Lowest Quality Video Card you would go to for transcoding


kizer

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I was playing with Plex last night and I decided to sync a few videos to my phone for travel purposes. I Qued up a TV show and I couldn't figure out why my unraid machine was acting so weird. Most of my content is MKV/MP4 and I checked my dash board and my processor is hammered. I mean spiking from 80-88% and I thought what is going on. So I checked the show I qued up for syncing and it was converting them from AVI to MP4 AAC. 

 

I do plan on requiring some of my content in disc format and re-ripping them to a H264 container to get away from the Xvid AVI that I have in some really old content, but in the mean time I'd like to be a bit more proactive in my efforts in the mean time. Plus I think re-ripping my AVI to H264 might really pixelate what I already have so I'm kinda avoiding that for the mean time. 

 

I'm running a I7-4790K and I was just like wow that's crazy since I've never had an issue with it and thought I need to drop another video card back in it. The problem is as we all know crypto coins and covid are making it extremely difficult to come by. I used to have a GTX 1050 TI in my machine, but I donated it to my youngest son so he could have a gaming machine. 

 

I just want something basic that will convert as needed since most of my content is in a format that everything in my house can direct play even my phone which is an iPhone, but apparently syncing converts and wow talk about dragging my processor down. 

 

I'm not looking to stream (4) 4K streams or anything. Maybe (2) 720's now and then. As long as it does as well or better than my i7-4790k its a win/win. 

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@kizer why not take advantage of quick sync?

 

What is the source format that you want to play? If it's not h265 you should be good to go.

 

Intel Quick Sync, at least for the generation of your CPU, should be fully capable of h264 (AVC):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

 

At least in your case it's worth a try. ;)

 

Simply install the Intel-GPU-TOP plugin and also if you want the GPU Statistics pluginand you can also see what your iGPU is doing.

Add a Device with '/dev/dri' to your Plex template and enable HW transcoding in the Plex app and you should be good to go, as long as you are transcoding MPEG or h246.

Hope that also helps.

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On 5/1/2021 at 3:55 PM, ConnerVT said:

For transcoding only, no benefit to buy the the more expensive P620.

 

I picked up a PNY Quadro P400 for my system for ~$125, works great for my family's PLEX server.

 

This is what I just found on Ebay. 

 

NVIDIA Quadro P620 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card PCI-E 3.0 x16 4x Mini DP

Pre-Owned · NVIDIA · NVIDIA Quadro · 2 GB

$145.00

or Best Offer

+$12.22 shipping

 

 

PNY VCQP400V2-PB NVIDIA Quadro P400 Graphic Card - 2 GB

Brand New · PNY · Nvidia Quadro P400 · 2 GB

$142.25

or Best Offer

+$14.45 shipping

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20 hours ago, ich777 said:

@kizer why not take advantage of quick sync?

 

What is the source format that you want to play? If it's not h265 you should be good to go.

 

Intel Quick Sync, at least for the generation of your CPU, should be fully capable of h264 (AVC):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

 

At least in your case it's worth a try. ;)

 

Simply install the Intel-GPU-TOP plugin and also if you want the GPU Statistics pluginand you can also see what your iGPU is doing.

Add a Device with '/dev/dri' to your Plex template and enable HW transcoding in the Plex app and you should be good to go, as long as you are transcoding MPEG or h246.

Hope that also helps.

 

I tried to use quicksync perviously and I couldn't get it to work. Oddly enough while installing a GTX 750 for some trial and error. I had this in Plex docker setup. 

--device=/dev/dri/renderD128

 

Now when I tried useing HW transcoding I checked nvidia-smi it didn't show the card working, but in Plex it did show (HW) so apparently quick sync was working. 

I wasn't sure if it was installing the Nvidia plugin, clicking on who knows what got it to work. Lol

 

I'll have to try it again sometime. Currently I have a GTX 750 installed and it has given my CPU a little breather, but it would be nice to get it to work.  

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2 hours ago, kizer said:

I tried to use quicksync perviously and I couldn't get it to work. Oddly enough while installing a GTX 750 for some trial and error. I had this in Plex docker setup. 

You have to set the primary display output to the iGPU and eventually connect a monitor or a dummy HDMI plug or whatever to the iGPU if you also got another card in the server.

 

2 hours ago, kizer said:

--device=/dev/dri/renderD128

I would recommend doing it this way:

grafik.png.c86d1cef10ac4c0cb1002788f9abda31.png

 

2 hours ago, kizer said:

Now when I tried useing HW transcoding I checked nvidia-smi it didn't show the card working, but in Plex it did show (HW) so apparently quick sync was working.

What was the source type of content where you watching? Keep in mind that only h264 will work on your CPU.

 

EDIT: You can also watch the usage of your iGPU if you have installed the Intel-GPU-TOP Plugin when you issue the command: 'intel_gpu_top' from a terminal or even better install the GPU Statistics Plugin from @b3rs3rk. ;)

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@ich777

 

Thanks I'll give your suggestion a try soon. I don't like the extra whiring sound from the fans on this barrowed GTX 750. Built a silent server and the little out of balance, bad bearing sound is driving me a little batty. Lol

 

I didn't try a dummy plug in the HDMI slot and I didn't know about the docker confiig change either. 

I have this in my advanced settings under extra parameters. --device=/dev/dri/renderD128

 

In my Bios I did enable dual video output I think it was in the GPU settings. It just never seemed to work until I dropped in this other video card which I thought was weird. 

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