# CPU at Max when trying to use Hardware Transcoding **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux\ **Created:** [January 17, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/cpu-at-max-when-trying-to-use-hardware-transcoding/866647 "2024-01-17T23:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gary279](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@gary279](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gary279)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/cpu-at-max-when-trying-to-use-hardware-transcoding/866647/1 "2024-01-17T23:17:00Z")
Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639 Player Version#: 1.85.0 Hi Guys I’m really hoping someone can help me and that it is probably a really simple solution that I’m just missing it because I have spent so long looking at it. I started to build a new Plex server on an old PC and wanted to virtualise this using Proxmox and use PCI Passthrough so the Plex VM could access the GPU and allow me to use hardware transcoding. I followed several guides both written and YouTube which all followed very similar directions so felt like I had a good understanding of the steps involved, however, when the server was finished, I tested playing 4K content which streamed with no problems using Direct Play, if I reduce this to 1080p, Plex shows on the dashboard transcode (hw) which suggests it is using the hardware to transcode but the CPU shoots up to 100% and if I run “nvidia-smi” it says No running processes found so it seems like it is not using the CPU instead of GPU. After spending days trying to get this running from Proxmox, I reached the conclusion that my hardware setup will not allow the GPU to passthrough even though everything looks like it does. I also read and seen that this can be the case. I then reinstalled Linux onto the PC and setup plex directly on the hardware instead of Proxmox. I still have the same issue!!! I preformed exactly the same test and had the same results. Below is some info on my setup. PC: Dell OptiPlex 3010 CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Setup Version 1 - Virtual Plex Server Hardware as Above Proxmox version 8.1 VM running Ubuntu 22.04.3 Server Plex version as above. GPU from [https://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86\_64/470.223.02/NVIDIA-Linux-x86\_64-470.223.02.run](https://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/470.223.02/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-470.223.02.run) Setup Version 2 - Plex on Bare Metal As above but without Proxmox. Happy to provide more info, logs, links to the guides I followed etc just trying to not make this post a 20 page essay. Any advice, help or telling me that what I’m trying to do isn’t possible and give up now would be appreciated. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/cpu-at-max-when-trying-to-use-hardware-transcoding/866647/2 "2024-01-18T00:03:08Z")
Look at the NVidia Decode - Encode Matrix. > **[Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new)** > > Find the related video encoding and decoding support for all NVIDIA GPU products. If I’m reading it right , your GTX 660 just misses the lower end for consumer cards and HW transcoding. Your CPU, on the other hand, does have Hardware QuickSync video support for 720p and 1080p video [https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/68316/intel-core-i53470-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/68316/intel-core-i53470-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html) You are probably getting the passthrough (especially if nvidia-smi shows the card then it’s there) but this is probably a case where the Nvidia can only be a display adapter for you. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/cpu-at-max-when-trying-to-use-hardware-transcoding/866647/3 "2024-04-17T00:03:11Z")
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