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Your hypothetical new plex box does not need a discrete GPU. Plex makes really good use of Intel Quick Sync, and transcode quality has been indistinguishable or

Your hypothetical new plex box does not need a discrete GPU. Plex makes really good use of Intel Quick Sync, and transcode quality has been indistinguishable or better than NVIDIA since about 5th gen. A Celeron G4900 (8th-gen dual core, 3300 passmark) has been benched as capable of 21 simultaneous 1080p transcodes.[0] TL;DR: pick up a NUC knockoff with an >8th gen celeron or i3; it'll handle anything a casual household can throw at it. [0] https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-hardware-transcoding-the-jdm-way-quicksync-and-nvenc/1408/4 https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-hardware-transcoding... this is far and away the most comprehensive hardware guide for plex servers.

grogenaut 4y ago
The place you specification is a thread posted in 2019 talking about a Dell prebuolg. Do you mind posting the link for the nucs? Or is it in that thread somewhere? Or is that dell actually a nuc.
- ohthehugemanate 4y ago
  The thread has the benchmarks, links to ebay searches, and lists of prebuilt machines (like the dells) that meet the requirements, since they're often the cheapest way to meet the spec (according to TFA). you may have to scroll up. I just searched ebay for used celeron NUCs, and got lots of options like this one, with a 9th gen Celeron, for a hundred bucks. NB that the generation matters much more than the CPU, but some operations are still done by the CPU so if you can get an i3 or i5 it will make a marginal difference. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115640978606?hash=item1aecbd4cae%3Ag%3A0TMAAOSwmMhjmi6X&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoNc%2Fm4fEfe3cH%2BteksTn7vJwYNO71y903%2F63scl0VHSuyIat3O%2BPU%2BFFCN%2BdWNgNRwuDHzOVQn74WuhJIJ2v8PQ7acTTWUlQeYiB8fPUUuvyOjqrVI7ADzS5Z1H3Kevd3lxeP5dKgtnS4fdFTOdc2wHw%2BNbpscNS9CydR4%2B6legZ3RJXuGkOS%2F7qRFYZYc1lKlPEj5N7K3dQjLCyiYdbZ2A%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-DXq5axYQ&LH_BIN=1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/115640978606?hash=item1aecbd4cae%3A...
dehugger 4y ago
The second you want multiple streams of higher quality then 1080p 10mbs you will want a dedicated card. I got a <200$ old Quattro card (can't remember which) and it can handle pretty much everything I've thrown at it now. 4k TVs are common, planning for 1080p use is a mistake at this point imo.
- karlshea 4y ago
  This is very true, QuickSync falls over very easily when trying to transcode even a single 4k stream.
  - ohthehugemanate 4y ago
    Depends on the details of your transcode: - what's the source/destination quality? - what's the container format? Quicksync doesn't support them all; even the newest gen is missing av1 and VP9 IIRC. But then, the same can be said for discrete GPUs. - what filters are you applying. Many (most?) filters are CPU bound, which will kill you really quick. But for supported formats without filtering, 12g Intel quicksync is regularly benchmarked at 4-6 streams. One should always measure internet advice against one's actual use case. Personally I would argue that if you have a library of 8K video and more than 4 4K devices, you don't qualify as a "regular" home user. But of that's the case, hardware up my friend!
    - karlshea 4y ago
      10th-gen i5 could not handle a single stream with most of the 4k content I tried, even though it was benchmarked as working. So if you're trying to transcode from varying sources I would imagine most people will end up wanting a discrete GPU. If you're ripping your own content and can ensure that everything is set up right so that the integrated GPU can handle it, sure, it will probably work. That being said they could have made giant strides in this area on 11th-12th gen, I have no idea.
      - ohthehugemanate 4y ago
        As I mentioned elsewhere, check the details of that transcode you tried. Are you doing tone mapping? That happens on the CPU (even with many discrete GPUs). Is it in a supported container format? Did you validate that the GPU was being used for the transcode? Other 10th gen I5 users get multiple simultaneous 4k streams going at > 1x speed. Even with tone mapping it should only use like 45% CPU for a single stream. Unfortunately the difference between software and hardware development cycles means that when you're on data formats that came to prominence in the last 2 years, even the newest hardware may not support it yet.

grogenaut 4y ago

The place you specification is a thread posted in 2019 talking about a Dell prebuolg. Do you mind posting the link for the nucs? Or is it in that thread somewhere? Or is that dell actually a nuc.

ohthehugemanate 4y ago
The thread has the benchmarks, links to ebay searches, and lists of prebuilt machines (like the dells) that meet the requirements, since they're often the cheapest way to meet the spec (according to TFA). you may have to scroll up. I just searched ebay for used celeron NUCs, and got lots of options like this one, with a 9th gen Celeron, for a hundred bucks. NB that the generation matters much more than the CPU, but some operations are still done by the CPU so if you can get an i3 or i5 it will make a marginal difference. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115640978606?hash=item1aecbd4cae%3Ag%3A0TMAAOSwmMhjmi6X&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoNc%2Fm4fEfe3cH%2BteksTn7vJwYNO71y903%2F63scl0VHSuyIat3O%2BPU%2BFFCN%2BdWNgNRwuDHzOVQn74WuhJIJ2v8PQ7acTTWUlQeYiB8fPUUuvyOjqrVI7ADzS5Z1H3Kevd3lxeP5dKgtnS4fdFTOdc2wHw%2BNbpscNS9CydR4%2B6legZ3RJXuGkOS%2F7qRFYZYc1lKlPEj5N7K3dQjLCyiYdbZ2A%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-DXq5axYQ&LH_BIN=1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/115640978606?hash=item1aecbd4cae%3A...

dehugger 4y ago

The second you want multiple streams of higher quality then 1080p 10mbs you will want a dedicated card. I got a <200$ old Quattro card (can't remember which) and it can handle pretty much everything I've thrown at it now. 4k TVs are common, planning for 1080p use is a mistake at this point imo.

karlshea 4y ago
This is very true, QuickSync falls over very easily when trying to transcode even a single 4k stream.
- ohthehugemanate 4y ago
  Depends on the details of your transcode: - what's the source/destination quality? - what's the container format? Quicksync doesn't support them all; even the newest gen is missing av1 and VP9 IIRC. But then, the same can be said for discrete GPUs. - what filters are you applying. Many (most?) filters are CPU bound, which will kill you really quick. But for supported formats without filtering, 12g Intel quicksync is regularly benchmarked at 4-6 streams. One should always measure internet advice against one's actual use case. Personally I would argue that if you have a library of 8K video and more than 4 4K devices, you don't qualify as a "regular" home user. But of that's the case, hardware up my friend!
  - karlshea 4y ago
    10th-gen i5 could not handle a single stream with most of the 4k content I tried, even though it was benchmarked as working. So if you're trying to transcode from varying sources I would imagine most people will end up wanting a discrete GPU. If you're ripping your own content and can ensure that everything is set up right so that the integrated GPU can handle it, sure, it will probably work. That being said they could have made giant strides in this area on 11th-12th gen, I have no idea.
    - ohthehugemanate 4y ago
      As I mentioned elsewhere, check the details of that transcode you tried. Are you doing tone mapping? That happens on the CPU (even with many discrete GPUs). Is it in a supported container format? Did you validate that the GPU was being used for the transcode? Other 10th gen I5 users get multiple simultaneous 4k streams going at > 1x speed. Even with tone mapping it should only use like 45% CPU for a single stream. Unfortunately the difference between software and hardware development cycles means that when you're on data formats that came to prominence in the last 2 years, even the newest hardware may not support it yet.