Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

ruppmeister

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 15, 2015
Messages
668
Reaction score
98
I’m close to pulling the trigger on this i7-4790 for $415. Not a great warranty but seems like a good deal. I do wish it had Win10 Pro for remote login purposes but I understand you can upgrade thru Windows for ~$100 or use something like LogMeIn. Any thoughts?

http://slickdeals.net/f/8629898-acer-aspire-desktop-refurb-i7-4790-12gb-ddr3-1tb-hdd-win-10-419-99-fs-deal-frenzy-via-ebay?p=83376626&utm_source=dealalerts&utm_medium=em-i&utm_term=404138&utm_content=u9870&utm_campaign=tu2&src=da_mgmt_v2_18336698
I wouldn't worry too much about the OS version not being PRO since you can use third party apps to get to your computer like Chrome Remote Desktop and TeamViewer. If the machine is right for you, then get it and worry about remote access later.
 

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,007
Location
USA
Warranty aside, that is a very good deal. Lots of ram, big disk, and one of the best CPUs you can buy for Blue Iris. Teamviewer is a good remote access tool, but I've also heard good things about Chrome Remote Desktop. Forget about Logmein. They don't have a free option, and the paid options are not worth it with so many viable free options out there.
 
Last edited:

Jack B Nimble

Pulling my weight
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
878
Reaction score
106
Location
Great White North
Did I read these old posts correctly that BI has not been using my high end video card all these years? No wonder it hits 90% cpu at times. I'm still on v3 does v4 use video card capablities yet ?
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Did I read these old posts correctly that BI has not been using my high end video card all these years? No wonder it hits 90% cpu at times. I'm still on v3 does v4 use video card capablities yet ?
It does not use it. V4 utilizes intel HD graphics with quicksync, if you enable hardware acceleration. High end video cards are a poor choice for a 24/7 vms as most draw way too much power.
 

Jack B Nimble

Pulling my weight
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
878
Reaction score
106
Location
Great White North
Shocked really but, I can appreciate trying to have software that would work with all different graphic accelerators out there would be very challenging. I always wondered how I could run anything on my pc graphic wise, 3d graphics gaming etc yet, noticed BI was really beating on my system. I was just contemplating upgrading to BI4 as I though perhaps all the h264/265 cameras I have maybe the culprit and perhaps resolved by moving to v4.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Shocked really but, I can appreciate trying to have software that would work with all different graphic accelerators out there would be very challenging. I always wondered how I could run anything on my pc graphic wise, 3d graphics gaming etc yet, noticed BI was really beating on my system. I was just contemplating upgrading to BI4 as I though perhaps all the h264/265 cameras I have maybe the culprit and perhaps resolved by moving to v4.
BI4 is only a 30 dollar upgrade its a no brainer.
 

sr80

n3wb
Joined
Nov 7, 2015
Messages
21
Reaction score
3
If BI does not support a GPU, then why do they list a nVidia graphics adapter for HW decoding on the download page?

I'm migrated my BI server from an i5-580M CPU laptop to a more powerful AMD desktop CPU box that was collecting dust, and tried a GT 710 GPU in it but no difference. It's not really needed since the CPU is powerful enough to make a huge difference anyway, but it'd be nice to have the bonus help.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
If BI does not support a GPU, then why do they list a nVidia graphics adapter for HW decoding on the download page?

I'm migrated my BI server from an i5-580M CPU laptop to a more powerful AMD desktop CPU box that was collecting dust, and tried a GT 710 GPU in it but no difference. It's not really needed since the CPU is powerful enough to make a huge difference anyway, but it'd be nice to have the bonus help.
Because at one point he was going to use nvidia for hardware acceleration..but went with intel HD
AMD boxes dont make good nvr's as they are generally power hungry and cost more to run than buying a modern intel i5-4590 based system for 300.
Put your amd system on a power meter.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
79
Reaction score
39
Upgrading monitor and may need a new GPU - requesting recommendations please

Current System;
  • Dell XPS
  • Core i5 4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz
  • 32GB RAM
  • Windows 10 Pro
  • GPU - AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series
  • SSD 256 but saves to 8TB Synology 916+
  • 12 IP Cameras - 8 Wirepath 2MP, 3 Hikvision 3MP and 1 Axix 1MP
BI is usually running around 85 - 100% CPU.

My dell 30" monitor is failing and I'm looking at the Dell UltraSharp U3415W PXF79 34-Inch Curved LED-Lit Monitor and a graphics card to drive it.

I mostly use this computer for email, web, excel and some light Lightroom work. BI sits in the background. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have an old Dell T100 poweredge collecting dust if that helps. Probably 4gb of ram and a xenon processor. Probably ready for recycling.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Upgrading monitor and may need a new GPU - requesting recommendations please

Current System;
  • Dell XPS
  • Core i5 4430 CPU @ 3.00GHz
  • 32GB RAM
  • Windows 10 Pro
  • GPU - AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series
  • SSD 256 but saves to 8TB Synology 916+
  • 12 IP Cameras - 8 Wirepath 2MP, 3 Hikvision 3MP and 1 Axix 1MP
BI is usually running around 85 - 100% CPU.

My dell 30" monitor is failing and I'm looking at the Dell UltraSharp U3415W PXF79 34-Inch Curved LED-Lit Monitor and a graphics card to drive it.

I mostly use this computer for email, web, excel and some light Lightroom work. BI sits in the background. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have an old Dell T100 poweredge collecting dust if that helps. Probably 4gb of ram and a xenon processor. Probably ready for recycling.
You likely dont need new system. First, remove the amd card. Use intel graphics and enable hardware acceleration in blue iris. Make sure you are using direct to disk on each camera, set fps to 15 and select 10fps for the live preview rate.
 

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,007
Location
USA
I believe your chosen monitor requires HDMI 2.0 input, which is not available natively on motherboards for Haswell CPUs. Does your current motherboard have a displayport (or mini displayport) output? If so, you could use one of these adapters: Club3D Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0

Otherwise, you will need a new graphics card particularly if the current one doesn't have displayport. It should be Nvidia because those are known to help Blue Iris out a little when rendering to a high resolution monitor. A GTX 1050 is overkill, but it is the cheapest and least power-hungry card I know of that supports HDMI 2.0 natively: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 SC Whatever you use, you'll need at least displayport output and possibly one of those adapters for HDMI 2.0 depending on your chosen monitor.
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
If you are running blue iris on your personal pc, you are simply better off dedicating this one for blue iris and using a cheap 1080p monitor...then buy a second 300-500 dollar system to game on
 

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,007
Location
USA
That is absolutely right -- keep BI on a dedicated server. By the way, the Intel HD 4600 GPU built into Haswell, while poor for gaming, is still faster than the Radeon HD 7500 series. That card is truly worthless for anything more than the additional video outputs it provides.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
79
Reaction score
39
Thanks for the responses and patience.

Just to be clear will the on-board Intel HD GPU run BI better than a Graphic Card? Even though my motherboard has a displayport, I'm guessing I'll need to buy a Graphics Card to drive the new Dell UltraSharp U3415W at 3440 x 1440.

I think I'm still missing something.

AP
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Thanks for the responses and patience.

Just to be clear will the on-board Intel HD GPU run BI better than a Graphic Card? Even though my motherboard has a displayport, I'm guessing I'll need to buy a Graphics Card to drive the new Dell UltraSharp U3415W at 3440 x 1440.

I think I'm still missing something.

AP
yes it will run better...but why are you wasting that monitor on BI? or you run both the onboard hd and nvida graphics to support the display.
 

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,007
Location
USA
The Dell monitor you refer to only has HDMI 2.0 input according to product information on Amazon. You should be able to convert your motherboard's DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 with the Club3D adapter I linked above, or you could choose a different monitor that supports a DisplayPort input.

The Intel HD GPU serves two purposes for Blue Iris:
  1. The Quick Sync feature enables Blue Iris to use hardware accelerated h.264 decoding (not enabled by default) to save a lot of CPU time.
  2. It feeds the onboard video outputs.
Many motherboards will disable the Intel graphics when a 3rd party graphics card is detected, but sometimes you can re-enable the intel graphics in the BIOS settings. The relevant BIOS option may refer to the Intel graphics as "iGPU". Further, you may need to have a monitor attached to an onboard video output in order to use hardware accelerated decoding.

I you don't really know what you are doing you have a good chance of configuring it wrong and losing the benefits of Quick Sync video acceleration, all because you plugged in a 3rd party graphics card. The only benefits of a 3rd party graphics card are:
  1. They may provide video outputs not available on your motherboard.
  2. Nvidia graphics cards have been known to reduce the amount of CPU time required to draw the Blue Iris GUI on a large monitor. It is unclear to me if AMD cards can deliver the same benefit to CPU usage. This benefit alone is not usually worth the added cost, complexity, and energy usage.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
79
Reaction score
39
Interesting - I would never have guessed that BI would run better with onboard graphics over a graphics card.

Most of my work gets done at my work office. This is my home office and I only work their one day/week. So I didn't think I needed a 2nd computer.

Regarding running both onboard and graphics card - how would BI know which to use?

Last night I tried to pull the radeon out and it would not boot. I tried enabling multiple monitors in the bios, it still didn't boot. I put the radeon back in and kept it enabled and it boot but ran very slow. Didn't have time to play with it so I left the card in and disabled it.

This comes back to my original question. I need to replace the Dell Monitor and am looking for a graphics card recommendation for the new monitor. I don't think the onboard will push the needed resolution.

If I'm still missing something and a BI machine is also in my future purchase plans. I'll just have to swallow that pill. Thanks again for the help here.
 
Last edited:

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,007
Location
USA
Fenderman has a point, that monitor would be wasted on BI. You would be better off with a 40 inch 4K television that costs less in my opinion, though that higher resolution drives CPU usage up even higher which isn't perhaps the best idea.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Buy a 300 dollar i5-6500 and use it for blue iris..it will solve all your problems and be super stable as intended.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
79
Reaction score
39
Thanks for the great information. This forum saved countless hours. I was able to get the frame rates down from 70%-90% to below 35%.

One issue I'm now having now is when Hardware Acceleration is enabled, I loose my only indoor camera hooked up to an AXIS M7011 Video Encoder.

Still with the tweaks, I'm down to 55%- 65% CPU rate. Am I SOL with Hardware Acceleration? Would be nice to get back down to 35%.
 
Top