Does this performance look right for a GPU with hardware transcoding enabled

General Discussions
1

Need to know if this performance looks correct with regard to hardware based transcoding.

Specs:
Win 10 x64
Intel Core i5-3450
8gb RAM
nVidia GTX 1050 GPU (up to date drivers)

At idle, CPU averages around 3%.

Performance while playing two streams:
4k (puppies) transcoded to 8mb/1080p
Deadpool 720hd - transcoded to 1.5mb/480p

CPU at 32%
GPU at 5%

See screenshots.

My expectation would have been much more load on the GPU with the CPU trucking along just performing regular tasks.

Are my expectations out of line? Is what I’m seeing typical/normal?

plex-1
plex-1741×675 59.5 KB

stream-1
stream-1361×210 14.3 KB

stream-2
stream-2400×295 21.4 KB

2

The transcoder is primarily using the Quicksync capability of your CPU, not the GPU. So that’s pretty much expected. QuickSync is “kinda” like a GPU but not exactly :slight_smile: . And it is built into the Intel CPU.

The (hw) after the codec names in the Plex Status display indicates ‘Hardware Transcoding’, so it is working alright.

3

Well, here is why I disagree with you:

When I take out the GPU, and play the same streams, the CPU pegs at 100%. Whether HW transcoding is enabled or disabled, the “now playing” streams will NOT show HW. It’s like Plex won’t use the Quick Sync capability of the processor and is using software only.

Once I install the GPU and enable HW transcoding, the CPU drops down and the “now playing” steams show HW. So clearly the GPU is doing work. But my expectation is it would be doing way more work.

However, I supposed it’s possible that the card is powerful enough that I am barely touching it’s capability??

4

That is entirely possible. As I understand it, today’s GPUs also have dedicated chippery for video processing, so doing this won’t put any load onto the 3D-related parts of the GPU.

5

Ok, very good. Well, everything is streaming/converting correctly, so I’ll just go with “it’s working as expected.” :slight_smile:

Thanks for your help!

6

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