I've recently seen posts where people are recommending Intel ARC cards for transcoding. My previous research led me to conclude that I would be better off getting an intel CPU with quicksync. I'm currently running a 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-13100. It's not the most powerful CPU but it's handled 3 parallel HW transcodes just fine. I'd like to be able to handle 6 parallel HW transcoding jobs at once.
Could someone help me understand what my best course of action is?
just test 6x parallel transcode jobs via cpu and see if you are okay with the performance?
I've already seen that anything above 3 and I start getting pokes from family members that Plex is giving them issues. I'm pretty convinced something needs to be improved.
Look at this post https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1vc0h3p/chinese_intel_arc_a380_4k_decode_compute/
That guy has benchmarked Arc A380 using different transcode settings.
Since you didn't specify what and how you plan to transcode, there is just one general thing to say: discrete Arc media engine will be a lot faster than the one in the iGPU of your i3-13100. Plus it supports AV1 transcoding.
Your performance will also depend on the way you transcode audio, since this is done 100% by CPU. If you want to transcode some high bitrate HD audio on 6 concurrent streams, your CPU might become the bottleneck.
Yeah, if i wanted a discrete GPU I'd grab a 'cheap' A310 or A380. But tbh, the N100 Mini-PC I'm using as a Plex server does all the transcoding I need. But I play most things native to begin with. If I'm OP looking for 6 concurrent jobs, the A380 is a no brainer.
This is informative. Thank you! That's actually one of the posts that got my mind turning. I'm still relatively new to the language used around this type of thing. I plan to mostly be transcoding H.264 1080p video, sometimes 4K. Going by the results of that post, it seems like I would be happy with a similar card for my needs.
If you’re using a relatively modern Intel CPU with an iGPU then there’s a very good chance you won’t need a dGPU, Intel or otherwise. FYI, many of Intel’s mobile chips have faster iGPUs and will outperform desktop chips.
If your current CPU/iGPU is handling your workload fine, don’t worry. Intel Arc is IMO the best option for price/performance wise (Nvidia is probably the best overall but their cards are stupid expensive) I was transcoding previously on an Intel N150, it managed to 1-2 1080p streams fine, but 4K->4K transcode (especially HDR tone-mapping too) was a absolute no-no and would crash the entire system. Upgraded to an Intel Core Ultra 5-125H w/ Intel Arc iGPU mini PC and now it breezes 4K->4K transcodes w/ HDR tonemapping, so now I don’t have to worry if Safari (my browser of choice) decides to ask for a transcode for some reason.
It handles most situations but I'd like to be able to handle a bit more (\~6 streams). I think getting an A380 is the right move at this point but I'm definitely trying to take in all the feedback.
You got a lot of replies. Will add my two cents
If you tested that the current iGPU can't handle the 6 transocding then I would suggest you look at the price of the arc VS the price of updating your CPU. (You can potentially off set the cost by selling your current CPU)
There are many reasons to get a dedicated GPU and in most cases it's because
In this case since you aren't virtualizating (and maybe you don't plan on doing so) then maybe it's cheaper to upgrade the CPU. But note I don't know how the iGPU works. If it's getting same iGPU across the difference CPUs then it most likely will be the same bottleneck
I would also ask why you are transcoding h264 content? Typically clients can play h264. Is it because you bandwidth is low?
I would only transcoding h265 content if the client can't play it. (Unless your bandwidth is low)
Hope that helps
Thank you for the suggestion! I'll keep that in mind. Transcoding seems to be necessary to support some of the hardware being used by my users. Bandwidth isn't an issue (I have symmetrical 2Gbps). Here's a snapshot from Tautulli of some recent streams: https://preview.redd.it/lisx8cgbusgh1.png?width=629&format=png&auto=webp&s=944b6ad0372b4b5e01ba54440690e739e0f0fd1f Even for the same client, some media ends up needing to be transcoded.
You don’t really give enough info for a recommendation on the best course of action. You don’t mention what formats of media you’re using, what resolution, HDR/SDR, what settings, etc. If you have a free PCIe slot an Arc A310/380 is hands down your best bet for the cost to upgrade. I’ve seen posts saying that for transcoding even a slot that’s PCie x1 (lanes, not gen 1) is fine. Seen posts mention 10+ transcodes at same time. I have an Intel 125h CPU with an Arc iGPU and can say 6 jobs for my media wouldn’t be an issue. 4k content, HDR, high bit rate to lower bitrate I have seen done on Jellyfin at almost 300fps. A CPU upgrade to a more current one with an iGPU capable of AV1, etc would likely be a more costly upgrade and not quite as good as an Arc A310/380.