transcoding

[wbravin]

Hello all

with the ever changing video landscape, I am now ready to install a GPU. I know nothing (as sgt schutz would say) about transcoding

I run Jellyfin as an app withing a bare metal installation truenas scale. This is installed on a dell r720 with 2 processors 20 cores and 128gb ram

I have difficult time watching videos and i was told i need a GPU. Fair enough


Do i install the GPU on the client or on the server (htpc has NVIdia gtx) and i still have problems

I am considering an NVidia p4000 (i read that windows arc does not work well on the dell). 

would this work well with jellyfin? 

Would i need additional drivers?

Thank you foe any guidance provided

[nyanmisaka]

> i read that windows arc does not work well on the dell

Intel Arc on older platforms suffers from performance degradation due to the lack of ReBAR (the extent of which depends on the system), and higher idle power consumption due to the
lack of ASPM.

> I am considering an NVidia p4000 (i read that windows arc does not work well on the dell).
> would this work well with jellyfin?

Yes, it is still compatible with Jellyfin. But driver support for Nvidia Pascal architecture has also entered maintenance-only mode since October 2025, and it cannot handle AV1 content. If you can accept these limitations and the P4000 is very affordable, you can consider it, otherwise, it's recommended to try an RTX 30 or newer entry-level graphics card, as it provides an AV1 decoder, has a longer driver maintenance cycle, and delivers better encoder quality.

[wbravin]

Hello @nynmisake

Sorry for the delay in my response.

I cannot justify The RTX30XX series of GPU for what i need to do. I do not have av1 videos

Then the p4000 will be it, for a little morei can hahe p6000 would the additional funds be well spent in your opinion?

Once again thank you for youre response

[nyanmisaka]

What I mean is that an entry-level RTX 30 GPU, such as the 3050 6GB, is sufficient. The extra CUDA cores in the P6000 don't improve transcoding performance compared to the P4000. For hardware transcoding, the NVENC generation is the top priority.

https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encod...matrix-new

If you don't need the NVENC quality improvements from AV1 and RTX 30, then the P4000 is enough. However, it will reach its end-of-life in October 2028 and will no longer receive any driver updates. At that time, they may no longer be supported by Jellyfin.

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/...volta-gpus.

[34626]

If you want to save bandwidth, you will need on both server and clients support for AV1

You can use a cheap Intel Arc A310 sparkie or go with never Intel Arch B580 - As some mention, there may be issues with some things due to your old hardware, but for transcoding, i would recommend you to look into that :-)
- But do remember, you clients need to support decoding AV1 codec for it to work properly!