Hey everyone, I’m building a new server to run Jellyfin (with a few other services like Pi-hole) and I’m stuck on GPU or CPU transcoding.
My main concern is smooth 4K HDR transcoding for 1 stream. I’ve been reading mixed advice online – some people say a strong CPU with good single-core performance can handle it, while others recommend a dedicated GPU.
Should I focus my budget (~$1000AUD/$658USD) on a good CPU, or spend some of it on a dedicated GPU?
Well it isn’t really CPU vs GPU. It is integrated vs dedicated GPU. A CPU certainly can transcode, but not well. A lot of CPUs have integrated graphics which can handle transcoding quite well. I went with an Intel arc a380 because I know quite a lot of people could hit it under some circumstances. For most people though, I would recommend an Intel CPU with quicksync. What you really should spend your budget on IMO is as much storage as you can.