VAAPI - Acceleration in Linux VM - VT-d - Thoughts for GPUs - R5 430 or similar?

[BloodyIron 24]

Hey Folks,

 

I just want to double-check some things I'm reading here, please jump in if you think I'm missing something.

 

1. I'm on 3.5.3.0, latest public
2. This is in a VM and I'm planning on getting a GPU to pass-through via VT-d to it for Hardware Acceleration for Decode & Encode.
3. Proxmox VE (Linux KVM) is my hypervisor, Bare metal server target is Dell r720. AFAIK VT-d and IOMMU should 100% work here.
4. According to FFMPEG docs, AMD GPUs that are GCN 4.0 can do H.265 10-bit video (which I care about) : https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Hardware/VAAPI
5. According to more FFMPEG docs, VAAPI can effectively do all the Hardware Acceleration for Decode/Encode that I _could_ care about (check first AND second table) : https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HWAccelIntro
6. These are AMD GCN 4.0 starting cards : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Radeon_400_series
7. Looks like an AMD R5 430 GPU can be had for ~$35 USD (before shipping, etc).
8. I suspect I would need to enable the AMDGPU driver in the guest OS in the VM (which is easy as it is Ubuntu).

 

Am I barking up the right tree here? I have plenty of CPU, but it seems like passing a GPU through to the VM will make the environment more responsive, in terms of, command issued to play video, time until first frame of video & audio is played.

 

Thoughts?

[Luke 38801]

The 3.5.3 release will only encode via VAAPI, not decode. 

 

The upcoming 3.6 release will significantly improve our hardware acceleration features:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/64534-36058-hardware-acceleration-settings/

[BloodyIron 24]

Okay but what about my ask about a R5 430, would that be sufficient for _good_ transcode? Including 4k 10-bit HDR, etc.

 

 

The 3.5.3 release will only encode via VAAPI, not decode. 

 

The upcoming 3.6 release will significantly improve our hardware acceleration features:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/64534-36058-hardware-acceleration-settings/

[Luke 38801]

@@softworkz may have some insight on that.

[softworkz 4271]

AMD is not a first-choice for GPU hardware acceleration. They made improvements just recently and things are moving. 

But VAAPI is originally an Intel API and if your server has an Intel API you will primarily use VAAPI for the Intel integrated GPU's acceleration. 

Mixing in an AMD GPU board _might_ work but will probably  be causing trouble. 

 

Better look for an Nvidia GPU for this setup.

[BloodyIron 24]

nVidia drivers are problematic for VT-d for non Quadro and up cards. So, it may be feasible to use a cheap nVidia card, but I'd prefer my money go to AMD.

 

This operates on dc-class hardware, so no intel GPU.

 

 

AMD is not a first-choice for GPU hardware acceleration. They made improvements just recently and things are moving. 

But VAAPI is originally an Intel API and if your server has an Intel API you will primarily use VAAPI for the Intel integrated GPU's acceleration. 

Mixing in an AMD GPU board _might_ work but will probably  be causing trouble. 

 

Better look for an Nvidia GPU for this setup.

[softworkz 4271]

Well, considering the target price your aiming at, there's nothing much you could do wrong anyway...

And if you have dual-socket Xeon cpus, then there's no Intel VAAPI, so just give it a try!

[BloodyIron 24]

That sounds waaayyyyy too reasonable. I'm scared.

 

 

Well, considering the target price your aiming at, there's nothing much you could do wrong anyway...

And if you have dual-socket Xeon cpus, then there's no Intel VAAPI, so just give it a try!

[softworkz 4271]

Having a dual socket server but being scared about $35...?

[BloodyIron 24]

I was hoping it would be ridiculous enough whereby sarcasm was the default assumption. Guess not this time.

 

I wasn't serious, to be explicit. $35 I think is worth the knowledge

 

 

Having a dual socket server but being scared about $35...?

[softworkz 4271]

Honestly, I can't tell what will happen. I never even heard about Proxmox.

 

Everything is possible: It could work out of the box but it could also be an experience...

[BloodyIron 24]

Proxmox is a Linux KVM hypervisor. I'm more asking how that card will hold up to that kind of rendering tasks.

[3n8 7]

This tickles my curiousity, Have you had the time to try? 

[BloodyIron 24]

Going to be a while before I end up doing something like this, sorry. More asking ahead for planning in this thread

 

I'd love to know myself how it pans out, heh. As I suspect the card would work well, but I'm not completely sure in-practice.

 

 

This tickles my curiousity, Have you had the time to try? 

[3n8 7]

Yeah i might do a quadro card myself just becose of support and how silent they are. But i really dont want to support Nvidia becose i feel like they are disrespecting their customers.

But if i were to find out there are good quiet options with AMD, i would rather have them take my money.

[pearsco 0]

nVidia drivers are problematic for VT-d for non Quadro and up cards. So, it may be feasible to use a cheap nVidia card, but I'd prefer my money go to AMD.

 

This operates on dc-class hardware, so no intel GPU.

For whats its worth I have two windows 10 VMs with Nvida GTX cards running problem free on my Proxmox server. Soon I plan on adding a P2000 to my Ubuntu LXC Emby container.

[3n8 7]

For whats its worth I have two windows 10 VMs with Nvida GTX cards running problem free on my Proxmox server. Soon I plan on adding a P2000 to my Ubuntu LXC Emby container.

 

Is your GTX cards in the 1050+ series?

i was thinking of doing a 1050ti and unlocking the nvidia driver (requires linux) to allow me to do multiple transcode streams.

I would asume a quadro would give somewhat more transcoding power then a 1060, but at twice the wattage.

So im going for a 1050ti since i dont have many users. Both a 1050ti and a quadro will at most use 75w.

 

But i wont have the chance for at least nother month. So i was wondering if you wanted to try it?