GPU for Plex Server

[Ravendarat]

Ok I am going to come out of the gates and admit I dont understand what people mean by "encoding" when it comes to this topic. I hear people talk about using a GPU for encoding on their plex server but I dont understand what that means or how you would set it up. And what kind of GPU would I be looking for? 99% of the time my plex is serving one stream at a time. Like would I be looking for like a 1650? at 3050, 2060? And once I put a GPU in would there be software that needs to be configured to force Plex to use the GPU? As I said, I am way out of my depth on this one so I am looking for a "explanation for dummies"

[GuiltySpark_]

Generally what you’re hearing about when people say this is specifically GPU hardware transcoding. By default, Plex uses software transcoding which utilizes your CPU. If you pay for Plex Pass, it unlocks the ability to utilize the hardware transcoding engine in your GPU, with NVIDIA this is their NVENC transcoder, to handle processing the video streams. 
 

Less power and heat and the ability generally handle more streams. 
 

If you’re only streaming to one device and that device is on your local network, there is a chance you don’t need to transcode at all and the files can be streamed directly. 
 

The NVENC engine can be found in most modern Nvidia GPUs. 

[Ravendarat]

7 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Generally what you’re hearing about when people say this is specifically GPU hardware transcoding. By default, Plex uses software transcoding which utilizes your CPU. If you pay for Plex Pass, it unlocks the ability to utilize the hardware transcoding engine in your GPU, with NVIDIA this is their NVENC transcoder, to handle processing the video streams. 
 

Less power and heat and the ability generally handle more streams. 
 

If you’re only streaming to one device and that device is on your local network, there is a chance you don’t need to transcode at all and the files can be streamed directly. 
 

The NVENC engine can be found in most modern Nvidia GPUs. 

Thank you for that explanation. That helps a lot. So a 3050 would be fine than, if I’m gonna buy a gpu anyways I’d rather buy something newer so it’s current longer

[Blue4130]

39 minutes ago, Ravendarat said:

Ok I am going to come out of the gates and admit I dont understand what people mean by "encoding" when it comes to this topic. I hear people talk about using a GPU for encoding on their plex server but I dont understand what that means or how you would set it up. And what kind of GPU would I be looking for? 99% of the time my plex is serving one stream at a time. Like would I be looking for like a 1650? at 3050, 2060? And once I put a GPU in would there be software that needs to be configured to force Plex to use the GPU? As I said, I am way out of my depth on this one so I am looking for a "explanation for dummies"

Do you even need it though? Are you watching shows at different resolutions that you downloaded them at? encoding/transcoding is in simple terms, changing the resolution on the fly. You mention only one stream, is it inside of your home network? Like server to TV or do you plan on watching on your phone while you are on holiday in a different place? If it is just in home, there is really no need to transcode.

[GuiltySpark_]

Yeah, like I said above, 90% of the things I stream to my Chromecast I can just Direct Play, no transcoding at all. Even relatively high bitrate 4K files.

[Ravendarat]

25 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Do you even need it though? Are you watching shows at different resolutions that you downloaded them at? encoding/transcoding is in simple terms, changing the resolution on the fly. You mention only one stream, is it inside of your home network? Like server to TV or do you plan on watching on your phone while you are on holiday in a different place? If it is just in home, there is really no need to transcode.

I want to be able to watch outside of my home as I have the ability to watch content at my work and would prefer to not have to duplicate my 8tb library onto a second hard drive just to put in my work tower. But its good to know that I COULD just do that for way less money and still be good with my home system as I am currently just using the on board graphics on my 6th gen intel chip

 

[GuiltySpark_]

6 minutes ago, Ravendarat said:

I want to be able to watch outside of my home as I have the ability to watch content at my work and would prefer to not have to duplicate my 8tb library onto a second hard drive just to put in my work tower. But its good to know that I COULD just do that for way less money and still be good with my home system as I am currently just using the on board graphics on my 6th gen intel chip

 

Depending on which Intel CPU you have, it may support Quick Sync encoding which means you wouldn't need a GPU at all. I'm not too familiar with Quick Sync however, maybe someone else can help there. 

 

Look through here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/#:~:text=can get started%3A-,1.,-Check the system 

 

Actually, reading this is far more common than I thought. Look up your CPU in Intel ARK and look for this:

[AlexChato9]

I had to take a similar decision. Finally went with a GTX 1070 with the driver video stream hack and in Emby I can easily transcode 5x 4k 50 Mbit/s streams!

[voyager_]

3060 is definatly overkill. I picked up a Quadro k2200 on ebay for $100 and i can run 5+ streams without breaking a sweat. Just because you want to stream remotely does not mean you need a gpu. depending on what cpu you are running you may be able to use intel quick sync. I went years transcoding on the cpu for 1-2 streams on a ryzen 1600x without any issues. I recently added one because I started adding a couple of VMs and needed the cores.

 

You should also look into transcoding to RAM, the setup is different depending on the OS but it will take some stress off of your drives when you do have to transcode.

[GuiltySpark_]

21 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

I want to be able to watch outside of my home as I have the ability to watch content at my work and would prefer to not have to duplicate my 8tb library onto a second hard drive just to put in my work tower. But its good to know that I COULD just do that for way less money and still be good with my home system as I am currently just using the on board graphics on my 6th gen intel chip

 

All this being said regarding hardware transcoding, in Plex at least, it does require a Plex Pass subscription. I used to subscribe but I didn't feel it was worth it for my very simple use case. Now I just use software transcoding and can still stream anywhere to my phone or other devices outside me home. For one stream at a time, just test it.