# Hardware acceleration status **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2019, 9:08am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860 "2019-12-10T09:08:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mkools](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mkools](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mkools)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 9:08am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/1 "2019-12-10T09:08:23Z")
Hello, I’ve found a lot of topics but most of them are locked or outdated. I wonder what the current status is on hardware acceleration especially under Linux, as from what I was reading only decoding works not encoding (or the other way around, not sure). Right now I’m running FreeBSD and all my media is on ZFS which is great so I don’t ever want to change that. That’s why I want to built another server just for Plex streaming and use the FreeBSD server as a storage box. So I found several options, I could go for a Intel E22xxG and use quicksync. Or I could just get something like an E3-12xx and go for e.g. a Quadro P2000. So what will be better or is more recommended, quick sync or Quadro? And what works on Windows/Linux and what does not? Thx! ---
**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 10:17am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/2 "2019-12-10T10:17:46Z")
FreeBSD is not Linux, so I presume you are using Docker or virtualization for Plex to run. Plex Media Server 1.17+ added support for Nvidia to Linux, it already had QSV. Windows adds AMD. Quick Sync has evolved over the last few years and you would need a Kaby Lake or newer for HEVC media. Single thread rating is more important than number of cores when using Hardware Transcoding. Other than ECC memory, Xeon processors are usually an unnecessary cost. ---
**Author:** ![mkools](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mkools](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mkools)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 10:32am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/3 "2019-12-10T10:32:35Z")
Thanks for the reply, so there are no more limitations running Linux in terms of decoding/encoding. That’s great because I would hate to run Windows. I’m not using Docker, just FreeBSD bare metal install on a Supermicro rackserver. So I want just to add a linux server to it and connect to it with e.g. NFS. As for the CPU I could indeed go for like a Core i9 or something instead of a Xeon. Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 10:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/4 "2019-12-10T10:33:22Z")
> [@mkools](#): > > under Linux, as from what I was reading only decoding works not encoding (or the other way around, not sure). That applied to Nvidia cards. Both NVENC & NVDEC are now supported ([Release Notes](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-server/30447/286)). > [@mkools](#): > > And what works on Windows/Linux and what does not? For Linux: Intel QSV: Yes Nvidia: Yes AMD: No > [@Hardware Transcoding with AMD Cards?](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-with-amd-cards/229434/8): > > Until there exists AMD support in the VA-API, there won’t be AMD support. AMD uses MESA making this AMD GPU support very unlikely in the immediate future. Intel QSV and nVidia are the two supported forms at this time. [https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/) ---
**Author:** ![mkools](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mkools](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mkools)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 10:34am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/5 "2019-12-10T10:34:48Z")
Yeah I wasnt planning on using AMD anyway, thx for the conformation 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 10:34am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-acceleration-status/505860/6 "2020-03-09T10:34:55Z")
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