I really have no clue what is best, even after doing some reading up.

OS: Windows 10
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
CPU: Intel Core i5-8600k 3.60GHz
RAM: 16gb

So I don't know what encoder to use, AVC or HEVC, Software, NVENC or QuickSync? Also, do I want to go for MAX bitrate or is there a happy medium? Hope someone can help, as trial and error and trying to distinguish minor results between different settings is really time consuming and difficult.

Also, would love to know the different between "performance" and "quality" in the playback settings. Does moving slider towards "higher performance" mean the video will be less smooth than if I move the slider towards "higher quality"? The terms just seem interchangeable to me.