Upgrading from i7-960 to ? Help!

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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I’m hosting a PLEX server on an old Alienware from 5-6 years back, with an i7-960. If any stream requires transcoding, my CPU usage essentially goes into a panic at 99%, which not only puts the PC fans on full blast, but it causes significant performance drops if I happen to be in a game.

I guess my question is, while I do my best to avoid transcoding where possible, if I upgrade from an i7-960 (PassMark 5,800) to i7-7800X or even i9-7940X (PassMark 25,000), am I still going to see CPU usage around the 99% range, acting as a bottleneck for whatever else I’m doing on my PC, because that’s just how PLEX rolls, or will PLEX only need to access only 20-30% of what will be a significantly faster CPU, essentially allowing me to transcode 720p and 1080p (x265 to x264) silently in the background, largely unnoticed?

Will an i7-7800X be a large enough jump to accomplish this? Would dropping an additional $1,500 to upgrade to the i9-7940X be worth it or even noticeable after that point? Considering I’m not transcoding anything 4k. It’s primarily x265 to x264, (1080p > 1080p) or (1080p to 720p).

Thanks!

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Sign up for Plex Pass so you can enable hardware transcoding. This puts the video transcoding on the embedded GPU, not the CPU.

An i5 7th or 8th gen would give you multiple x264/x265 1080p transcodes, including room for audio transcodes, which still hit the CPU. If you exceed the capability of the CPU, then drop in a Quadro P2000, for ~$400 USD, which can handle many more transcodes.

I’ve a Synology DS918+ with a Celeron J3455 CPU. It can handle a couple of 1080p transcodes w/o problem using h/w acceleration. No hard data, just me performing some informal testing.

I’ve a i7-4790K in my desktop. I’ve had five or six 1080p H.264 transcodes running with h/w acceleration. Again, informal testing. I had multiple browser windows open, each with a separate movie/transcode.

Also, see this post WRT P2000:

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Hey thanks for the response. Yeah I didn’t realize the hardware transcoding option was behind a PLEX pass subscription… interesting.

So I have a GTX 780 for my gpu. Will than do a better job transcoding than whatever my i7-960 is currently doing? Any information on what the difference would be here would be helpful, and I can look into this myself as well.

I guess my problem overall isn’t necessarily NOT being able to transcode with my current setup. Transcoding multiple streams actually works fine… the issue is when there’s even 1 video being requested to transcode, my computer feels extremely bogged down by this, my internal fans run on high, my cpu usage is at 99%, and if I’m in a game when this happens I see frame rates drop randomly.

I know it’s not ideal to run a media server on the same computer your’e playing a game on, however… that’s why I was wondering if this is just an “out of date” hardware problem, because my computer is easily 5+ years out of date, and I’m wondering if simply buying a new PC would essentially make transcoding a silent background operation that doesn’t break my computer into a sweat every time, or… if this is just something that’s going to happen regardless of what hardware I have, because that’s just what PLEX needs to do to transcode?

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Well that was interesting… I just grabbed a PLEX pass, flipped on hardware acceleration… wow, no more CPU usage. Taking a look at GPU-Z here, the GPU temps don’t move, only “Video Engine Load” goes up, temporarily anyway.

I guess this option transfers all the load of transcoding onto “Video Engine Load”? Now I just need to test how this interferes if at all, having this go on while in a game that’s also putting a load on the GPU.

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Personally i would go for something like a KabyLake and consider a PlexPass for hardware acceleration as mentioned.
You can expect a bare minimum of 8 transcodes with barely any CPU usage.

I had a thread a while back with someone questioning it. I’m fairly sure I got to 8 transcodes with about 15% CPU usage.
Don’t get hung up on benchmark scores…with the latest CPU’s it means little.

We cross posted so to add… using you CPU’s graphics should have little effect on your system.

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OK this is pretty neat, had no idea this was a thing… and yeah, this is working wonders right now.

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I think you are limited to two hardware transcodes with your Nvidia GPU.
If that’s gonna be enough then no need for any upgrade :grinning:

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You can try Plex Pass for $4.99 USD / month. If it works you can then choose monthly/yearly/lifetime subscription if desired. If it doesn’t work, cancel and you’re only out 5 bucks.

Your CPU is too old to use any embedded GPU. Per Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming, you need a Sandy Bridge (2nd gen) CPU or later.

According to NVIDIA Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix, your GPU does support H.264 decode & encode.

If you want x265 transcoding you’ll need a 7th gen or later CPU or a GTX 1050 or better Nvidia card.

Note 1: Nvidia consumer cards are limited to two simultaneous transcodes. The third simultaneous transcode hits the CPU.
Note 2: Audio is transcoded on the CPU. It doesn’t take many cycles, but just be aware it is there.

Just don’t do both at the same time, especially if transcoding. Doesn’t matter if you’ve an i7-xxx or an i9-7xxx. You can always stop PMS when you’re gaming. Just right-click on the icon in the taskbar and choose “Exit.”

Going forward:

Saw your post while writing this reply.

Give your current system a try and see how it works. Might be OK for you.

If you do go for a new system, you don’t need to go with an i9 & GTX 2080 for Plex. As mentioned earlier, you can use a lesser system. If you want the i9 & GTX 2080 for gaming, then go for it. Just not needed for Plex.

CPU: If you upgrade, go with a 7th gen or later CPU. The internal GPU can support x264 & x265 in hardware. You can check the CPU datasheets at Intel for specifics. Look in Datasheet, volume 1. Processor graphics usually in Section 2 (usually 2.4).

GPU: With a new Nvidia GPU, get a 1050 or better. See above linked Nvidia reference. At a minimum, you’ll want one that does x265 decoding. Plex currently encodes everything to x264. If they ever support encode to x265 then a 1050 or better will have you covered, as it supports x265 encoding (NVENC vs NVDEC tables).

Edit:

You don’t mention what Plex clients you’re using. When watching on a PC or Mac, use Plex Media Player (PMP) instead of Plex Web. PMP is much better. It supports more codecs natively, which means less transcoding. Plex Web is limited by the web browsers.

Nice feature of Plex Pass is it unlocks the mobile apps. No more one-minute timeouts.

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