The old system could use quicksync, and the new one cannot (ryzen build).
Currently im running Plex in a docker container, but since the new build could be used as my primary workstation aswell im thinking about moving plex to that.
The VM would run off a Nvme ssd , and would get like 16-24GB ram and 6c12t assigned to it, or more if needed.
Upsides of changing Plex to my Workstation (Win10) vm would be:
Less resources i would need to allocate to Plex alone
Could use hardware transcoding of my GPU.
Downsides :
When the workstation needs to reboot (patching/software installation whatever), Plex is offline.
Workstation needs to be kept logged in, as i believe PMS still cant be a official service (you can trick some things to get it to work, but i rather not)
Possible impact on the VM when users are streaming?
Upsides of keeping in a docker :
It maintains the version automaticly.
Can turn the VM off without any issue.
No/minimal impact on the VM when there are alot of streams
Downsides :
Possibly less performance due to less resources available to it
1.1. No hardware transcoding unless i get another GPU
Anyone of you got it running from a VM which you also use as your primary workstation and/or gaming vm?
The only upside I see is the utilization of GPU transcoding with your Ryzen (does this even work for the Ryzen igpu? Or do you use a radeon for it?)
You could smack in a “cheap” GeForce and use that as a gpu solely for transcoding with plex. This way, you can keep it running in the docker.
The cpu i got in mind is the 3900x, which has no iGPU so, no there isnt any hardware transcoding there.
The cheap GPU would need to be a 1660 or something which has the “unlock” in place or just use the 2 streams.
But that would set me back another 200 give or take, and more importantly a pci slot.
I dont know how much the performance impact would be if i play a 1440p /high game and a couple of people would watch a movie on Plex.
Does the nvenc being used for transcoding really impact gameplay (if your not streaming on twitch for example)
Sorry I have no clue about performance. The session limit can be easily overcome by using other drivers (which are available for unraid) so you might save some bucks there. Still, the extra slot would be occupied.
The problem would be, that i would need another card, which has sufficient performance (a 1050 wouldnt do) and seeing the 1660 has the new nvenc encoder as the cheapest one i figured that would be the best.
From what i’ve gathered about game streaming through obs , it shouldnt impact gaming performance all that much. However im not sure if thats going to be the case for Plex transcoding.
Well a 1050ti can make >10 1080p transcodes including H265, so currently this would be my choice for that task.
The cheapest 1050ti I could find here is 140€.
Ok, i’ve just tested this myself by running PMS in a windows VM and a GTX 1070 passed through with hardware transcoding on. GPU activity seems to be OK, but the CPU usuage with only 2 streams goes up to 65%, when starting a game (overwatch) , im getting alot of micro stutters which seems to be a CPU related issue since its spiking to 100% while the gpu isnt breaking a sweat.
I did confirm that plex was using hardware transcoding (said HW behind the movie stream) and i did see the video encode/decode being used from taskmanager.
im quite sure there are gains to be made through settings. but for now it doesnt seem a good way of running PMS. The wierd thing is though that when watching the movie in direct play that the CPU also goes up in usuage on the Plex Media Server process.
as im including screenshots i came to the conclussion that subtitles were causing the higher than expected cpu load.
when i turned those off in the movie everything was calm again and i could game without any issue. Seeing that subtitles are quite normal to be used in the netherlands this will be an issue. I did test this with plex in a webbrowser instead of a android/plex client app.
is there a way to optimise this without me having to hardcode the subs in?
EDIT: with the plex for windows client it doesnt seem to have a high cpu impact to use subtitles. So its a chrome/web client issue?
i’ve decided today just to buy a ryzen 3900x and a 1660super, and just try to set it up in a vm to see how it performs vs a docker. if it doesnt perform, i could always rma it
it will take a couple of days to get here due to holidays. I will try to post my findings here
