More exciting is a first for discrete desktop GPUs: a hardware video encoder. Since UVD refers explicitly to decoding, AMD has cooked up a new acronym for the encoder, VCE or Video Codec Engine. Like the QuickSync feature of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors (and probably the SoC driving the smart phone in your pocket), VCE can encode videos using H.264 compression with full, custom hardware acceleration. We're talking about hardware purpose-built to encode H.264, not just an encoder that does its calculations on the chip's shader array. As usual, the main advantages of custom logic are higher performance and lower power consumption. Tahiti's encode logic looks to be quite nice, with the ability to encode 1080p videos at 60 frames per second, at least twice the rate of the most widely used formats. The VCE hardware supports multiple compression and quality levels, and it can multiplex inputs from various sources for the audio and video tracks to be encoded. Interestingly, the video card's frame buffer can act as an input source, allowing for a hardware-accelerated HD video capture of a gaming session.