Does Blue Iris utilize multiple cores/cpu's?

[Sparkey]

Currently have BI running on an i7-4790 (4 cores, 8 threads) with 16GB RAM. I'd like to move it to another system running dual E5 2670's (8 core, 16 threads each, total 32 threads) and 128GB RAM. I'm trying to consolidate my media, backup and BI servers into one box but I'm concerned that BI may perform slower given the E5 v2670 only runs at 2.6ghz. But It will have more cores and memory available to so hence the above question.

TIA

 

[cutterman]

I'm not sure the brute force of those CPU's will make up for the absence of Quicksync hardware encoding. How many cameras do you have?

 

[greg_mitch]

I did the same awhile ago. Had an existing single E5-1650 server for Plex and added BI to it. I got chided soundly when asking here about my server for not having hardware encoding capabilities. My machine runs at about 13% Blue Iris CPU utilization without Quicksync for (8) 2MP IP cameras. Doesn't appear that BI is much of a memory hog, but you have PLENTY so no issues there.

I haven't had any desire to add a dedicated BI server right now. One caveat is that my media server is for LOCAL hosting only, as I don't have "friends and family" that login remotely to stream my media. Generally this means I have no more than 2-3 streams of media while the machine is also handling the (8) IP cameras. I will check CPU utilization when this is happening and report back.

You aren't out that much time trying it out. I think you can export your settings from your existing BI install, install BI on the media server, import your settings, and watch your CPU utilization.

 

[Sparkey]

Currently I have 9 cameras and will be adding one more some time in the future. Didn't know about Quicksync. Are you saying that the i7 4790 has it and the E5 2670 does not?

 

[cutterman]

Yes. Check out the threads that discuss hardware requirements for BI.

Just FYI, I have an i7-6700 CPU running 22 cams average >3MP with 28% CPU utilization.

 

[greg_mitch]

Currently I have 9 cameras and will be adding one more some time in the future. Didn't know about Quicksync. Are you saying that the i7 4790 has it and the E5 2670 does not?

Yes.

Intel® Core™ i7-4790 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz) Product Specifications

You can do a quick test yourself. Go into your BI settings and toggle the "Hardware Acceleration" option and watch your CPU utilization. See how much it changes. Not sure if that requires a restart of your machine or even just the BI application. Others would have to say.

 

[Sparkey]

Yes.

Intel® Core™ i7-4790 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz) Product Specifications

You can do a quick test yourself. Go into your BI settings and toggle the "Hardware Acceleration" option and watch your CPU utilization. See how much it changes. Not sure if that requires a restart of your machine or even just the BI application. Others would have to say.

Thank you sir. HW Acceleration was turned off. I turned it on and CPU utilization went from 50% to 15%. Quite a drop. Think I'll leave it as is.

ACK!! Spoke too soon. It's now up to 40%. Something must have ramped up after I checked.

 

[fenderman]

Thank you sir. HW Acceleration was turned off. I turned it on and CPU utilization went from 50% to 15%. Quite a drop. Think I'll leave it as is.

ACK!! Spoke too soon. It's now up to 40%. Something must have ramped up after I checked.

if it keeps growing you have a memory leak....search forum for the solution...you need to proper intel hd driver.

 

[sdyfgasd]

FWIW, I have a Xeon 3220, I think, at some site. It chokes with 6+ streams. While i5-6500 runs 16 streams at ~45%. If your CPU usage by the BI service is unstable, try disabling every camera and re-enable after a minute of idle. I was pegging 90% until I did that, right after adding them all.