Transcoding GPU

[Spyderturbo007 19]

A little while ago I built a Supermicro server for all my media. 

Specs

Supermicro H8DGU-F

64GB RAM

2 x AMD 6212 Octo Core at 2.60GHz

I'm having issues transcoding 4k rips for streaming.  It only transcodes at ~24fps, but for some reason the CPU usage is only around 40% across all the cores.  I was considering adding a GPU to the mix and wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations.

My main issue is that with the Supermicro case and the LSI controller taking up one of the PCI slots, I'm limited to a single slot GPU.  I also don't think the power supply supports powering a GPU without stealing power from the back plane that runs the drives.

Any GPU suggestions?  I have 3 people that I've given access to my server, so I would never have more than 3 streams and I highly doubt I'd ever have more than 2 x 4K at the same time. Only about 10% of my media is 4K.

[Luke 37046]

@Gilgamesh_48 may have some suggestions.

[PenkethBoy 2063]

might be cheaper and simpler to not transcode 4k in the first place

but if you must - think you have an issue as single slot gpu's are like hens teeth or mythical beasts

and if you find one its going to be underpowered/old tech and not have the hw to decode 4k - so that will fall back to the cpu - encoding to h264 should be doable but wont be as fast as a newer card that wont fit - 1050Ti is powered from pice buss so no psu lead needed.

[Spyderturbo007 19]

36 minutes ago, PenkethBoy said:

might be cheaper and simpler to not transcode 4k in the first place

but if you must - think you have an issue as single slot gpu's are like hens teeth or mythical beasts

and if you find one its going to be underpowered/old tech and not have the hw to decode 4k - so that will fall back to the cpu - encoding to h264 should be doable but wont be as fast as a newer card that wont fit - 1050Ti is powered from pice buss so no psu lead needed.

I have a few family members and friends that access my server.  I have to transcode since my upstream from my crappy Comcast connection is only 10Mbps.  I have them each limited to 2Mbps.

[GWTPqZp6b 41]

1 hour ago, PenkethBoy said:

...think you have an issue as single slot gpu's are like hens teeth or mythical beasts

and if you find one its going to be underpowered/old tech and not have the hw to decode 4k - so that will fall back to the cpu - encoding to h264 should be doable but wont be as fast as a newer card that wont fit - 1050Ti is powered from pice buss so no psu lead needed.

Eh? Nvidia quadro p2000/p2200 can transcode several 4K streams simultaneously, doesn’t require anything other than PCI provided power and can be converted easily to run passively. It’s not limited to two streams either. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by GWTPqZp6b

[GWTPqZp6b 41]

Adding quick screen grab nvtop of p2200 transcoding 4 * 4k movies to 1080p 5mbps. Each transcode is running at about 30-50fps (Irishman, Tenet, Possessor & Collateral - just 4 off the top of the latest movies, not chosen for any codec/bitrate reasons).

Edited December 9, 2020 by GWTPqZp6b

[PenkethBoy 2063]

2 hours ago, GWTPqZp6b said:

Eh? Nvidia quadro p2000/p2200 can transcode several 4K streams simultaneously, doesn’t require anything other than PCI provided power and can be converted easily to run passively. It’s not limited to two streams either. 

old tech can only decode some 4k streams 

transcoding includes decoding as well as encoding - if you have videos it does not support then cpu must do the decoding

if you are going to get a new gpu most will want something new and IIRC quadros will be pricey new - although second hand they may be more affordable

powerdraw from quadro may be an issue on old m/b like i suspect the op has

so may or may not be a solution

 

[Spyderturbo007 19]

1 hour ago, PenkethBoy said:

old tech can only decode some 4k streams 

transcoding includes decoding as well as encoding - if you have videos it does not support then cpu must do the decoding

if you are going to get a new gpu most will want something new and IIRC quadros will be pricey new - although second hand they may be more affordable

powerdraw from quadro may be an issue on old m/b like i suspect the op has

so may or may not be a solution

 

Unfortunately, I can't find any information about the power delivery for either the motherboard or the riser card that's installed.  The Quadro P400 looks like it can do the following:

H.264 - 4:2:0, 4:4:4, Lossless,

H.265 4K 4:2:0, 4:4:4, Lossless

H.265 8k

H265 10-bit

The only thing it says it can't do is B Frame support, which I don't think is necessary based on my reading.  It looks like that's more for additional compression when converting and saving a file, but I could be way off base on that one.

The P400 is limited to a maximum of 3 streams, but that's probably more than I would ever need.  Shows the card consuming a max of 30 watts.

[GWTPqZp6b 41]

The pcie3 card will be backward compatible with your Pcie2 slot so power shouldn’t be a problem. You’ll be limited to 8GB/s though I think which looking at the numbers on my transcode above may limit you to two or maybe three streams with 4K transcodes. The p400 would likely be fine for your immediate needs. As folks start to look at leveraging more card capabilities you might want to look at a newer card like Penkethboy suggested but then you are probably also looking for a new PC too to leverage it fully. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by GWTPqZp6b
Auto-incorrect fixes

[PenkethBoy 2063]

full list of what each card can do - encoding and decoding wise etc etc

https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new#Encoder

[Spyderturbo007 19]

On 12/9/2020 at 8:52 PM, GWTPqZp6b said:

The pcie3 card will be backward compatible with your Pcie2 slot so power shouldn’t be a problem. You’ll be limited to 8GB/s though I think which looking at the numbers on my transcode above may limit you to two or maybe three streams with 4K transcodes. The p400 would likely be fine for your immediate needs. As folks start to look at leveraging more card capabilities you might want to look at a newer card like Penkethboy suggested but then you are probably also looking for a new PC too to leverage it fully. 

Awesome.  Thanks.  1 or 2 streams would be perfect.  My fiends can get over it if more than 1 person want's to watch a 4K movie. 

On 12/10/2020 at 3:43 AM, PenkethBoy said:

full list of what each card can do - encoding and decoding wise etc etc

https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new#Encoder

Thanks.  That's where I got my information from above.

Anyone know if I'm correct about not needing B Frame support?  I read somewhere that's for additional compression when encoding.

[bella0450 0]

You will need minimally Intel Core i7 3.2GHz, with 12000 PassMark score for 4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) to 10Mbps 1080p conversion and 17000 PassMark score for 4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) to 10Mbps 1080p transcoding. And you can resort to NVIDIA GPU support for detailed 4k GPU decoding: https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new. Besides, sufficient RAM is required. If your internet connection, your hardware system are not up for 4k transcoding in Plex, it’s better convert 4k video to a smaller-sized file first.