Intel recently announced the Flex Series 140 GPU. It is a 75W TDP (PCIe powered), single slot, low profile GPU with 4 encoders/decoders. Intel says it can do 8 4k or 30+ 1080p streams. It is the datacenter series of the Intel Arc consumer GPU. My understanding is that it is supposed to be compatible with Intel Quick Sync Video. Is anyone else excited to try one out for Plex transcoding? No word on pricing or availability yet.
FYI, just got a quote for $1,289 and it is in stock.
Anyone know if the Intel Arc series works with Plex on Linux? I suspect the Intel Flex series will work if the Intel Arc series does.
@ChuckPa I have seen a lot of valuable information from you in other similar posts so I am hoping you might be able to provide some insight. Do you think HW transcoding will work with the Intel Flex GPUs? Have any of the Intel Arc GPUs been tested on Linux?
My understanding is that the Flex 140 is two DG2-G11 GPUs. The A380 is a single DG2-G11. So if the Intel Arc A380 works, the Flex 140 will hopefully work.
What does Intel’s github for Intel-media-driver and Intel-Compute-Runtime say?
Do they have full support yet?
Until they support it, we can’t do anything. If you look at AlderLake, it took time for both the Linux kernel (which is still completing the implementations) and Intel-Compute-Runtime to get the main CPU completed.
Yes, both Arc (DG2) and Flex (ATS-M, which is basically just DG2 with display disabled) appear to be supported.
If both are supported then all I can say is to try it.
That type of hardware is not something we have laying around.
(it’s not realistic for us to have one of everything)
@ChuckPa Understood. I don’t have the hardware so I can’t test. I will report back with my findings if I end up ordering it.
FYI, the Intel Arc (consumer) series and Flex (enterprise) series look like they might have some of the best cards for hardware transcoding. It might be worth adding the Arc A310 or Arc A380 to the testing suite if practical.
What are you transcoding? 16 simultaneous streams of 8K video? 
(A friendly poke poke is all 
)
Haha. I am actually not transcoding that much! But I am transcoding 4k and sometimes 4k HDR. I am running dual Xeon 5317s (so no Quick Sync). I can comfortably do 2 simultaneous 4k HDR transcodes. 3 simultaneous transcodes completely maxes out both CPUs and slows the server to a halt.
Intel says the Flex 140 can do 8 4k transcodes at 60fps. That should be more than enough for me. The Arc A380 is a WAY better value, but I just can’t fit a dual slot card and the cooling arrangement is less than ideal for a server.
I know, I know… transcoding 4k is a fool’s errand. But I really like the simplicity of just managing a single file :).
I have a single Xeon E5-2690v4 with a P2200 and can rock 6 transcodes with tonemapping before I run out of playback devices.
You need CPU for subtitle burning and audio conversion.
Curate the media correctly and you only have to remux or cope with the idiot devices.
I just finished building this new server last month. It is replacing a dual Xeon E5-2670 system with no GPU. At the time I built that system, I didn’t have a single 4k capable device.
My original plan was to go with a P2200. By the time I was finally able to get all the rest of the hardware (supply chain nightmares!!), Intel released more information on the Flex series, so I decided to hold off on the P2200.
6 4k HDR transcodes with tone mapping is great! That would definitely meet my needs.
I am a little disappointed with the price I was quoted for the Flex 140, I was expecting ~$1,000. But that may just be a high quote. At the time I was looking at the P2200, it was more expensive (~$750) than it is now (~$570). P2200 might be the way to go…
Thanks for the insight @ChuckPa!! If I end up going with the Intel Flex 140, I will report back my findings on both compatibility and performance.
