NVIDIA Capture SDK

Type: Technology Tags: NVIDIA, Capture SDK, remote desktop, display capture, video encoding, streaming Related: NVIDIA-Video-Codec-SDK, NVIDIA-RTX, NVIDIA-vGPU, NVIDIA-Maxine, NVIDIA-AI-for-Media-SDKs, NVIDIA-Video-Effects-SDK, NVIDIA-CloudXR, NVIDIA-Developer-Program Sources: https://developer.nvidia.com/capture-sdk Last Updated: 2026-04-29

Summary

NVIDIA Capture SDK, formerly GRID SDK, enables developers to capture and optionally encode display content on NVIDIA hardware. It is used for remote desktop, streaming, and display-buffer capture workflows on local, remote, or cloud GPUs.

Detail

The SDK captures a desktop buffer as images or an image stream that can be compressed into a video bitstream for remote clients or local storage. It is adjacent to hardware video encode/decode through NVIDIA-Video-Codec-SDK and virtual workstation or remote GPU workflows through NVIDIA-vGPU.

The docs note that NVFBC has been deprecated on Windows 10 and later, and point developers toward native Windows capture APIs as alternatives in those cases.

Connections

• NVIDIA-Video-Codec-SDK - encode/decode layer commonly paired with captured frames.
• NVIDIA-vGPU - virtualized GPU and remote workstation environments.
• NVIDIA-RTX - RTX workstation/graphics workloads can require capture and streaming.
• NVIDIA-Maxine - media and video AI features can sit downstream of captured video.
• NVIDIA-AI-for-Media-SDKs and NVIDIA-Video-Effects-SDK - AI media effects can process captured video before encode, stream, or display.
• NVIDIA-Developer-Program - access channel for SDK downloads and updates.

Source Excerpts

• NVIDIA describes Capture SDK as enabling developers to capture and optionally encode display content.
• The SDK supports remote desktop displays on NVIDIA hardware across local, remote, or cloud contexts.