# Plex server 100 percent cpu

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** server-linux\
**Created:** [January 27, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946 "2019-01-27T14:49:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kr0490](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@kr0490](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kr0490)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/1 "2019-01-27T14:49:05Z")

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Whenever I play 4k video my plex server gets pegged at 100 cpu. This causes the video to stutter or say the server isn’t fast enough. I have a Dell power edge server tower with 2 physical cores, running xeon e5-2643 quad core 3.30ghz. Shouldn’t this be able to handle 4k transcoding?

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/2 "2019-01-27T15:10:02Z")

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> [@kr0490](#):
>
> dual xeon e5-2643 3.30ghz

Xeons usually don’t have QuickSync, so you will have to rely on software transcoding only. And this CPU design is already 6 years old, so it might not be powerful enough for HEVC transcoding.  
[https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2643+%40+3.30GHz&id=1217&cpuCount=2](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2643+%40+3.30GHz&id=1217&cpuCount=2)

Depending on the transcoding job (subtitles activated?) Plex might also not be able to use all the cores simultaneously.

[https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/)

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/3 "2019-01-27T15:15:40Z")

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> [@kr0490](#):
>
> 2 physical cores,

Does your motherboard have 2 cpu sockets or do you mean “2 cpu cores” (which would be correct for the e5-2643 3.30ghz because it only has 2 “real” cores)?

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**Author:** ![kr0490](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@kr0490](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kr0490)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/4 "2019-01-27T23:22:03Z")

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it has 2 physical sockets each with 4 cores. so 2 cpu chips each with 4 cores for a total of 8 cores (16 logical processors)

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 11:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/5 "2019-01-27T23:37:54Z")

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Then I did indeed find the correct performance information above.

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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:** [April 27, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-100-percent-cpu/367946/6 "2019-04-27T23:38:03Z")

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