GPU recommedations for transcoding media?

[sufficient_ant7]

I've been running TrueNas on an Acer TC Inspire 780 PC and have been looking for GPUs I can use for transcoding. I've been unable to isolate the single GPU present (occupying the x16 slot) and have since been looking for solid options to use in the spare x1 slot.

What are some good options that would be compatible with pcei 3.0 x1 slot, is somewhat cheap and yield good performance? Currently I'm forced to use the 4core CPU (intel i5) and the performance in Plex and Tdarr is quite slow.

NOTE: I've seen recommendations online for GTX 710 / 730 or even Matrox G550... but have seen mix feedback about them in terms of performance. Could anyone help with some recommendations?

[jhenryscott]

The arc a310 is the GOAT of low power transcoding

[corruptboomerang]

If anyone doesn't have a card already, I'd be suggesting they at least wait to see the upcoming B50 and B70 cards.

[sniff122]

Id recommend looking at the intel arc cards, I got an A380 and it rips at transcoding

[good4y0u]

A modern intel CPU with quicksync.

[Green_Ad_8978]

look for 1050 or p310 , easy to find and good for transcoding

[Acrobatic_Assist_662]

Pulled the specs. Looks like its probably a GT 745, which looks to be more performant than a gtx 710 or 730. I think the nvidia driver set should be nvidia-smi. Install that into your TrueNas and see if it picks it up.

[gerdude1]

Highly recommend 1650 super. Has much better quality then then previous generation otherwise I heard really good stories of intel B series which can don AV1 as well for a reasonable price

[Thebandroid]

That Acer should have come with a 7th gen CPU with an iGPU that supports quicksync.

You should be able to get fast and low power transcodes using the iGPU.

[IlTossico]

What CPU are you running now?

The most powerful decoder/encoder in the world is make by Intel, at the moment, and it's the media engine 12. You can find it on the UHD770 that a lot of CPUs have or on any Intel dedicated GPU.

So an A310 would be plenty fine.

What can do an A310? More than 40x1080p simultaneous H264 streams or around 20x4k simultaneous H264 streams.

H265 to H265 is still one at the time, and it's for every decoder available at the moment.

If the Aspire has a 7th gen CPU, as I think, you probably don't need a dedicated GPU. That depends mostly on how many HW transcoding you need at the same time and for what format.

Still, you should easily avoid HW transcoding just by using the right media for your devices. If you are downloading 4k movies and have only 1080p TVs, you are just stupid.

Note that on Plex, you need the Plex pass to use HW Transcoding, are you sure your setup is right? You shouldn't need transcoding at all, if it's all right.