NVIDIA Plex Server: A Faster Way to Share Your Media

When it comes to setting up shares for your Plex media server, you have several options to choose from. One popular method is the 'hardlinking' approach, but some users may wonder if there's a better way to achieve the same result. In this article, we'll explore an alternative solution that combines Nvidia and RAM transcoding, which can significantly speed up your media sharing experience.

Combining Nvidia and RAM Transcoding

If you have a powerful GPU like an Nvidia card and a large amount of RAM (in my case, 64GB of ECC), you may be wondering why you need to transcode your video files using both the GPU and RAM. The answer lies in the benefits each method provides.

Nvidia transcoding uses the GPU's processing power to accelerate video encoding, while RAM transcoding offloads the data from the CPU and Cache resources, reducing the load on these components. By combining both methods, you can achieve faster transcoding speeds and improved overall system performance.

Configuring Your Plex Server

To set up your Plex server with Nvidia and RAM transcoding, follow these steps:

1. Install the necessary drivers for your Nvidia card from Community Applications.

2. Update your Plex configuration file to include the following parameters:

```

-runtime=nvidia

-device=/dev/dri

-mount type=tmpfs,destination=/tmp,tmpfs-size=20000000000 -no-healthcheck

```

These parameters enable GPU transcoding and offload data from the CPU and Cache resources to RAM.

Tips and Considerations

When setting up your Plex server, keep the following tips in mind:

* Make sure you have allocated enough RAM for the `tmpfs-size` parameter. Exceeding this limit may cause issues with containers or virtual machines.

* If you encounter any issues with container failure after a recent update, try removing the `tmpfs-size` parameter and see if that resolves the problem.

By following these steps and configuring your Plex server correctly, you can take advantage of the benefits offered by combining Nvidia and RAM transcoding. This setup has been tested on LinuxServer's repository and has shown significant improvements in media sharing performance.

Nvidia plex server