SOLVED: i3-12100 transcoding performance (Expectation vs reality?)

[TheDreadPirate]

That ffmpeg doesn't appear to be complete. After it starts transcoding, there should also be logs at the bottom indicating how fast it is transcoding.

You also don't mention what resolution you are transcoding to. 4K to lower bitrate 4K? 4K to 1080P? 4K to 3-4 1080p (or lower) streams should not be a problem. 4K to lower bitrate 4K is significantly more taxing. I am assuming you are going 4K to lower bitrate 4K. One 4K transcode is roughly 4x the load of a 1080 transcode. If you enabled transcoding to HEVC, you might be able to get more performance, at the cost of quality, if you disable that and let it transcode to H264.

With all that said, what you've described is about right. If you need more transcode capacity, you will need a dedicated GPU.