This 64-bit Windows build accelerates selected psychoacoustic and bitrate-decision work with NVIDIA CUDA. LAME retains the final MP3 encoding, cVBRb bitrate controls and bitstream generation.
It is intended for compatible NVIDIA systems and advanced users. For the broadest compatibility, use one of the standard CPU builds on the main cVBRb page.
The archive is portable and does not require the full CUDA Toolkit on the target computer.
lame-4.0-cVBRb-20260806-CUDA-VS-x64.ziplame.exe and cufft64_11.dlllibmpg123-0.dllThe package contains native CUDA code for the compute capabilities below. Support refers to the compiled target list, not every NVIDIA model released between them.
| CUDA target | Architecture | Representative hardware |
|---|---|---|
sm_61 | Pascal | GeForce GTX 1050–1080 Ti, TITAN X/Xp, compatible Quadro P cards |
sm_75 | Turing | GeForce GTX 16 and RTX 20 series, TITAN RTX, compatible Quadro RTX/T cards |
sm_80 | Ampere | NVIDIA A100 and A30 |
sm_86 | Ampere | GeForce RTX 30 series and RTX A-series workstation cards |
sm_89 | Ada | GeForce RTX 40 series, RTX Ada professional cards, L4/L40/L40S |
sm_120 | Blackwell | GeForce RTX 50 series and compatible RTX PRO Blackwell cards |
Not every CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPU is included. Volta, Hopper, Jetson-specific and other unlisted compute capabilities should not be assumed to work with this package.
Selected psychoacoustic masking and bitrate-decision work is offloaded while the CPU retains the sequential LAME encoder and final frame generation.
Supports strict VBR minimums, optional maximum bitrate and --bitrate-boost levels for the maintained cVBRb branch.
Provides LAME-style progress, bitrate distribution, LR/MS statistics and block-type statistics, with engineering counters available through --cuda-diagnostics.
--decode uses mpg123 and bypasses CUDA initialization, so decoding does not require an NVIDIA GPU.
The executable is named lame.exe in the public package.
lame.exe -V0 -b 192 --vbr-min-strict --vbr-max=256 --bitrate-boost=2 --cuda-mask=granule-cuda-authority input.wav output.mp3-V0 -b 192 --vbr-min-strict --vbr-max=256 --bitrate-boost=2EAC supplies its own temporary input and output filenames when the LAME MP3 Encoder parameter scheme is selected.
lame.exe --decode input.mp3 output.wavDecode mode is CPU-based and does not initialize CUDA.
lame.exe --cuda-diagnostics ...Add the switch to expose CUDA validation, Graph and authority counters.
The standard CPU packages remain the recommended choice for general use, mixed hardware and redistribution to unknown systems.
Results vary with GPU generation, driver, CPU, PCIe topology, Windows scheduling and power-management settings.
The active CUDA authority mode requires mapped pinned host-memory support. The encoder reports a clear error if the selected environment cannot provide it.
This archive does not include a separate CPU-only encoder. Download a standard x64 build from the main page when CUDA is unavailable.