Cheap GPU for Plex server transcoding

[Tegneren]

I'm currently have a media server running Plex for my totally legit movie and TV series collection. I have paid for a yearly subscription to get HW transcoding, but I'm still struggling a bit with buffering and not being able to view some files on my TV.

Currently i have no descrete GPU in the server and its just running on a I7 4790k with its rather poor iGPU. 

I tried running the Plex server on my gaming PC (R7 5800X and RX 6800XT) and was able to view everything without any issue even with FAH running at full tilt, but I dont want to run it on that as already use the server for storage.

 

So would any cheap descrete GPU work better for transcoding, or will I have to get something at a certain level to get it to run properly. If so what would be the lowest I should look at?

 

[RONOTHAN##]

You want to get something with NVENC support. The cheapest option is probably the Quadro P400 off eBay, though there are many cards that support NVENC so keep that in mind. 

[Needfuldoer]

Older Quadro cards are relatively inexpensive on the used market. Something from the Pascal generation or newer would work.

 

Before you buy anything make sure Plex is actually using Quick Sync Video for encoding. I don't remember if hardware acceleration gets enabled by default when you've got a Plex Pass subscription.

[Dedayog]

26 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Older Quadro cards are relatively inexpensive on the used market. Something from the Pascal generation or newer would work.

 

Before you buy anything make sure Plex is actually using Quick Sync Video for encoding. I don't remember if hardware acceleration gets enabled by default when you've got a Plex Pass subscription.

You need Plex Pass for it.   I grabbed the Lifetime,  costs about 3 years worth for as long as Plex exists.  Worth the bet.  

 

I use a 1050Ti currently.  I think it's the minimal mainstream GPU for it.

 

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[Tegneren]

26 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Before you buy anything make sure Plex is actually using Quick Sync Video for encoding. I don't remember if hardware acceleration gets enabled by default when you've got a Plex Pass subscription.

I cant find any mention of "quick sync" in the settings, but Hardware accellerated encoding is enabled (im assuming its the same ting) and the transcoding device is set to the Intel HD grapics.

 

6 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You need Plex Pass for it.

I have it, Bought a years subscription

[BiotechBen]

6 minutes ago, Tegneren said:

I cant find any mention of "quick sync" in the settings, but Hardware accellerated encoding is enabled (im assuming its the same ting) and the transcoding device is set to the Intel HD grapics.

 

I have it, Bought a years subscription

I have a p600 in my HTPC, and it's been great, about $40 when I got it about a month ago, a p400 would be a good choice if you're lookig. For 1 4k or 2-3 1080p streams (not direct stream).

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, Tegneren said:

I'm currently have a media server running Plex for my totally legit movie and TV series collection. I have paid for a yearly subscription to get HW transcoding, but I'm still struggling a bit with buffering and not being able to view some files on my TV.

Currently i have no descrete GPU in the server and its just running on a I7 4790k with its rather poor iGPU. 

I tried running the Plex server on my gaming PC (R7 5800X and RX 6800XT) and was able to view everything without any issue even with FAH running at full tilt, but I dont want to run it on that as already use the server for storage.

 

So would any cheap descrete GPU work better for transcoding, or will I have to get something at a certain level to get it to run properly. If so what would be the lowest I should look at?

 

If you’re streaming in your house, you don’t really want to be transcoding anyways. Transcoding serves the purpose of reducing file size to make streaming over the internet possible. For local playback, you need to make sure your files are stored in a way that can be direct played on the devices they will be played on. This also results in requiring no transcoding, which means Plex can run on a potatoe without issue since it just turns into simply streaming data from the harddrive. 
 

I would potentially put that money into an nvidia shield tv (not the tube one, the larger one) or a chromecast ultra. Both have very good support of just about every codec and thus will be able to play the files in their native format. This improves quality since transcoding by definition reduces quality, and makes it so your Plex machine doesnt need any upgrades. 

[Tegneren]

3 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

If you’re streaming in your house, you don’t really want to be transcoding anyways. Transcoding serves the purpose of reducing file size to make streaming over the internet possible. For local playback, you need to make sure your files are stored in a way that can be direct played on the devices they will be played on. This also results in requiring no transcoding, which means Plex can run on a potatoe without issue since it just turns into simply streaming data from the harddrive. 
 

I would potentially put that money into an nvidia shield tv (not the tube one, the larger one) or a chromecast ultra. Both have very good support of just about every codec and thus will be able to play the files in their native format. This improves quality since transcoding by definition reduces quality, and makes it so your Plex machine doesnt need any upgrades. 

I'm using the Plex app on my Samsung smart TV (QE65Q70RAT) to watch. Its on the same network as the server so would think it should work ok then, unless it doesn't have the proper codecs. But as I mentioned, when running the server on my gaming PC it was flawless.

I also has a Chromecast Ultra, but its more cumbersome to use it, so I haven't tested Plex on that. I currently only uses it for the occasional Twitch stream as the TV doesnt have an app for it.

[LIGISTX]

31 minutes ago, Tegneren said:

I'm using the Plex app on my Samsung smart TV (QE65Q70RAT) to watch. Its on the same network as the server so would think it should work ok then, unless it doesn't have the proper codecs. But as I mentioned, when running the server on my gaming PC it was flawless.

I also has a Chromecast Ultra, but its more cumbersome to use it, so I haven't tested Plex on that. I currently only uses it for the occasional Twitch stream as the TV doesnt have an app for it.

The Samsung TV app is likely the issue. Your gaming PC can power through transcoding without issue, which is why you wasn’t have noticed a slowdown. Plex can direct play video running on an absolutely ancient PC, your 4790k is extreme overkill for direct play (it’ll use single digit CPU%, tops).

 

What version or chromecast ultra do you have? I guess the new one I was thinking of was “chromecast with google tv”, it has a remote and functions much like a nvidia shield tv would. The Ultra may also work fine, I’d give it a shot. But the Samsung TV app is almost certainly the issue as it likely can’t play the native codec and it’s forcing the Plex server to transcode, which is clearly not working out very well. 
 

More importantly, what is your source media? That 4790k shouldn’t have any issue transcoding 1080p to 720p for example (depending on the file size, a full phat 1080p bluray may be to much for it), but it absolutely will not be able to transcode 4k for example. So this information is also important. 
 

As an example, my homelab used to run on an i3 6100, and I gave my Ubuntu VM that handled Plex 2 of my 4 threads ( dual core with HT….) and it would play back full bluray rips (70GB each….. so nearly 100mbps streams) 4k, Dolby vision and atmos, and CPU usage would be ~5%. Because again, it’s not actually “doing anything” besides just being a file server if you are direct playing. Now you try and transcode that same 4k bluray, well, that ain’t happening, I’d need a GPU for that. 

[Tegneren]

5 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

The Samsung TV app is likely the issue. Your gaming PC can power through transcoding without issue, which is why you wasn’t have noticed a slowdown. Plex can direct play video running on an absolutely ancient PC, your 4790k is extreme overkill for direct play (it’ll use single digit CPU%, tops).

 

What version or chromecast ultra do you have? I guess the new one I was thinking of was “chromecast with google tv”, it has a remote and functions much like a nvidia shield tv would. The Ultra may also work fine, I’d give it a shot. But the Samsung TV app is almost certainly the issue as it likely can’t play the native codec and it’s forcing the Plex server to transcode, which is clearly not working out very well. 
 

More importantly, what is your source media? That 4790k shouldn’t have any issue transcoding 1080p to 720p for example (depending on the file size, a full phat 1080p bluray may be to much for it), but it absolutely will not be able to transcode 4k for example. So this information is also important. 
 

As an example, my homelab used to run on an i3 6100, and I gave my Ubuntu VM that handled Plex 2 of my 4 threads ( dual core with HT….) and it would play back full bluray rips (70GB each….. so nearly 100mbps streams) 4k, Dolby vision and atmos, and CPU usage would be ~5%. Because again, it’s not actually “doing anything” besides just being a file server if you are direct playing. Now you try and transcode that same 4k bluray, well, that ain’t happening, I’d need a GPU for that. 

Yeah I think you may be right. Because some movies with big 60GB 4K files it chews through without issue, while it sometimes struggles at much smaller 1080p files probably due to an unsupported codek on the TV.

My library varies widely in quality, some of them are really old like from the time where the downloads were made to fit a CD

My chromecast is of the older 4K hockey puck variant without google tv

[LIGISTX]

4 hours ago, Tegneren said:

Yeah I think you may be right. Because some movies with big 60GB 4K files it chews through without issue, while it sometimes struggles at much smaller 1080p files probably due to an unsupported codek on the TV.

My library varies widely in quality, some of them are really old like from the time where the downloads were made to fit a CD

My chromecast is of the older 4K hockey puck variant without google tv

Try the chromecast. If it doesn’t work either for all your content, consider an nvidia shield tv. I watch 99% of all my content through it because it’s a great user interface and its android, so has an app for everything.