Hardware acceleration and GPU accelerated encoding are related concepts but refer to different aspects of computing:

1. Hardware Acceleration: Hardware acceleration refers to the use of specialized hardware components to offload specific tasks from the CPU, thereby improving performance and efficiency. These hardware components can include dedicated processing units, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Hardware acceleration can be used for various purposes, including graphics rendering, video decoding, encryption, and more.

2. GPU Accelerated Encoding: GPU accelerated encoding specifically refers to the use of a GPU's processing power to accelerate the process of encoding video data. In this context, the GPU is leveraged to perform tasks traditionally handled by the CPU during video encoding, such as video compression using codecs like H.264 or H.265 (HEVC). By offloading encoding tasks to the GPU, video encoding can be performed faster and more efficiently, resulting in reduced processing times and improved performance.

In summary, hardware acceleration is a broader term that encompasses the use of specialized hardware for various computing tasks, while GPU accelerated encoding specifically focuses on leveraging the GPU's processing power to accelerate video encoding processes.