# Default hardware transcoder - choices / how does it work?

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-linux\
**Created:** [October 10, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214 "2023-10-10T00:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/1 "2023-10-10T00:27:45Z")

</div>

Love that we can select the default GPU transcoder.

Swapping out my 4060Ti replacing my P2000 (need more power for something else).  
My CPU is an i7 10th Gen with UHD Graphics 630.

Curious, how does Plex decide which GPU to use when it’s on auto? I’m trying to decide what is better to do - auto or nVidia selected.

Transcodes are rare, but they do occur with some slower remote connections.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 10, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/2 "2023-10-10T00:50:19Z")

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PMS will use the First Available (where Nvidia is checked first).

PMS is **not** self-balancing / dynamic balancing.

(Dynamic would be where you start without tonemapping then enable tonemapping – which is more GPU load… and it would switch if too much load)

Personally, given the bandwidth of the 4060 vs 630 (about 500 Mbps/sec), I would keep the UHD630 as a ‘hot spare’ / unused.

I have my P2200 selected as default

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 1:05am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/3 "2023-10-10T01:05:40Z")

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Curiously, is there any reason to keep the 2000 installed as well?

Would Plex see 4060, then 2000, and then UHD or nah?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 10, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/4 "2023-10-10T02:47:05Z")

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> [@derekcentrico](#):
>
> Would Plex see 4060, then 2000, and then UHD or nah?

It’s not that smart. It doesn’t load-balance (I know what you’re thinking 😃 LOL)

I would pull the P2000 and hold it as a spare.  
I’d also leave the QSV alone and select the Nvidia as the default.  
(It’ll run circles around the Intel ASIC)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/5 "2023-10-10T11:25:29Z")

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Sounds good. Thanks for the input!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 11:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/6 "2023-10-11T23:41:02Z")

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@ChuckPa Not sure if this matters, but the transcoder dropdown sees it as an Unknown nVidia card apparently. It’s the 4060ti 16GB.

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/3/b/a/3ba76e23490d0715c3401ead94aeae4311824c48.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 12, 2023, 12:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/7 "2023-10-12T00:27:50Z")

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@derekcentrico

That’s not good.

1. Check the drivers
2. Confirm with `nvidia-smi`
3. Make sure Plex is a member of the group which owns /dev/dri

What “Unknown” tells me is the driver isn’t communicating.  
Now we need to figure out why

Release date:

> GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Jul 18, 2023 $499

If you updated the drivers without restarting PMS – Restart PMS so it gets a fresh read of the card

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/8 "2023-10-12T00:55:34Z")

</div>

Sure here you go.

```auto
Wed Oct 11 20:51:09 2023
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 535.113.01 Driver Version: 535.113.01 CUDA Version: 12.2 |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util
Compute M. |
| | |
    MIG M. |
|=========================================+======================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Off | 00000000:01:00.0 Off | N/A |
| 0% 42C P8 6W / 165W | 3702MiB / 16380MiB | 1%
   Default |
| | |
       N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:
           |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID | Usage |
|=======================================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 3162 C+G /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless
    292MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 3881 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg
    113MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 4194 C+G ...libexec/gnome-remote-desktop-daemon
    120MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 4238 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell
     10MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 6269 G ...local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam
      2MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 6626 G ...re/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper
      6MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 9082 C+G /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless
    289MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 223445 C python3
   2796MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 223737 G ...84954002,1837133609424017496,262144
     35MiB |
+----------------------------------------------------------

```

Not sure about this.

```auto
$ ls -lah /dev/dri
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 140 Oct 11 18:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 6.4K Oct 11 20:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Oct 11 18:37 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 226, 0 Oct 11 18:37 card0
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 226, 1 Oct 11 18:37 card1
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 226, 128 Oct 11 18:37 renderD128
crw-rw----+ 1 root video 226, 129 Oct 11 18:37 renderD129

```

_MODERATOR EDIT: Formatting_

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/9 "2023-10-12T00:57:48Z")

</div>

Whoops and restarting PMS doesn’t change anything. Didn’t do anything with drivers as they were installed for the other card I swapped.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 12, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/10 "2023-10-12T01:04:21Z")

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please do the following:

```auto
sudo lshw -C display

```

You should find the Nvidia card properly listed and identified

e.g.

```auto
root@glockner:/home/chuck# lshw -C display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP106GL [Quadro P2200]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:213 memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:d000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

```

QUESTION:  
what’s running in VirtualBox? Ubuntu?

```auto
/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxHeadless

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![derekcentrico](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/derekcentrico/32/86438_2.png) [@derekcentrico](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derekcentrico)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 1:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/11 "2023-10-12T01:16:46Z")

</div>

Virtual box is home assistant fun.

$ lshw -C display  
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.  
\*-display  
description: VGA compatible controller  
product: NVIDIA Corporation  
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation  
physical id: 0  
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0  
version: a1  
width: 64 bits  
clock: 33MHz  
capabilities: vga\_controller bus\_master cap\_list rom  
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0  
resources: irq:211 memory:c4000000-c4ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff memory:c0000000-c1ffffff ioport:6000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff  
\*-display  
description: Display controller  
product: CometLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630]  
vendor: Intel Corporation  
physical id: 2  
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0  
version: 05  
width: 64 bits  
clock: 33MHz  
capabilities: bus\_master cap\_list  
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0  
resources: irq:228 memory:c3000000-c3ffffff memory:a0000000-afffffff ioport:7000(size=64)  
\*-graphics  
product: VESA VGA  
physical id: 4  
logical name: /dev/fb0  
capabilities: fb  
configuration: depth=32 resolution=640,480

Edit — same output as root by the way

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 1:17am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/default-hardware-transcoder-choices-how-does-it-work/856214/12 "2024-01-10T01:17:08Z")

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