In order to host a game with Parsec, your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 computer must include a graphics card that has a hardware video encoder, and your computer's display must be connected directly to the graphics card.
If your computer has more than one graphics card (EG both Intel and NVIDIA inside of a laptop) then you will need to follow this guide here.
If you have one of these graphics cards, but are unable to host, you may need to update your graphic card to latest drivers, or check that your client is not trying to connect at the wrong resolution.
Requirements
NVIDIA NVENC + DirectX 11.1
| Generation of NVIDIA GTX GPU | Arcade Hosting | Computer Sharing |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GTX 200 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 260 | No | No |
| NVIDIA GTX 400 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 460 | No | No |
| NVIDIA GTX 500 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 560 | No | No |
| NVIDIA GTX 600 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 650 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA GTX 700 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 750 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA GTX 800 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 850M | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA GTX 900 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 950 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA GTX 1000 Series - Example: NVIDIA GTX 1050 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA RTX 2000 Series - Example: NVIDIA RTX 2060 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
| NVIDIA RTX 3000 Series - Example: NVIDIA RTX 3060 | Yes | Yes | See here for laptops |
NVIDIA MXM, GT and GTS GPU's
These GPU's lack the NVENC chip required for Parsec and are not supported.
NVIDIA Tesla, GRID and Quadro
Professional workstation and server graphics cards will work with Parsec provided that they support hardware video encoding (NVIDIA NVENC),support either a physical display or display emulation via EDID, and are running in WDDM mode. Generally speaking this means you should license NVIDIA Grid Virtual Workstation, along with installing the correct Grid Virtual Workstation driver. AWS also has a "vGaming" Driver available. For support with this, contact your NVIDIA Representative, or cloud provider documentation.
Requirements
Intel Quick Sync Video + DirectX 11.1
Intel HD Graphics Driver September 2019
An Intel Graphics driver released in September ending in .726X (for example 26.20.100.7262) has a bug preventing Parsec hosting from working. Please check device manager to see if you have this driver. If this driver is installed on your system, you will need to update your driver (directly from the Intel Support Site) or downgrade / rollback to a previous driver version.
| Generation of Intel i3, i5, i7 | Supported |
|---|---|
| 1st Gen "Nehalem" - Example: Intel Core i7-620m | No |
| 2nd Gen "Sandy Bridge" - Example: Intel Core i7-2720QM | No |
| 3rd Gen "Ivy Bridge" - Example: Intel Core i7-3720QM | No |
| 4th Gen "Haswell" - Example: Intel Core i7-4720HQ | Yes - Windows 10 Only |
| 5th Gen "Broadwell" - Example: Intel Core i5-5200U | Yes |
| 6th Gen "Skylake" - Example: Intel Core i7-6700HQ | Yes |
| 7th Gen "Kaby Lake" - Example: Intel Core i7-7700HQ | Yes |
| 8th Generation "Coffee Lake" - Example: Intel Core i7-8550U | Yes |
| 9th Generation "Coffee Lake/ Coffee Lake / Whiskey Lake" - Example: Intel Core i7-9750H | Yes |
| 10th Generation "Ice Lake / Comet Lake" - Example: Intel Core i7-10710U | Yes |
Celeron, Pentium and Atom Support
Celeron, Pentium and Atom chipsets are supported provided they support DirectX 11.1 and Quick Sync Video
Requirements
AMD VCE + DirectX 11.1
| Generation | Supported |
|---|---|
| TeraScale - Example: Radeon HD 6770 | No |
| GCN 1 - Example: Radeon HD 7770 | Yes |
| GCN 2 - Example: Radeon R9 290 | Yes |
| GCN 3 - Example: Radeon R9 380 | Yes |
| GCN 4 - Example: Radeon RX 480 | Yes |
| Vega - Example: Radeon RX Vega 56 | Yes |
| Navi - Example: Radeon RX5700 | Yes |
| Big Navi - Example: Radeon RX6700 | Yes |
AMD APU Support
AMD APUs based on GCN1.0 or higher containing VCE and DirectX 11.1 may be supported when running latest drivers from AMD.com