What a lot of people don’t realize is there are really 3 pieces in there.
iGPU)Plex uses the CPU and QSV ASIC currently.
There is work by Intel to utilize the GPU to create the video images to render the subtitles in the VA-API.
When that’s complete, all 3 elements will be in use.
I have a NVIDIA shield at home which plays almost everything direct. My problems is that I share my libraries with family and friends outside the local network, and I also travel a lot. My internet isnt fast enough for direct play on these large files (40mbps upload), so transcoding is a regular task. I don’t want to download 2 copies of every movie (4k and another version 1080 or 720). Thus the extra hardware transcoding could be fun to have. I might test to see what happens. Trying to understand the amazon return policy in case it doesn’t work. Not clear if they would charge me a restocking fee to return.
Transcoding for remote clients is normal behavior.
The question comes down to:
Do you have enough CPU to transcode the audio for the number of remote sessions you have at any one instant regardless of the video load? No GPU card will help you here.
You need to find out how many Megabits / sec of H.264 or H.265 you need to satisfy everyone. With that information, compare it to the reports on the internet. Which does better; the i7-7700 or a plug-in GPU card ?
on question 2, why OR? wouldn’t the system be able to use both?
This thread was very helpful to me when I was researching GPUs for my NAS. Therefore, I wanted to post my personal experience.
I have a TS-1277 running 4.4.1 and PMS 1.16.6. I purchased the PNY Quadro P4000 PCIe GPU that Dell sells directly. The QNAP compatibility page only lists the Leadtek version, so I rolled the dice since I had a hard time finding one from Leadtek.
Installation of the card was a breeze…slid right in, connected power, added support screw, and rebooted. QNAP immediately added drivers & enabled them upon reboot. I selected QTS mode under “Hardware” and rebooted PMS. Upon reboot, PMS immediately started using the P4000 for transcoding (confirmed by the GPU usage as well as the letters “(hw)” after Transcode in PMS dashboard.
I’m happy to answer any questions if I’ve left anything out. Hopefully this helps someone else!
Great, just spent the afternoon installing the 550W PSU and an old nvidia 980 I had to find out that even though my 882 can physically handle everything, Qnap has QTS turned off for GPUs? Is this what everyone is talking about should be coming in 4.4.2? Is there a firmware I can revert back to or a field I can change using ssh?
Hi Chuck, I’ve looking in forums for a direct answer about if the TS673 and GTX 1050Ti do Hardware Transcoding with Plex by now, or it only does at QTS and native apps of QNAP.
Thanks in advance.
That is a question you must direct to QNAP.
I’ve created the ability in the packaging. I don’t artificially restrict anything.
Whether they permit it or not on the NAS is their decision.
A good indicator is if you see “QTS” mode in Control Panel -> Hardware for the Graphics Adapter.
I noticed that qnap finally released a new driver for the nvidia gpu’s.
Has always shown as QTS on my gpu settings. haven’t had chance to test it yet though.
Hopefully this driver enables decode rather than just encode on the gpu 
I’ve been working closely with the QNAP PM on the driver updates.
The last info I have from them is QTS 4.4.2 would have the drivers needed for PMS 1.17.0, and above, compatibility with nvidia GPUs.
If, given the delayed status of QTS 4.4.2, they’ve opted to release the drivers for QTS 4.4.1 – GREAT!
Well, not entirely sure how to tell if it’s decoding also, but is definitely working better
GPU usage is also way higher than the usual 3% when transcoding so, good news I guess
You can tell it’s using HW to decode in the Video block:
Source Resolution (hw)
-> Target Resolution
Thanks for confirming. 
Running much better to be fair, so I’m pretty happy with the results so far 
HEVC is, by design, the most complex codec to date.
Seeing the resource utilization graphs you show actually seems pretty reasonable.
What Qnap system do you have ?
I’m using a TS-473
OK. So i apologize if this been ask before. But I currently have a ts-877. I recall when i first got it that a gpu would not work for plex for hardware acceleration. Has this been fixed now?
It has been available now for some time (several months)
Plex does not maintain a list of graphics cards.
Searching the forums will allow you to preen a good idea of those which work and those which don’t although I’ve not seen any reports of any current GT-XXXX cards failing.
I do know the older cards are not HEVC capable. This is a known stumbling block for many.
Since this has been available for some time now, with many references to working cases in the forum,
I am closing this thread as Implemented.
