# PlexHTPC high CPU load

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363>\
**Category:** Plex Players\
**Tags:** plex-htpc, player-linux\
**Created:** [February 14, 2026, 9:52am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363 "2026-02-14T09:52:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Katagia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@Katagia](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Katagia)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 9:52am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363/1 "2026-02-14T09:52:25Z")

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Hi

Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156  
HTPC Player Version#: 1.70.1  
I use as client:

- Debian Trixie, CPU AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- Nvidia proprietary drivers (RTX4060)
- Wayland for HDR support
- plexHTPC installed with flathub

My problem is that when playing a 4k HDR video, the CPU load is at 130%.  
mpv with vulkan or opengl is at max. 10%.  
With X11 instead of Wayland, it’s the same

There is no difference in load when I turn hardware acceleration on or off. Nvidia-smi shows that plex is using the GPU but the used GPU and GPU-memory is very low.

I assume that hardware acceleration is not used.

Can anybody give me a hint how to activate it?

Thank you very much.

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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:** [February 14, 2026, 2:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363/2 "2026-02-14T14:40:54Z")

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> [@Katagia](#):
>
> There is no difference in load when I turn hardware acceleration on or off.

Is this also true if you change this selector:  
Settings - Video - Video Playback Quality  
(start with the topmost)?

Have you ever created a custom mpv.ini file?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Katagia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@Katagia](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Katagia)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363/3 "2026-02-14T16:28:23Z")

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Video Playback Quality doesn’t change anything.  
I never created a custom mpv.ini file, it is a fresh installation.

I did a test with Ubuntu (snap) instead of Debian, same issue.  
nvidai-smi shows around 500MB GPU memory usage.  
nvtop shows about 30% GPU usage, when it is running around 400MHz only. When the GPU speeds up, GPU load is less than 5%.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Katagia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@Katagia](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Katagia)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 10:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363/4 "2026-02-15T10:03:59Z")

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I checked windows on the same machine, cpu load is very low.  
In ubuntu, I also tried flatpak instead of snap. Also here, no CPU is used.

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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:** [May 16, 2026, 10:04am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plexhtpc-high-cpu-load/936363/5 "2026-05-16T10:04:42Z")

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