Plex client for MacOS is burning my dedicated GPU

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#: 1.41.6.9685
Player Version#: 1.108.1.307-dd5b87aa
Hello,
Since some versions of the Plex client on MacOS, my dedicated GPU is litterally burning with any video I’m playing (h264, h265, AV1…).
I have a 16" Intel Macbook Pro with a Nvidia dedicated GPU and until then the client was using the integrated GPU (which was totally ok for 1080p movies).
And now watching any video is extremelly painful, the fans run at 100% and my laptop is getting really hot (hotter than hen I’m working on video edit software…)
I already unticked the hardware acceleration without any change (I can still see Plex is launching the dGPU)…
Do you have any idea to force (back) Plex to use the iGPU?
Thanks!

2

Settings - Plex for Mac - Players
Dial down the video quality setting

3

Not sure to understand how it would change the fact Plex is now using my dedicated GPU and since I’m using Plex on the same network than the server, I don’t want either my server to transcode or my player to process the video, just to be a passthrough player.

And I assume that if I change the quality setting for something lower, my server will have to transcode the video (That I don’t need on local network)

Thanks!

4

That assumption is wrong. This selector doesn’t tell the server to change the bandwidth of the video.
(the setting for the bandwidth is to be found in Settings - Plex for Mac - Quality)

Instead it only reduces the amount of proccessing and filtering happening in the player.
Some of these filters are described here: HTPC Tips and Tricks

Do also experiment with the “Use Hardware Decoding” checkbox.

I can only assume that this is controlled by MacOS, not by Plex Player.

5

It’s only driven by applications. Some software need a dedicated GPU (like video editing tools, most of graphic softwares…). Since I have 2 GPUs on my laptop (not the case since Apple created the Mx chip, but on Intel system I have the UHD graphic AND a Radeon graphic card), MacOs activate the required GPU when an application need .

And since few versions of Plex Player, it force the activation of the dedicated GPU for no reason.

I tried with or without Hardware decoding box checked, but no chance for now :frowning:

6

Have you changed the Video Quality setting?

8

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