result.

Official markers:

• AppEncPerf: nTotal=N, time=S seconds, FPS=F; repeated occurrences must agree and N/S must be consistent with displayed precision.

• AppDecPerf: Total Frames Decoded=N FPS = F; also require one matching codec, frame-rate, coded-size, display-area, chroma, and bit-depth report per worker before deriving dimensions/MP/s.

• Python encode: ^Total frames processed: N$, ^Duration: S seconds$, and ^Total FPS: F$, with rate consistency within displayed precision.

• Python decode: ^Total frames decoded: N$, ^Total FPS: F$, and ^Total wall time: Ss$. Omit MP/s because this sample does not report dimensions.

In every route, reject explicit error/fatal/failed/failure/CUDA/NVENC/FFmpeg failure lines even when the exit code is zero.

Retry a failed branch once at most, after the input, sample/package/interpreter, environment, or unavailable resource has demonstrably changed. Retain both attempts.

Comparisons and capacity

• P4/P5 comparison accepts exactly two recipes. Reopen and rehash both, compare their encoder_intent objects after removing only preset, and require the remaining objects to be identical; the removed values must be exactly p4 and p5. Keep surface results separate and disclose projection differences. Throughput never proves quality ordering.

• A capacity sweep uses strictly increasing worker counts beginning at one. Compute safety_margin = 1 - margin_fraction, usable_fps = measured_min_fps * safety_margin, required_fps = workers * nominal_stream_fps, and headroom_fps = usable_fps - required_fps; a 10% margin therefore means safety_margin = 0.9. Record every point with these values and the maximum passing tested count. It is a codec-stage bound, not a camera or end-to-end result.

• Explicit both runs independent branches and returns partial when only one passes. auto never benchmarks two surfaces to choose between them.