# NUC + ESXi + iGPU Passthrough + HW transcoding = 100% CPU

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/nuc-esxi-igpu-passthrough-hw-transcoding-100-cpu/609408>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [July 1, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/nuc-esxi-igpu-passthrough-hw-transcoding-100-cpu/609408 "2020-07-01T18:57:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![plex\_svr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@plex\_svr](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex_svr)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/nuc-esxi-igpu-passthrough-hw-transcoding-100-cpu/609408/1 "2020-07-01T18:57:24Z")

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Hi! I’ve virtualized PMS (ubuntu server 18.04.4) over ESX server (NUC) and hardware transcoding was working (doing iGPU passthrough - Intel Iris Graphics 655) for a few months without any problem. Last week I heard NUC fan working at 100% and after a few checks I realized that the plex server was consuming 90-100% of the CPU. I ran intel\_gpu\_top and it showed that the GPU was apparently being used during transcoding, however CPU usage is still extremely high when previously it was at most between 0-5%.

- HW transcoding log:  
tail -f Plex\ Media\ Server.log | grep -i hardware  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:43.556 [0x7fb988ff9700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:43.558 [0x7fb988ff9700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:43.560 [0x7fb988ff9700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:43.562 [0x7fb988ff9700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:44.837 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:44.846 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support present  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:44.846 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using zero-copy transcoding  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:44.846 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:44.847 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: vaapi, final encoder: vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:48.008 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:48.051 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support present  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:48.051 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using zero-copy transcoding  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:48.051 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi  
Jul 01, 2020 20:56:48.052 [0x7fb989ffb700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: vaapi, final encoder: vaapi

- intel\_gpu\_top output:

I tried a lot of things to fix the issue:

- Disable and enable iGPU from ESX and rebind to PMS virtual machine
- Reapply advanced virtual machine params:
  - svga.present: FALSE
  - pciHole.start: 2048 (virtual machine has 4GB RAM)

- Install a new PMS over Debian 10
- Updating ESX to 7.0 (clean install)

Anything was helpful, CPU load is high and I’m feel a little bit frustrated.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/nuc-esxi-igpu-passthrough-hw-transcoding-100-cpu/609408/2 "2020-09-29T18:57:26Z")

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