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I just built a new plex server with an i5-13600K, no dedicated GPU, Samsung 990 Pro. for main drive, and 32gb ddr5. I built this partly to take advantage of quicksync transcoding.
When I transcode just a single movie in 1080p from say 35mbps to 1080p 12mbps it initially shows the GPU at 80 percent usage in the task manager (I assume to fill the buffer) and then the GPU bounces back and forth from 8 to 80 percent usage quickly. It does this when transcoding to my Nvidia Shield Pro, Windows 11 PC and Pixel 7,
Here is what GPU usage looks like during transcoding.
It transcodes 60 seconds of buffer and then does small chunks to keep up with the buffer.
Here’s a question for you though… Have you noticed any blocky playback with HEVC transcoding? I just built a new system as well, with an i5-13500 (UHD 770) and it is passed through in proxmox to an ubuntu VM for transcoding.
The transcoding works, but in low motion scenes, it gets blocky during sudden movement. The issue is not with the file - the file plays perfectly on an identical system with an identical passthrough setup with an i5-10400 (UHD 630).
I’m wondering if the driver included with the linux PMS package right now is not recent enough for the UHD 770? I tried installing the drivers directly from intel (23.1.0) but plex isn’t using it.
13600K, 64Gb RAM, 64TB HDD with 1 Tb NVME for OS and temp download. It is terrible transcoding 4K stuff, it never wants to hardware transcode. If it does it stutters every 6-10 secs, if I switch off HW accelerated transcoding it will hit the CPU to nearly 100% but it at least works.
By comparison I have also installed JellyFin and it HW transcodes no problem. What is up with Plex? I’m really frustrated.
I came across another post someone mentioned turning off ‘ Use hardware-accelerated video encoding’. With that off and the time mapping on GPU takes about 20% and CPU 60%.
As per @NLTurtle I have no switched off tone mapping and will test that later tonight. Is this something Plex will eventually support properly in Windows on 13Gen Intel?
Plex never discloses product roadmaps or timelines. Also, I’ve never seen a discussion on why it does not work (driver limitation, developer tool limitation, prioritization of other features, etc).
As of right now, if you want hardware accelerated tone mapping, you’ll need to a) add an Nvidia GPU or b) run Linux.
See the support article linked in my earlier post. The Requirements table clearly shows that hardware accelerated HDR to SDR tonemapping is not supported for Windows based systems using Intel Quick Sync Graphics.
I don’t know if Plex will default to the Nvidia or if you’ll have to configure it in the BIOS or somewhere in Windows. I’m not familiar with current Intel CPUs and motherboards.
My PC has an i7-4790K. It has a BIOS setting to tell the OS to use the PCIe (i.e. Nvidia) card instead of the on-board Intel Quick Sync graphics.
Once set correctly, Plex will use the Nvidia GPU. If Plex hits the limit of the card (number of sessions, RAM, etc) it will then use the CPU, not QuickSync.
Windows Task Manager should show which GPU is in use. Stream something, force a transcode, and see if the CPU, Intel Graphics, or Nvidia GPU utilization spikes.
Note: You also must run the 64-bit version of Plex Media Server for Windows. If you don’t know which version you’re running, check the installation location. PMS 64-bit installs in c:\program files. PMS 32-bit installs in c:\program files (x86).
I had a bit of a journey to resolve this. I ended up replacing the i5 with an i9 and I also got a 6700xt. Also I swapped to Ubuntu making the HW upgrade mute lol
