Hello - My current CPU is Intel® Xeon® CPU E3-1231 v3 @ 3.40GHz, running on ASRock C226 WS Version M/B; this CPU does not have Intel Quick Sync. I do not have a powerful GPU. I am running Plex (plex pass) in a docker using pms-docker:beta, I do have 'Use Hardware Transcoding when available' turned on in Plex, but with my current setup it doesn't use the CPU.

 

Questions I have are these:

 

1. Can I add an Nvidia GPU to the build and pass that through to the docker and achieve Plex Hardware Transcoding through the GPU. (Solved - adding P2200)
2. What GPU to use for Catalina OSX and Windows 10 VM passthrough? My understanding is that Catalina requires an AMD GPU but from reading the forum it seems AMD doesn't work well with UNRAID GPU passthrough. So wondering how to reconcile that? Any suggestions? 

Thank You!

Edited November 5, 20205 yr by abhi.ko
Edited for showing one question was solved.

Bump! Anyone. 

13 hours ago, abhi.ko said:

Can I add an Nvidia GPU to the build and pass that through to the docker and achieve Plex Hardware Transcoding through the GPU.

Yes, but you would need the unRAID Nvidia plugin and associated special unRAID build with Nvidia drivers to do this.  It has support for certain Nvidia GPUs (1050 and above GTX) and the commercial GPUs like the Quadro P2000 which is very popular for "unlimited" transcode support.  GTX are limited to two simultaneously.

6 hours ago, Hoopster said:

Yes, but you would need the unRAID Nvidia plugin and associated special unRAID build with Nvidia drivers to do this.  It has support for certain Nvidia GPUs (1050 and above GTX) and the commercial GPUs like the Quadro P2000 which is very popular for "unlimited" transcode support.  GTX are limited to two simultaneously.

Thank you! Yes I am planning to use the unraid Nvidia plugin and basically follow the guide by spaceinvaderone . leaning towards the P2000 myself, it is not cheap though.

@HoopsterThanks for all the help, so I am planning to get the P2200, that should work well right?

 

Also for my VM pass through, a OSX Catalina VM and windows 10 VM mainly, I have others but these would not be using the GPU. What is a good card for that? Read that AMD cards are not the best for unraid VM passthrough (reset bug etc.) but again Catalina needs AMD is what I understand from what I have read. Is that true, if so any recommendations on what to buy would be very much appreciated. 

 

Thanks.

Edited November 4, 20205 yr by abhi.ko

4 minutes ago, abhi.ko said:

@HoopsterThanks for all the help, so I am planning to get the P2200, that should work well right?

 

Also for my VM pass through, a Catalina and windows 10 mainly, I have others but these would be using the GPU. What is a good card for that? Read that AMD cards are not the best for unraid VM passthrough (reset bug etc.) but again Catalina needs AMD is what I understand from what I have read. Is that true, if so any recommendations on what to buy would be very much appreciated. 

 

Thanks.

P2200 should work fine as it is on the Nvidia list of supported GPUs for hardware encoding and decoding.

 

As far as video cards for VMs go, I do not know what Catalina may require.  If it is an AMD card, yes, they are much more problematic than Nvidia cards for VM pass through.  If your only goal is discrete video rather than a VNC type video connection to the VM, a low cost video card like the Nvidia GeGorce GT 210/710 is good enough, you can get them on eBay for around $30 and sometimes cheaper.

 

I have no personal experience with passing through a video card to a VM, so do some searches in these forums to see what the experience of others may teach you.

Thanks. Will do and keep this thread open in case some kind soul decides to comment and can provide some guidance.