Transcoding: What's better? i7-3770 vs GeForce GTX 1060

Plex Media Server
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Hi,

Will hardware transcoding on an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) be better than doing it on my Intel i7-3770? I’m running on Windows.

I have an Intel i7-3770 (3rd gen) with 16GB of memory. I had been using software transcoding until now but I am finding now that for some shows I get errors. Certain parts during the show it will crash and say the server doesn’t have enough power and then it will die. Other times the stream will end like 5-10 minutes early. And occasionally the video will stop and just audio will stream. I turned on hardware transcoding and the issues seem to go away. Reading the Plex docs for hardware transcoding it seems to recommend 5th gen Broadwell or newer for best results. Upgrading from my 3rd gen 3770 means a new motherboard and new OS install etc. I’m hoping adding a dedicated video card would do the trick and avoid all that.

Thanks!

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That CPU is an “Ivy Bridge” generation. Its QuickSync unit has only support for the MPEG2, H.264, and VC-1 video codecs:

This has also support for newer codecs, crucially for H.265/HEVC.

If you don’t have any HEVC-encoded files, you can get by with just the CPU fine.

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