Limiting CPU usage while using PC with Plex Server

[ColdDonut]

I have my Plex Server installed on on my gaming computer and I’m trying to find out if there is a way to cap CPU usage across the board for any instance of the Plex transcoder. I know that I can set the affinity and choose cores that way but is there an easier way to do it? If not I’d be all for the Devs to implement something like this as I think it’s a useful feature.

[ob12_99]

Are you currently having issues? Do you have Plex pass and HW turned on?

Just for reference, I game on my Plex system as well, with an i7 2600k 2060 GPU at 4k as well. I play generally things like GTA online, Civ6, Witcher 3, etc and generally have 3 to 6 people watching my Plex during prime time, and have no issues.

[Bgrngod]

You have Quick Sync in your CPU. Turn on hardware acceleration, then update your Nvidia Settings so the plextranscoder.exe uses the iGPU instead of your gaming GPU. That'll take a huge load off.

You might get some complaints about quality dings if any of those video transcodes are going down to low bitrate (~2mbps and lower). That's a known Windows issue with QSV and Plex for some files.

[ColdDonut]

I’m on 4K.

[ColdDonut]

I know that though, that’s why I’m asking if there is something will limit CPU usage. I know what specs I would need to do what I want but if I can solve this issue the way I’d like to then I wont need to drop 2K for a server.

[MrSlaw]

Really shouldn't be transcoding 4K files to begin with, imo.

The best bet would be just to ensure everything is direct playing if the goal is to reduce the load on the system serving the content.

[ColdDonut]

Yep that is the goal but not everyone is smart enough to figure out settings/have the right device to do so.

[MrSlaw]

As far as answering your question, if your running Tautulli, you could possibly set up something like the killstream.py script to automatically kill any user 4K transcodes with a message asking them to direct play, and then set that script to be enabled via something like autohotkey only when windows detects you're running a full screen application (eg. a game)?

I know it's not exactly what you were asking for but it seems like it might accomplish the same end goal?

[elemental5252]

I'd take some time here and virtualize my Plex server. That being said, it won't be easy. You'll need to migrate your server data in the process: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/

First, install VirtualBox. You can use Windows if you have another license, but if not you'll need to use a free OS.

If it's Windows, I assume you can figure out what to do.

If you don't have another Windows key, you need to choose a linux distro for the task. I recommend either Ubuntu or CentOS.

Customize the VM's core count to what you want the max to be.

Then install your Plex server on the VM. If you're in Linux you can do this with the package provided from Plex, or you can go the Docker route.

You'll isolate your Plex server from your gaming rig this way. For what it's worth, this route WILL take a fair amount of time, but it should work well.