Hi All

I really want to utilize the new Unraid supporting Arc GPU's.

 

1. Plex transcoding
2. Reencoding media to AV1 format

 

But I am unsure if the Memory is a factor when choosing the right card? 8 or 16 GB.
Currently looking at:

 

• Intel Arc A380 6GB
• Intel Arc A750  8GB
• Intel Arc A770 16GB

 

I want to use Unmanic to reduce the less important media catagories.
(Keeping the important stuff as original)

Looking forward to hearing from someone who has some practical experience? or just knowledge about these cards.

 

Thanks

Casperse 

 

I just ordered myself an A310 because it's a single slot and I value the space in my NAS case... honestly for video encoding/decoding the A310 is probably plenty unless you plan on doing other GPU heavy workloads besides video encoding.

 

4GB of VRAM in my experience with my GTX970 more than adequate for multiple concurrent 1080p transcodes. I've seen as much as 256MB per trancode which roughly means 16 trancodes to be maxed out. I never personally have anywhere near that number so it in theory should be more than I'll personally ever need.

Thanks for sharing @MowMdown
I get different comments on the importance regarding the GPU ram size?
I need to convert many TB to AV1 (Less important media category's) but I think your right the GPU encoder is the same.
And I dont want to use this for gaming at all.

Just ordered a Sparkle Arc A380 Genie - 6GB GDDR6 RAM 🙂 I hope the low profile will help the airflow in my case

@casperse  How are you liking the performance of that GPU?  I'm looking to build a new server in the near future (currently have unriad on a mini PC) and finally move my PLEX server from a Windows PC to unRAID and I'm debating which platform I use for it, so seeing how the intel ARC GPUs do in unraid with docker containers for stuff like Plex and TDARR would be helpful.  I know current intel iGPUs are pretty good on that front.

On 9/5/2024 at 1:48 AM, thewolf56 said:

@casperse  How are you liking the performance of that GPU?  I'm looking to build a new server in the near future (currently have unriad on a mini PC) and finally move my PLEX server from a Windows PC to unRAID and I'm debating which platform I use for it, so seeing how the intel ARC GPUs do in unraid with docker containers for stuff like Plex and TDARR would be helpful.  I know current intel iGPUs are pretty good on that front.

Sorry I have it but havent installed it yet.

I would like to have it on my production system and I am waiting for the final release to come out.

@thewolf56 I've been running my Arc A310 for a few weeks now, it's been pretty good for plex transcoding. I was able to run 5 simultaneous 4K -> 1080p transcodes with HDR -> SDR tonemapping without any issues other than it was over WiFi so I might have been able to get up to 6 if I was plugged into my network. I'm even running mine in a PCIe Gen3 x1 slot as well. I don't think you could even saturate the PCIe Gen4 x4 link anyways. Since they're so cheap I may just pickup a 2nd A310 and throw it in one of my other PCIe Gen3 x1 slots since I have 3 of them.

 

I have not really tested encoding with handbrake, I'll do a test and let you know how it goes later today.

Have anyone gotten the ARC card working using the Unmanic docker?

 

I now have the card installed and the Unraid v.7.0.0.0 installed and its working transcoding using Plex but I cant get Unmanic to "see" the card?

 

So close! yet so Far away 🙂

 

Edited September 18, 20241 yr by casperse

Do all ARC GPUs have the same encoder decoder cores or the more expensive cards encode video faster? I've found mixed info regarding that. If a A310 is as fast as a A770 then I would just get the cheapest (and less power hungry!) card for AV1 encoding.

 

Edit: well, after reading the previous post I better wait for Unraid 7, unmanic support for Arc / AV1 and maybe even Battlemage.

Edited November 20, 20241 yr by Nirvash

I run a A310 Eco Sparkle with a max power consumption of 50w under load, it decodes/transcodes like a champ with av1 in plex and jellyfin, and encodes quickly in handbrake, its a single slot with no external power cables required , its a little noisy due to its tiny cooling fan but livable.

 

I originally went in this direction after reading that the encode/decode processing power was the same across the arc series and not related to vram or gpu directly.

I've seen 5 users streaming of my plex at once fully transcoding av1 to h264 and acc 160bit to acc 128bit and the card still has room to breath.

I'm on unraid 7 rc1 currently.

Edited December 11, 20241 yr by scottm8124

I read in another forum that "A310/A380 can't do HDR tone map transcode in Plex". Is this still true?

On 2/21/2025 at 12:15 AM, CaptainKen said:

I read in another forum that "A310/A380 can't do HDR tone map transcode in Plex". Is this still true?

I am also interested in this !

My friend ordered B580 last year and wanted to sell it to me for $200 because he upgraded to rtx 5090.

Should I buy it? Its a little bulky and I don't know if it will fit my nas Jonsbo N2

 

Just installed Arc A770 and I tested transcoding 4K HDR with linear tone mapping and was able to do 20 1080p High transcodes. Utilization was about 90% so I could have pushed it harder.
i would say this is a beast for plex right now.  

I've read that the chip performance between a A380 and a A770 are roughly the same. The question is, does the chips utilisation is maxed out before using all the VRAM ?

Because I'm thinking about buying a A770 for all the VRAM but I struggle to find any numbers between the Arc Series like the Elpamsoft website did with the Intel GPU

If someone have any clues/informations it would be cool :)

for just transcoding - A310 or A380 is plenty.

if you are not planning to use it for something else - I’d pick A310, no reason for A380, really.

me and @MowMdown did power test recently (I have A380 Challenger), and A310 consumes 12W idle and my A380 22W idle.

A310 Eco could have fan noise, but you can connect it to motherboard PWM.

Well I was able to transcode close to 40 4K HDR with tone mapping with the a770. Maybe the vram helped.

Thanks for your answers

How many 4K HDR and 1080p transcoding are you able to make with your A310 ?

Noise and power consumption are not really a problem here. I need a futur proof solution for a lot a simultaneously stream

8 minutes ago, noonamer said:

for just transcoding - A310 or A380 is plenty.

if you are not planning to use it for something else - I’d pick A310, no reason for A380, really.

me and @MowMdown did power test recently (I have A380 Challenger), and A310 consumes 12W idle and my A380 22W idle.

A310 Eco could have fan noise, but you can connect it to motherboard PWM.

Oh damn that's a lot ! How many simultaneously 1080p stream are you able to do with this absolute beast ?

What's your configuration (CPU/RAM type) ?

I actually got a Supermicro CSE-846 with PCIe 3.0 and 128 Gb of DDR4

7 minutes ago, Sooknu said:

Well I was able to transcode close to 40 4K HDR with tone mapping with the a770. Maybe the vram helped.

1080p too many that capped my remote isp bandwidth. I didn’t continue.

7 minutes ago, JGeranium said:

Noise and power consumption are not really a problem here. I need a futur proof solution for a lot a simultaneously stream

future proof is something unknown. My A380, doing 4 * 4k ReMUX -> 1080p without breaking a sweat.

A310 I expect to have close to similar performance. You can always wait for B series, they are future proofed for sure

I might wait for the B series to get a A series cheaper, maybe a A770 but I'm interested to see the number of max transcoding on the A380

I got a 8Gb up/down so my ISP won't really be a bottleneck