QNAP NAS for PLEX - with or without graphics card?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Hello

I’m currently using the QNAP NAS TS-253A, and i’m planning an upgrade - PLEX is important app on my NAS, and I use it frequently. TS-253A has an Intel CPU with integrated graphics - PLEX works fine on it, but sometimes it gets laggy on some 1080p x265 encoded movies while embeding subtitles… it can’t even stream 4K movie directly to my TV (just direct stream, without transcoding, without subtitles…)

I’m confused with NAS upgrade - i don’t know if i should choose TS-473 without integrated graphics on CPU or TVS-473 with integrated graphics Radeon R7… CPU is basically the same (only difference is that one of them is without integrated graphics)

Generally as i know, media editing and encoding usually uses GPU (while working on videos on my PC for example), how it is computed by PLEX on QNAP NAS?

Should i choose NAS with integrated graphics card, or maybe it doesn’t matter? TS-473 also has an option to add graphics card to PCI-E slot, but it has only PCIE x4 slot, and cards available at the shop are x16… i don’t know if they would work? …and even if x16 card will fit x4 slot (which is shorter than x16) is PLEX going to use this card for transcoding?

…generally will i have any gain by having graphic card on my QNAP NAS (not only for plex) - i don’t use HDMI port on my QNAP

Thank you for your help!

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Here is the current state of affairs as I know it.

NEITHER option will give you Plex benefit CURRENTLY. The GPU I the TVS-473 isn’t leveraged by Plex for any HW transcoding. Adding a GPU to Plex (via PCIe) isn’t supported currently for HW transcoding either.

Also the TS-473 will only accept BUS powered GPU’s (which I think may cap at the 1030, but not positive). If the GPU needs a power pigtail, won’t work.

Now adding a GPU on the TS-x73 would provide some transcoding benefit if you used QNAPs native app (VideoStation).

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So in general it doesn’t matter which type of CPU is on board my QNAP (with integrated graphics or without), and if it supports PCIe GPU…

I’m only wandering if I should choose TS-963X with 5x 3.5 HDD, 4x 2.5 SSD and AMD GX-420MC processor (about 2300 score in cpubenchmark), with DDR3L RAM or maybe TS-473 with 4x 3.5 HDD, 2x M2 SSD and AMD RX-421ND processor (about 4600 score in cpubenchmark), with DDR4 RAM… In comparison to my TS-253A N3160 Intel CPU (about 1700 score in cpubenchmark) - now that i know that GPU doesn’t matter, the CPU speed for transcoding should be my priority - both TS-963X and TS-473 processors are faster… the TS-473 has a lot more powerful processor, but TS-936X has more storage capabilities with addidional 1x 3.5 HDD and two more SSD slots…

Does anyone know if the RX-421ND will give me a huge boost in PLEX in comparison to TS-936X ? …i have dificulties choosing the right NAS for a successor of my TS-253A :wink:

What is better to choose? (TS-473+16G DDR4 RAM+1GB ethernet = around 1200 USD where I live, and TS-936X+16G DDR3L RAM = around 1050 USD - so they’ll cost me around the same money)

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The first thing I would do is buy a PlexPass license so you can enable HW based transcoding on your TS-253a. Depending on what your media files are encoded with, that may be all that you need to do.

Also I didn’t exactly say the models DON’T matter… for the 2 models you listed it currently doesn’t matter. The only GPU’s currently supported at this time for HW transcoding are the embedded Intel QSV’s. Again PlexPass is required.

Just for full disclosure, there is a way to have HW transcoding supported on an Nvidia based GPU card, but it involves running a Win10 VM w/GPU passthrough & Plex. If you have a big QNAP to do that, then this discussion is already moot.

Could this answer change down the road… maybe, but this is today’s answer.

So if you don’t have a model with an Intel QSV GPU, then you are use SW based transcoding (i.e. CPU). I have both the x73 and x77 family Qnap’s. I have used SW transcoding on both. That is where the passmark makes a difference.

Now this only comes into play when you are can’t direct play the media on the Plex client you are using.

IF you really want to buy a new QNAP NAS, it depends on what other things you want to use it for.

And for Plex usage, I would say PlexPass is required to start with. If you don’t have that, start there.

But if you are buying a QNAP JUST for Plex, and based on TODAY’s answer, then I would probably choose is the TVS-951x as the best budget model with long term flexibility. You get good capacity, HW transcoding support for Plex, and good expandability. Just as an FYI, you don’t need 16GB for Plex either.

Another less expensive option would be to buy an Nvidia Shield TV. Use your QNAP as the backend Plex storage for it, and leverage the Plex Server app supported on the Nvidia ShieldTV box. It automatically supports HW transcoding (no plex pass required) and is a great playback device in it’s own right.

Again without know all of your other needs, these are just some basic recommendations.

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I already have Plex Pass and HW encoding enabled - but i was thinking that it doesn’t support either integrated GPU or external GPU on QNAP - it’s good to know that it supports the integrated GPU (as for today).

I’m mainly using my QNAP device for PLEX, multimedia storage, backup device, web server, mysql server, and i wanted to experiment with containers and virtualization - currently on my 8GB TS-253A when i want to try to extend it’s capabilities (VM, containers) i meet with problems like high CPU usage, and high RAM usage. Sometimes even indexing (qSirch) uses most of the CPU power, and leads to high RAM usage after I’ll upload a lots of new media…

Generally i met some problems with extending of NAS capacity - i have 2 bays (one 4TB HDD nad one 6TB HDD, without RAID), and when i want to replace one of them it’s dificult to move such ammount of data to a hard drive on a PC or external HDD… I would have to buy another HDD just for backing up the drive i want to replace. Another problem is bandwidth of ethernet - 2Gbps on LACP still allows me only for 1Gbps transfer per operation, if i use 10Gbps card (on my PC and QNAP), i would be able to reach the same speeds as if the drives would be attached to SATA (with a bit higher latency), so for file transfer and file operations directly on QNAP it would speed up the job, together with SSD Cache. Also sometimes when my QNAP is on high usage of CPU and RAM, the Plex get’s laggy - i generally have to encode my media, because i use subtitles… Also on the other hand if I’ll find an application for containers or VM for my personal use (well i didn’t find any yet as for today, so i don’t take it as priority), it would consume some resources to work in background.

I’ve read about running Plex on VM Windows and using external GPU - but it would require to direct some computing power of CPU to Windows VM, and it’ll be used all the time just for “running” state of the Virtual Machine - currently Plex uses my computing power only while i watch media on TV. Also as i noticed with some experiments on my PC (i7 6700K, GeForce 1070) it won’t give me a possibility of embeding subtitles on 4K videos (on my PC it can only handle direct stream of 4K movies, and it gets laggy while encoding subtitles, TS-253A cannot even handle direct streaming of my 4K videos through PLEX) - so in general running PLEX on Windows VM is a complex solution which won’t give me a lot of improvement, but it’ll use a lot of resources just to run Windows VM.

I’ve got interested with nVidia Shield console (I’ve read about it before it hit the market), but i want to avoid adding more devices to my home …I’ve bought some time ago a PS4 Pro, and i almost don’t use it - i know that Shield has a lots of advantages over PS4, aside gaming, but I consider it as a device for PLEX-server only for today - and spending 250 USD for PLEX-server-console currently doesn’t take my decision for buying it… Maybe someday in the future.

Generally as for today i can say that my use of QNAP is 100% for:

  • Data storage (Microsoft SMB protocol mostly), Multimedia storage - i use it like a drive plugged in to my PC for everyday use
  • automatic backup device (PC, ultrabook, mobile phone)
  • PLEX media server (mostly embeding subtitles on 1080p H264, H265 media up to 2-3 streams simultaneously)
  • WWW server
  • MySQL server
  • VPN server

I’m really thinking about buying TVS-951X, but i was worried about it’s performance… i wanted to avoid this Plex lag while transcoding, which i meet sometimes on my TS-253A (while playing few movies with subtitles simultaneously, or when the qSirch starts to catalog my new media…)… That’s why i got here in the first place :wink: …because the overall performance of CPU/GPU, doesn’t have a lot of influence on my “office work”, but I wanted to know how much it has to do with Plex Media Server :wink: What do you think @MwC_Trexx, would it be a good idea to buy TVS-951X for my use?

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Generally i started to think about buying nVidia Shield TV :wink: …i have a lot of games that i play on PC - i had to buy them also for PS4 to play on my TV, and i could use my PC for streaming games… So i think I’ll run my PLEX Media Server on Shield with storage on QNAP NAS :wink:

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For the cheapest option right now, the Shield TV is your best bet. Plus you get the game mirroring from your PC support like you mentioned.

If you REALLY what to have kind of an all in one QNAP box (containers/plex/vm’s/etc.) then I would probably look at the TS-x77 Ryzen box w/an Nvidia GPU card.

Nvidia 10x0 series are frequently on sale right now as they are getting ready for model change over. Also Nvidia is the only brand supported for both native QNAP & VM usage (but can only be used for 1 or the other at any given time). I have a 6GB 1060 in mine.

But this is not a small investment either. I added a 10Gb card to my x77 but it is backing up to my other NAS (an x73). The issue becomes though even though you have a 10Gb card, unless you storage configuration is optimal, you likely won’t take full advantage of it. You definitely won’t get 10Gb with just 2-3 HDD’s.

For my day in/day out usage playback, I use my Nvidia Shield TV. Main reason, it handles pretty much anything/everything out there for 4k (Plex, Kodi, Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, etc.). So I have one device that plays it all.

I do have other devices as well and sometimes will use them, but my daily driver is Shield.

If you are going to get a new NAS, RUN some kind of RAID (1, 5, or 6). It protects your data (which you have none right now), and makes life much easier to deal with drive capacity upgrades/failures/etc. Get an external HDD or use your TS-253a for backups. Get a UPS, and you are good to go.

In terms of VM performance, you really would need to look at the x73 family or higher (x77, x82) to get decent VM performance. That is why I like my x77 as you get GREAT CPU capabilities for the $$.

If you are just dabbling in VMs, then the 951x will be an upgrade.

I think though… your plan of going with the ShieldTV is probably gives you the most for the $$ right now.

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You’re the only person that was able to help me solving my problem with upgrading my QNAP NAS :wink: …even the QNAP support couldn’t find a suitable option for me :wink:

I think that I’ll let go of using Virtualization and Containers as for now as i don’t really need it, and TS-682 costs twice more than 951X or 963X. I’ll also buy nVidia Shield TV and run a PLEX Media Server on it, so it’ll take care of encoding videos :wink:

You’re very well oriented, so maybe you’ll help me decide between TVS-951X and TS-963X - TS-963X doesn’t have integrated GPU, and DDR3L (instead of DDR4 at TVS-915X) but it’s CPU is a bit better in benchmarks (2300 for AMD GX-420MC vs 1900 for Intel 3865U) - they cost almost the same… Which one would be more efficient?

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The difference between in passmarks between the too is pretty negligible. I would probably go with the 951x myself. You get the GPU and DDR4. It is a trade-off though as you are going dual-core vs. quad-core.

In terms of VM’s, you can run some light weight ones but nothing too heavy. Containers are generally much lighter weight than VM’s, so that shouldn’t be as big of an issue on either of them.

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actually on windows at least, Plex is leveraging the gpu for hardware transcoding, it’s just they didn’t mention that on official guide.

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@MwC_Trexx thank you for your help! :wink:

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If you look a few comments up, I do mention using GPU Passthrough with Win10 VM as a way to get HW transcoding on Nvidia. Even then though you are limited (artificially most people feel) to 2 streams by Nvidia on the consumer GPU cards.

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No worries.

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@MwC_Trexx i finally decided to buy TVS-951X, but there is still one concern for me - I currently have Celeron N3160 on my TS-253A, it’s quad-core with a bit lower passmark score, the TVS-951X has Celeron 3865U, which is dual-core CPU - it has a higher passmark score, and higher single-core score, it also has hyperthreading which simulates quad-core.

Regardless the above synthetic benchmark results found on the web i have concerns about the general performance of my NAS running only two cores vs my current quad-core - I will mainly use it for PLEX, data storage for my PC, and maybe I’ll run SQL and PHP server on it currently - i think i would drop off my virtualization ideas for now. At this time i noticed that my NAS run a lots of processes in background (like qFinder, hybrid backup, etc), which uses a lot of resources (sometimes up to 100% CPU usage), and while having only dual-core HT CPU won’t it lead to a performance loss on everyday use? (my general concern is the loss of PLEX performance)

BTW: I bought the nVidia Shield TV and stayed with PLEX Server on my QNAP, and i use only Shield TV PLEX Client - it works a lot better than the app on my Samsung TV - i don’t know why, but Shield can play 4K with subtitles embedded without any lag! …my Samsung TV Plex Client had problems with buffering while streaming 4K movies with subtitles…

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Will try and simplify things down some.

Plex transcoding will be lightweight due to hw transcoding. Some of the library operations will incur some overhead. File serving in general is pretty lightweight especially if you aren’t doing encryption.

HBS should be done off peak hours (mine run overnight). Qsirch (I assume that is what you meant by qfinder) will have some overhead., especially during the initial index. One way to help is excluding directories. I exclude a lot of directories that I won’t search in qsirch (movies/tv/etc). SQL and PHP is hard to say.

As others have said in the QNAP forum, I think you wants and your budget may be incompatible some.

One other option would be to ditch the idea of Plex on QNAP (use the Nvidia Shield with it’s HW transcoding as your Plex Server) and then go with something like the TS-x73 family. You will still keep your media files on the QNAP (point the shield at it for library files).

Qnap wouldn’t have HDMI output, but will give you some overall nice expansion options and about 2x+ the passmark of say the 951 so VM’s may be feasible as long as you don’t get too carried away.

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