Suggestions for a video card to offset CPU video processing?

[marklyn]

I have a Acer Aspire Desktop PC, Windows 10 Pro, Intel Quad Core i7-4790 3.60GHz with 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM. Blue Iris ver: 5.0.8.1 x64
I've got 12 cams and the CPU is running hotter than I like, usually running around 65% now.
Would like any recommendations for a workhorse Video card I could get that would offload most/all of the GPU processing.
I've got 1 PCI Express x1 slot, 1 PCI Express x16 slot and 1 mini PCI Express Slot open.
If anyone has done this and noticed a big drop in CPU, let me know, that's what I'm after.
Suggestions that work well with Blue Iris would be appreciated.

 

[mech]

They won't offload all of the video processing, but they can help. What's your computer's card size (half-height or full-height), power supply rating, and is it equipped with a power connector for higher-powered PCI-Express cards, or would the video card need to draw all its power through the motherboard slot?

 

[fenderman]

I have a Acer Aspire Desktop PC, Windows 10 Pro, Intel Quad Core i7-4790 3.60GHz with 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM. Blue Iris ver: 5.0.8.1 x64
I've got 12 cams and the CPU is running hotter than I like, usually running around 65% now.
Would like any recommendations for a workhorse Video card I could get that would offload most/all of the GPU processing.
I've got 1 PCI Express x1 slot, 1 PCI Express x16 slot and 1 mini PCI Express Slot open.
If anyone has done this and noticed a big drop in CPU, let me know, that's what I'm after.
Suggestions that work well with Blue Iris would be appreciated.

What are the resolutions And frame rates of your cameras? You might not need anything at all. Also see the threads on adding more memory Even if you’re not maxed out it can be helpful. Finally instead of spending $200 on a video card plus an extra hundred bucks a year to run the card you can buy a more powerful modern intel pc.

 

[marklyn]

They won't offload all of the video processing, but they can help. What's your computer's card size (half-height or full-height), power supply rating, and is it equipped with a power connector for higher-powered PCI-Express cards, or would the video card need to draw all its power through the motherboard slot?

Half height size... Power supply: 220w. I think the video card would need to draw power from slot, but I'd have to look through the specs to be sure.

 

[marklyn]

What are the resolutions And frame rates of your cameras? You might not need anything at all. Also see the threads on adding more memory Even if you’re not maxed out it can be helpful. Finally instead of spending $200 on a video card plus an extra hundred bucks a year to run the card you can buy a more powerful modern intel pc.

most of my camera resolutions are 2mp and about 3 of them are 1mp.. my frame rates are all 15 except two of my two mp are 25...
I like your idea of upping the memory... that sounds like it could be a quick fix... was hoping to hold off on buying an upgraded computer.
I did come across a thread about maximizing settings in BI to minimize CPU usage and that helped for while until I added the last camera

 

[fenderman]

most of my camera resolutions are 2mp and about 3 of them are 1mp.. my frame rates are all 15 except two of my two mp are 25...
I like your idea of upping the memory... that sounds like it could be a quick fix... was hoping to hold off on buying an upgraded computer.
I did come across a thread about maximizing settings in BI to minimize CPU usage and that helped for while until I added the last camera

There is something wrong with the setup, you should be at most 30 percent cpu. Are u running h.264 and hardware acceleration? Make sure each camera it set to direct to disk, often one or two are missed.

 

[mech]

If you're upping the memory, that would also be an opportunity to go to dual-channel mode for a bit more CPU performance. Is the system currently using just one module, or a pair of them?

Also, if you did want to add a card, one safe candidate would be a Quadro P620. We have some in Dells with 180W power supplies at work, no issues. The card's absolute max power draw would be 40W. Where I live, that would work out to $28 per year if it ran 24/7 at 100% consumption. I see them on Ebay starting at US$120 or so. Maybe I can borrow one from work and see how much they can actually handle.

 

[marklyn]

Yes to h.264, hardware acceleration and direct to disk.

 

[Walrus]

2x 2MP 25 FPS
7x 2MP 15FPS
3x 1MP 15FPS
You are running 355 MP/s. That is nothing and your i7 should handle it fine.

You said everything was fine until you added the last camera. I'd take Fenderman's suggestion and up the ram to 16GB, using two identical 8GB sticks to get dual channel as mech suggested.
Double check that last cam you added and make sure in that camera's properties on the video tab, hardware acceleration is set to either default or intel. It might be set to none.

Post a screen shot of your camera status list and make sure there is a # beside every camera, indicating hardware acceleration is working.

 

[marklyn]

If you're upping the memory, that would also be an opportunity to go to dual-channel mode for a bit more CPU performance. Is the system currently using just one module, or a pair of them?

Also, if you did want to add a card, one safe candidate would be a Quadro P620. We have some in Dells with 180W power supplies at work, no issues. The card's absolute max power draw would be 40W. Where I live, that would work out to $28 per year if it ran 24/7 at 100% consumption. I see them on Ebay starting at US$120 or so. Maybe I can borrow one from work and see how much they can actually handle.

I only have one 8gb stick in the machine now.

 

[marklyn]

2x 2MP 25 FPS
7x 2MP 15FPS
3x 1MP 15FPS
You are running 355 MP/s. That is nothing and your i7 should handle it fine.

You said everything was fine until you added the last camera. I'd take Fenderman's suggestion and up the ram to 16GB, using two identical 8GB sticks to get dual channel as mech suggested.
Double check that last cam you added and make sure in that camera's properties on the video tab, hardware acceleration is set to either default or intel. It might be set to none.

Post a screen shot of your camera status list and make sure there is a # beside every camera, indicating hardware acceleration is working.

I forgot a couple cameras with higher resolution but still doesn't appear to be that much overall?


I corrected CAM26, it was always set to hardware accel Intel/direct to disk, etc... I was messing with it when I snapped this and forgot to set it back.
Looks like I was off on the count! Uggh. sorry.

 

[marklyn]

update, I've set most of my cams to 2.1mp resolution and verified all were set to hardware accel and direct to disk. My total MP/s is around 509, CPU stays around 44% so good improvement.
I will still look into extra memory, shouldn't hurt. I do only have 1 stick of 8 Gb so I will see about adding another stick.
Thanks all for help/suggestions. I was enlightened today with new info

 

[mlapaglia]

I can attest to adding an additional camera spiking a server. I was setting up a VM with blue iris and even though the CPU was around 30% I'd add "one more camera" and it would just to 100%. Adding another few GB of memory fixes the issue.

 

[marklyn]

Duh. I did have 16gb RAM DDR3 1200.
I'm going to try a video card anyway... suggestions?

 

[Walrus]

You have three cameras at 20FPS, and two at 25FPS. Change those to 15. Higher MP and lower FPS is better than the other way around.

Also your bitrates seem off on a number of cams, too low. eg the 3rd cam is 3MP but only 131 kB/s, it should be 4x that bitrate. And those 3rd and 4th last cams are really really low.

 

[Walrus]

I did have 16gb RAM DDR3 1200.

Huh? DDR3-1200 doesn't exist. You probably have DDR3-2400 but you are looking at the clock rate and not the DDR toggle rate.

As Fenderman suggested, there is something else wrong with your setup. Spend more time fixing it instead of wasting money (and added heat) on a video card.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I have the same CPU I7-4790 with 16 GB (4x4) of memory, running 13 cameras at 499 MP/s 4299.0kB/s with an additional 10 clone cameras that are used as write a backup. Running h.264, record direct to disk, Limit decoding unless required. I am running at 20% CPU load. The cameras are all set with the frame rate and Iframe to the same value. Inside cameras record(6) at 8 fps, out side cameras(7) record at 15 fps.

Post a screen shot of the Windows 10 task manager Process tab, include the GPU and GPU engine columns. sort with the most memory at the top (BI).

 

[marklyn]

I have the same CPU I7-4790 with 16 GB (4x4) of memory, running 13 cameras at 499 MP/s 4299.0kB/s with an additional 10 clone cameras that are used as write a backup. Running h.264, record direct to disk, Limit decoding unless required. I am running at 20% CPU load. The cameras are all set with the frame rate and Iframe to the same value. Inside cameras record(6) at 8 fps, out side cameras(7) record at 15 fps.

Post a screen shot of the Windows 10 task manager Process tab, include the GPU and GPU engine columns. sort with the most memory at the top (BI).

SouthernYankee, I'm going to try your settings... question should I always set the frame rate on the camera and BI or just set it on BI? I can't find the documentation for the "limit decoding unless required"... does that bring down quality... not sure what it does since I can't find documentation on it. PS, I've decided against the video card... trying suggestions here. An the memory was DDR3 1600.

 

[SouthernYankee]

BI never makes changes to the camera setting. The camera changes need to be made in the camera.

The limit decoding unless required. is a feature that has changed over time. from help

Limit decoding
The option to Limit decoding unless required is another way to manage CPU resources.
When enabled, only key frames are normally decoded and displayed. A key frame is a
“complete” frame—all other frames rely on key frames in order to be rendered, as they
contain only the “changes” from frame to frame. When you select the camera in the main
window UI, or if someone is viewing the camera (or one of its groups) via a client app, then
all frames will once again be decoded for display.
This CPU-saving scheme works great as long as your camera is actually sending an adequate
number of key frames. The recommendation is to have about 1 key frame/second. This is a
setting in the camera’s browser-based settings, usually under a “video encoding” section. It
may be labeled as “key frame rate” or “i-frame interval” for example. You can view the
actual rate on either the General page in camera settings, or on the Cameras page in Status.
It is shown after the overall frame rate—for example 15.0/1.0 indicates 15 fps with 1 key
frame/second. A value of 0.5 or less is considered insufficient to use this feature.

 

[SouthernYankee]

After you have made the changes and rebooted your PC, post screen shots...

1) the Windows 10 task manager Process tab, include the GPU and GPU engine columns. sort with the most memory at the top (BI).
2) BI status cameras , make sure that the MP/s at the bottom left of the frame is in the screen shot.
3) BI status clip storage