Thanks @FordGuy61. I actually found a utility that is installed with the graphics card that shows GPU utility. I should have thought about HWMonitor becasue I used it on my laptop just a couple of month ago when my graphics card on that was going out.
I have a Gigabyte motherboard too, so I will definitely check out the BIOS settings.
Weird question: Can you simply disable the Intel graphics completely in the UEFI/BIOS?
Edit: I was wrong. I just checked my BIOS settings. There is an option to disable Intel Processor Graphics in the BIOS. Apologies for the goof.
GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 w/ i7-4790k.
The setting is called āInitial Display Output.ā When I choose IGFX, Plex uses the HD4600 on the 4790K for hardware accelerated transcoding. When I choose the PCIe slot, Plex uses my Nvidia card.
Hereās a snippet from the mobo manual:
Thatās exactly what I was worried about too. My board only allows you to choose which card is enumerated first. A quick search says that some boards offer the option and some donāt. But I havenāt personally tried in a long time since I typically only have one or the other installed at a time.
if the PEG is enumerated first you should be ok.
iGPU enable/disable may be on the cpu options (like where you can enable/disable virtualization etc).
so Question, if I disable the onboard graphics, will that stop Plex from using the CPU for hardware accelerated decoding?
lets clarify;
if you disable the onboard graphics (iGPU), then yes that will prevent anything from using the iGPU for anything, including your monitor.
that will not disable the CPU from doing SOFTWARE decoding.
the cpu never does āhardware accelerated decoding or encodingā.
hardware accelerated decoding or encoding, happens on the GPU.
it doesnāt matter if the GPU is integrated on the cpu (iGPU) or if its an external pcie GPU (nvidia).
what does matter, is what the particular GPU in question is capable of in terms of transcoding (either quicksync or nvidia nvenc/nvdec).
for 4k hdr transcoding you need a 6 series iGPU (ie 630) or generally a 10 series GTX or a 2000 or newer quadro.
the full details of any particular gpu are available at wikipedia or the manufacturer website.
Thank you for the heads up 
Itās been years since Iāve been into the hardware side in any serious way. In my BIOS I found both options. To set the main graphics display slot and to disable the onboard graphics. To start I just did what @FordGuy61 suggested and set the second slot to my primary display device.
BTW, I only used the second slot because I have my raid card in the first one. They both operate at 8x if both are occupied and I didnāt want to have to deal with reinstalling drivers for my raid card if for some reason windows forgot it (it did forget my teamed network card that was in the second slot).
I may, if none of this works swap the cards, but I want to keep that as a last resort.
The server is starting back up now. Iāll let you know how it goes. I think it was using the NVENC before as the transcoding logs said it was, but the performance just wasnāt what I was expecting.
its possible, if you removed the intel drivers, but the intel gpu was still enabled in the bios, that windows silently reinstalled the intel drivers.
this would take you back to your original post where you experienced the lag from what sounds like is the split workload (igpu doing one thing while p2k doing the other).
fwiw, we both have similar cpu (i have a i5-6600k) both have the intel 530 GPU, which supports some kinds of 4k DECODE, but not ENCODE.
That sounds like why you get some buffering with 4k when the intel tries to DECODE, it just isnāt quite new enough.
disabling the intel gpu should put all the work on the p2k and you should be flying then.
4k/hdr = intel 600 series GPU = intel 7000 series CPU
Itās my understanding that is how Plex works. it will use the CPUās GPU for hardware decoding (DXVA2) and the P2000 for encoding (NVENC).
BTW, so far no good. It is still buffering like crazy and the P2000ās gpu usage is hovering around 5% which I think is odd.
Iām going to disable the iGPU now and see if that does anything. It should force software decoding which I donāt think will be an issue.
my understanding the p2k should do both encode and decode on WINDOWS.
but only ENCODE on linux
so if your running windows, the p2k should be all you need.
(unless I am confused, which is certainly possible).
windows = p2k decode 4k > p2k encode 1080
linux = CPU decode 4k > p2k encode 1080
That could be. Iām new to hardware acceleration in Plex and Iām willing to be wrong. Either way, I disable the iGPU int the BIOS and same thing. it says itās using hardware acceleration on both (DXVA2 for decoding NVENC for encoding) but itās not working all that well and the GPU is staying at around 5%.
Not sure what else there is to do now.
Is there some kind of test I can run outside of Plex to see if itās Plex or maybe something else? I tried to find a stress or benchmark to run to try and see how it would go, but couldnāt find anything.
there might be but Iām not aware of it.
For windows 10, I just use the TASK MANAGER and it has a gpu monitor built in.
but really, if you can get the intel gpu disabled and any drivers removed, the p2k by itself should be all you need.
hopefully someone who actually has a p2k up and running can chime in and help, I am just trying to help based on what I have picked up for myself since I am interested in a p2k (or new server build with newer intel cpu).
stupid question: does the cuda toolkit need to be installed for some reason to make this work?
DXVA + NVENC is what it should say when using the P2000.
windows = p2000 DXVA decode & p2000 NVENC encode
linux = CPU decode & p2000 NVENC encode
Transcoding always happens on the same GPU, or GPU and CPU. Different GPUās isnāt used due to bandwidth limitations.
Did you try a reinstall or that other machine? The nvidia card itsef is not the limiting factor, thereās something else going on.
I have not had time to reinstall plex yet or get the other machine set up yet. Tonight it was recording 2 shows off my OTA antenna (using HDHR Quatro Connect) and it wouldnāt even attempt to transcodeā¦it just sat there spinning, nothing on the server seemed to be doing anything and it didnāt even show it was running. The CPU for the transcoder was at 20ish% which I think is probably from the OTA recordingā¦it definitely seems fishy.
Iāll try and set up that other machine this weekend and give it a go on that one.
I have built out an i5-9600k machine with an Asus ROG Strix Z390-H Gaming mother board and G.Skill 3200 DDR ram.
I tried transcoding once with my MSI GTX 1060 Armor 6G and no go (I was just testing it while it was in there). Odd thing is that it only said it was encoding with hardware, not decoding. So, I removed the GRFX card, added in the p2000, uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the quadro drivers.
Still no go, still only encoding with HW, not encoding and the grfx card is doing it slow.
Iām on the step where I uninstall PLEX Media Server and reinstall with the Quadro in.
Yes, I have it hooked to a monitor (though only 1080p) and in Windows that monitor is set ad my main one. Iām also going to check the bios to see if I need to set the primary card in there.
Iāll report back shortly with my progress
So I restarted and reinstalled PLEX. Still no go CPU is pegged, P2000 is barely working and it still says it is only using hardware acceleration on the encode. I canāt even get as far as I was on my server were it at least said it was using hardware acceleration on both.
Quick question: What does the hardware decoding? Would it be the CPU or the P2000?
I actually see above where it said they should both be on the GPU
Completely uninstalled plex (removing the registry key and the local appdata folder). use DDU to uninstall the driver and then reinstalled it. Reinstalled plex. Made sure to set Hardware acceleration on and still same thing on this machine. It says it uses for encode, but not decode. I am at a complete loss. I will try a different video to be sure, but this same video was using hwa on encode and decode.
