My server, which hosts Plex in addition to other stuff, runs Windows Server 2016 on a Xeon E5 CPU.
My basic question is, if I were to chuck a suitable GPU into this box, would Plex be able to use it for hardware transcoding?
The FAQ article is unclear and seems to suggest that you need a QuickSync compatible CPU (which mine isn’t) even if you’re using a GPU for transcoding, is that the case or would I be ok? Also would the server OS cause any problems?
Don’t really want to grab a GPU to try it if it’s not going to work.
See Tech Specs in the linked support article for a list of supported engines per platform. Intel Quick Sync Video is just one of the available options.
To provide reliable Hardware-Accelerated Streaming across a variety of hardware and platforms, Plex Media Server supports several different hardware acceleration engines.
What confused me was the line “If your Windows computer also has a dedicated graphics card”
Can you clarify this - does this mean that, in order to use GPU transcoding, I still need a CPU with QuickSync?
If your Windows computer also has a dedicated graphics card, such as an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, some functions of Intel Quick Sync Video may become unavailable when the GPU is in use. If your computer has one of these GPUs, please install the latest NVIDIA drivers for Windows or AMD drivers for Windows to make sure that Plex can use your dedicated graphics card when Intel Quick Sync Video becomes unavailable.
No it said that if you have both then some functions of Quick Sync Video may become unavailable.
Since transcoding means that you have to decode first and encode second, it’s possible that the Quick Sync may decode the video and the GPU encode the video.
It all depends on the graphic systems in use.
The point of that is basically that users could have quite a capable CPU (e.g. with Intel’s QSV) but also a GPU that does not have that kind of extensive hw accelerated streaming support.
So if you want to use QSV but have a dedicated GPU… you need to take care of that.
If you want to use your dedicated GPU… make sure it’s fully patched as those patches can make a huge difference.
