AMD support

[raj2986]

Sorry in advance if this has been discussed before but I have several machines running BI 4/5 and multiple locations for a few of my customers. Most of them Intel i7's of one vintage or another with quicksync enabled. Recently I customer ask about installing BI 5 on a Ryzen 3400G. I was a bit lost as to how well it works, if its officially supported (guessing not since quicksync is a intel product) and if there are plans in the future to support some sort official AMD CPU option. It seems to me AMD is growing rapidly and as a system builder / supplier I can say that 50% of my PC builds over the past year are now AMD Ryzen systems of some flavor per customer request. The power is there finally so just wasn't sure if there were any serious draw backs of using an AMD system over Intel other then quicksync.

Thanks in advance!
Rick

[TimG]

I can't see a problem here - see my signature.

I build systems, and when I built my first Ryzen system, the previous Bulldozer AMD PC became the server. As I understand it, the AMD CPU's historically were not as power efficient as the Intel with Quicksysnc.

Have a look in the PC configuration forum. The users here are not tied to Intel

[spammenotinoz]

Sorry in advance if this has been discussed before but I have several machines running BI 4/5 and multiple locations for a few of my customers. Most of them Intel i7's of one vintage or another with quicksync enabled. Recently I customer ask about installing BI 5 on a Ryzen 3400G. I was a bit lost as to how well it works, if its officially supported (guessing not since quicksync is a intel product) and if there are plans in the future to support some sort official AMD CPU option. It seems to me AMD is growing rapidly and as a system builder / supplier I can say that 50% of my PC builds over the past year are now AMD Ryzen systems of some flavor per customer request. The power is there finally so just wasn't sure if there were any serious draw backs of using an AMD system over Intel other then quicksync.

Thanks in advance!
Rick

AMD is perfectly fine, plenty of Intel users who do not use Quicksync. Quicksync does lower the CPU usage (transfers to the GPU on the same chip). Power usage and heat, measure the same on my builds.
I sometimes will use Quicksync where CPU usage is of concern, otherwise will not use it. Potential limitations of quicksync
- Unable to Hardware Decode\Encode H.265
- Memory Leak, resulting in low frame rates after a few days
- Mobile device Playback issues
- Occasional dropped frames, if another process BI or otherwise requires the GPU

But otherwise, No issues with AMD, runs just as well as the equiv' Intel processor.

[HeneryH]

While QuickSync worked fine for me and did lower the CPU a significant percentage, I chose to forgo it so that I could use H265 encoding. I chose longer shelf-life for captured video over CPU. As a result, in my case, I assume AMD would be equivalent. But I never actually tested it.

[raj2986]

Thanks for the replies! Glad to see there are no major repercussions to this. My major concerns were image quality or FPS performance but so far the system is running very well... Sorry for the delays it gets busy this time of year with everyone going back to school.

[raj2986]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry for the delay but with back to school season in full swing its been busy. I set up BI5 on the Ryzen 2400G with good results so far. Yes CPU usage is slightly higher but this server is only running file storage and BI5 so that wont be an issue.

Thanks
Rick

[bp2008]

Blue Iris has never had a compatibility problem with AMD CPUs. The only thing you will be missing is Quick Sync Video, because that is an Intel-only technology.

Quick Sync has two main advantages in Blue Iris:

1) Reduces CPU usage by up to half (more or less, depending on other settings).
2) Reduces power consumption a little.

(you can read all about my tests on IpCamTalk, here)

There are also several disadvantages or limitations of Quick Sync Video:

1) Slightly increased video delay. Mostly noticeable in PTZ camera responsiveness.
2) Occasionally it can freak-out and corrupt the video from some cameras until you restart those streams. Usually this is rare. It tends to happen in bursts. (link)
3) Numerous driver issues over the years. Memory leaks, etc.
4) H.264 decoding only. Does not work with H.265. I'm sure it could be fixed, but the reality is it has been years and it hasn't been fixed yet.
5) When used for remote clip playback, it causes black frames to appear when starting playback and when seeking (which is just re-starting playback from a different spot).
6) Heavy use of Quick Sync can make Blue Iris very slow to shut down, leading to issues installing Blue Iris updates.


So, if you can't or don't want to use Quick Sync, then AMD can be very competitive with Intel, even scoring a win with the Ryzen 3000 series. However, current performance does not change the past. Due to Intel's many-year dominance, the market for used and refurbished PCs is flooded with Intel. For example, in the USA, you can spend $100-$200 and get a complete PC running 3rd or 4th generation i5 or i7, including properly-licensed Windows. You simply can't touch that price with a comparable AMD system. This is why Intel remains the top choice for low to mid-range systems.