Plex 100% cpu

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#:latest version as of this date
Player Version#:latest version as of this date

Specs
AMD 5600x
Nvidia RTX 2070 super
16gb DDR4 3200MHz

Using direct stream or play my cpu usage is very low. But when I transcode 4k HEVC my cpu is at a constant 100%

This also goes for x265 4k content too

Any ideas as to why my cpu is maxed out?

Any ideas appreciated

2

You already pretty much summed it up…
Transcoding 4K material is (still) pretty taxing – even for modern CPUs.

From what I can find, the 5600x has a PassMark benchmark score of approx. 22000. That should be sufficient for a high quality HDR transcode (requires approx. 17000).

3

Ah right thank you. Still pretty new to using Plex!

On a side note my gpu isn’t being utilised when transcoding. Will buying Plex pass enable hardware acceleration?

4

Yes.

Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming - Plex Support

5

It’s best to avoid Trans coding where possible by collecting suitable files for your devices. The dashboard is a very useful tool in the Plex media server to help understand Trans coding.