Plex on a Gaming PC?

AzureKite · February 16, 2016

After refinding Plex and getting everything set up, I'm just wondering how demanding it would be on my system? At most it'll be two users streaming videos from it at one time. I also play online games like Blade & Soul, (soon) Black Desert, GTA V, Minecraft, and rarely Gmod and stream from the machine about once a week or so. Would the Plex server hurt my online gaming or streaming? (Streams are 720p 60fps)

My Setup:

My Internet Speeds (I'm on Wireless due to going 50/50 on internet with the couple next door)

Oshino Shinobu · February 16, 2016

It depends whether the Plex server is going to be transcoding or not. If it is, then it will likely impact gaming performance quite a bit. If it's direct streaming, then your WiFi connection may be the thing that suffers. I've had stuttering issues with WiFi streaming a single 1080p video, so having two would likely have a pretty bad affect on online gaming.

Joel_Ramirez · February 16, 2016

I have an i5 NUC (more specifically the BOXD34010WYKH1) dedicated to this task at my apartment so far it hasn't struggled at all transcoding up to 2 1080p streams at a time. With that said I doubt it would be that taxing on your hardware, however my NUC is hard wired.

As Oshino Shinobu mentioned you might take a hit since you're on WIFI. TBH though, depending on what device it's streaming to, I don't think Plex streams at that high of a bit rate so you may still be okay, but you'll likely lose some latency.

They only way to really know would be to run some benchmarks.

AzureKite · February 16, 2016

1 hour ago, Joel_Ramirez said:

I have an i5 NUC (more specifically the BOXD34010WYKH1) dedicated to this task at my apartment so far it hasn't struggled at all transcoding up to 2 1080p streams at a time. With that said I doubt it would be that taxing on your hardware, however my NUC is hard wired.

As Oshino Shinobu mentioned you might take a hit since you're on WIFI. TBH though, depending on what device it's streaming to, I don't think Plex streams at that high of a bit rate so you may still be okay, but you'll likely lose some latency.

They only way to really know would be to run some benchmarks.

Yeah I'm going to let it run in the background for a week and see if I notice it all, the main device (my Ruko built-in TV) is on the same network so it shouldn't have to much of an issue on my internet speeds if at all.