Hello,
I’m running a Plex Server on an Linux VM, hosted on an Optiplex machine. It works fine, but I want to upgrade my setup.
I checked what is better to do HW transcoding, It seems that Intel chips do better than AMD. But AMD is cheaper.
My budget is around 500€, I’ve found on Amazon 2 machines which could be OK:
MINIS FORUM NAD9
MINIS FORUM UM580D
For you, which one is suffisant for 10 simultaneous 4k streams ?
Is there a better alternative in hardware ? Linux or Windows server ?
I think more info is needed.
10 simultaneous 4k transcodes to 1080p?
Will tone mapping be required?
Will audio transcoding be required?
Direct playing 4k doesn’t really use up a lot of CPU. You may run into problems with bandwidth though. Your upload speeds will run out with that many 4k streams, and the person streaming from you may not have the speed to download 4k movies to begin with. This means you’ll be transcoding a good portion of those streams
Ten 4k streams is different than ten 4k transcoded streams. That’s probably overly ambitious no matter what CPU you get
If you use Linux you’d get tone mapping using the CPU in hardware. For Windows you’d need a Nvidia GPU which isn’t an option with a mini pc
The intel quick sync is what makes the difference. I think AMD will hardware transcode but you would probably have to ask someone who has that chip to see exactly how efficient they are. They aren’t “officially supported”. It might work it might not
I’ve heard people say that an AMD GPU will do hardware transcoding but they just don’t get a many transcodes as an equally priced Nvidia card. I have to assume this may also translate to an Intel vs. Amd CPU comparison but I don’t know
If I had the same goal and budget, I would consider a desktop with a slightly less powerful Intel CPU and a dedicated Nvidia GPU
If you get it from Amazon you can always return something pretty easy and reevaluate if you need to
Thank you guys for your answers. Let me add more informations :
10 simultaneous 4k transcodes to 1080p?
depends on distant client but I’d say “yes, probably”
Will tone mapping be required?
Again, probably and this depends on the movie, I have some 4K with HDR and some others without.
Will audio transcoding be required?
Again², depends on the client but yes probably.
For JaysPlex7:
I have 1Gbps (up and down) internet bandwidth, so this is not a problem.
So you say that I will have more efficiency with intel CPU (I’m aware of the Quick Sync).
In short, the best combo is a desktop tower, with moderate and a good GPU.
I’ve read that retail nVidia GPU provides a maximum of 3 transcodes.
In a nutshell:
Intel Core i5-11400F like
nVidia GPU
I have a MSI GTX970 from my last config that I don’t use anymore, this would be sufficient ?
Depends on the card purchased. The official limit is 2 for those lower-end cards. Some folks hack the driver to get a 3rd stream. (unsupportable)
If this is going to be a machine, CPU chip only, I would plan WAY ahead.
– subtitle burning will be your nemesis
– audio converting adds up quickly.
I’d start spit-balling the specs with:
This is based on:
My i7-7700 can transcode up to about 600 Mbps (6 streams) of video before it starts to get taxed with conversion and tone mapping. The new iGPUs are far better
The CPU is about 70% utilization (it’s a quad core @ 3.4 Ghz) converting audio
My preference is liquid cooling (quiet and no fuss). Get the best possible compound and use their stencil to lay down a proper thickness patch on the CPU for the cooler because it matters a great deal. (My xeon e5-2690v4 doesn’t exceed 34 C with all 28 cores at full load)
Normally I think people who keep 10 different versions of their files around and jump through hoops to avoid all transcoding are nuts… But since OP needs ten simultaneous 4k tone mapping streams, to me this is one of those cases where simply having a 1080p SDR copy alongside your 4k HDR master file makes sense.
I’m pretty sure there are patches to unlock those cards for as many transcodes as you want, on Windows at least (or the max the card is capable of anyway)
I don’t think a GTX 970 will work. Pretty sure the lowest you can really go is a GTX 1050 but that’s not going to get you anywhere near where you want to be. As Chuck mentioned you’re in the range of 2gb of VRAM
I think all the Quadro cards are unlocked. Pricy but if you can reuse the 11th gen you already have, you’re just moving your budget from the new mini pc to a GPU
Make sure your PSU is compatible with whatever GPU you’re looking at if you need external power
This chart might be helpful.
Keep in mind this is 1080p to 720p transcodes
https://www.elpamsoft.com/?p=Plex-Hardware-Transcoding
I don’t have a lot of 4k movies so it’s not a problem for me to just keep one 1080 or 720p copy. I don’t even do it for all of them, just the more popular ones I know a lot of people will watch
I have low powered equipment but a lot of extra storage space so that works for me. If you have a very capable computer/gpu but not a lot of storage then we have a different ballgame
Honestly ten simultaneous 4k streams is probably somewhere between an overestimate and a worse case scenario mass extinction event
If you have good internet and your streamers have ok download speed you may not be transcoding as many streams as you think
Yes totally agreed, this is why I ask to you guys because maybe I don’t have the good point of view.
My goal is : get the best power/price rate for at maximum 10 simultaneous connections. Maybe some with transcoding and some not.
Maybe I need to get different file formats / encoding, I have a mix of h264 and h265, 1080p, 4k light, etc.
I am clearly not an expert on this subjet, I just try to understand enough to buy an affordable machine for a moderate use. Yes 10 streams would be the critical use, I’m currently around 4-5 streams on some peaks.
So: a good CPU (i7/i9 quite recent) and a QuadroFX would be nice, coupled with 32Gb RAM minimum and SSD NVMe for the system / swap / buffering. Right ?
Again, many thanks for your answers, you are very helpful !
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