I have an 11600k but my server feels it’s choking at times doing all kinds of other things. Would adding a dedicated GPU take some pressure off the cpu?
A GPU will usually improve transcoding but the 11600k should be more than capable for most use cases. Intel UHD 750 graphics is pretty decent
A general direct play inside your network hardly uses any cpu. I suppose it depends on what “all kinds of other things” means
Unless you are trying to transcode a bunch of 4k HDR to SDR streams I’m thinking your problem lies somewhere else
I am at times. But the cpu is also extracting/repairing files, doing a lot of this
I would verify that your hardware transcoding is working. Even transcoding you shouldn’t be using a lot of CPU for Plex
You should have plenty of power leftover to do other tasks
What operating system?
What version of Plex Media Server?
In general, adding a discrete GPU will not take any load off of the CPU. It will simply transfer the work performed by Quick Sync Graphics to the discrete GPU.
Audio transcoding, burning subtitles, and remuxing are always performed by the CPU. Same for items such as intro and credit detection.
The one caveat is for hardware accelerated HDR to SDR tonemapping.
If running Windows, a Nvidia GPU is required. Otherwise, the CPU is used. Tonemapping is very process intensive, so transferring the load to a GPU would definitely help the CPU.
Intel Quick Sync Graphics are supported when running Plex on a Linux system, so adding a discrete GPU would not help much, if any.
Hi. I’m on unraid. 11600k, 64GB memory, SSDs for the applications. It works just fine when transcoding 4k so long as nothing else is going on but if I’m repairing files, extracting, have detecting intros and all of those options going it appears to get choppy for my buddies. There were two streams going and it just seemed like the server was very bogged down. One of them started transcoding to lower bitrate becuase he thought it was his connection. My question is if a majority is 4k and transcoding is required if having a GPU is an easy solution? If the server is doing something besides simply streaming plex if not having all the demands on one part of the system would make it much more flexible?
If you are using hardware accelerated transcoding and tonemapping, then you are not “having all the demands on one part of the system.”
You are using Intel Quick Sync Graphics, the embedded GPU, for video transcoding and tonemapping. You are using the CPU for everything else. Yes, they’re on the same chip, but they serve different functions.
What happens if they both stream and you are not working with media or the system is not detecting intros, etc.?
Test with subtitles turned off. If Plex has to burn subtitles it will bog things down. Burning uses the CPU and is also single threaded, so it only uses one core. Any CPU will have trouble trying to burn subtitles into a 4K video stream.
Monitor the GPU utilization and see if it is maxing out. I run PMS on Ubuntu and use intel_gpu_top to monitor the GPU on my i5-10500 (part of intel_gpu_tools). There’s probably a way to add it to Docker or run it on Unraid.
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Well no offense but I’m looking for someone that’s added the gpu to their system and their experience in doing so.
Finding someone who added a GPU may not be very helpful. The results might be dramatic for some and insignificant for others. Possibly worse depending on the GPU
You would have to find someone who…
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Has the same OS
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The same CPU
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Other hardware specs very similar to you (64gb ram ect…)
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Is transcoding the same amount of simultaneous streams
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Is performing the same exact kind of background tasks
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Upgraded to the same GPU you get
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Playing the exact same kind of files that are transcoding in the exact same way
(big difference between doing a 4k → 1080p transcode and 4k HDR → 720p SDR with PGS subtitles)
I’m not sure what you mean by “extracting and repairing files” or what kind of system requirements are being used for those tasks
A testimonial from someone who added a GPU could be very misleading and cause you to waste a lot of time, money and energy
I know you’d like a yes or no answer, but the question you’re asking is more complicated than that
You might need a GPU, but you might be better served by upgrading the CPU
If you’d like a simple answer, I can tell you that an i9-13900k with an RTX 4090 GPU is going to outperform an 11th gen i5 with no GPU
I’m not sure that’s helpful
The true answer requires some investigation by answering the questions being asked
FordGuy is just trying his best to lead you down the right path to making a well informed decision
