To NVIDIA or Not

[stewart]

I have a Lenovo with a Xeon 1245v5 that is choking on my cameras so I need to upgrade. I have 27 lenses, most at 2MP, and 10fps with Direct-to-Disc on and I'm pegged at 100% if the BI interface is up and a user is looking at the cameras in the web interface. Would adding an Nvidia GPU help a lot, or just get a new PC. I'm looking at a Dell with an i7-10700. I can use the built-in graphics or upgrade to one with a GTX 1650 Super for $150. I'm good with the price either way. Is it worth it to get the Nvidia card? Or should I get the base model and purchase a separate GPU?

[MikeBwca]

Before all that. Things to check...
- What is the difference in cpu usage when the BI window id open, and when it it minimized?
- How many cameras are D2D? And, how many are encoding and at what rates? Encoding takes way more cpu.
- What is your 'Limit Live Preview Rate' set at? This can make a big difference.
- In Motion detection, are your cameras set to 'High Definition'? This will make a difference in cpu since High definition takes 4x the samples.

[stewart]

- What is the difference in cpu usage when the BI window id open, and when it it minimized?
--- About 15% CPU usage

- How many cameras are D2D? And, how many are encoding and at what rates? Encoding takes way more cpu.
--- All cameras are D2D except 1. It won't actually record unless it is set to reencode.

- What is your 'Limit Live Preview Rate' set at? This can make a big difference.
--- 10fps

- In Motion detection, are your cameras set to 'High Definition'? This will make a difference in cpu since High definition takes 4x the samples.
--- No, they are not.

[Matts1984]

27 cameras is not insignificant so this is probably a worthwhile conversation. To add to Mikes post... substreams??

I find it most helpful as a starting point if you can post a screenshot of your Status > Cameras tab (you can obscure IPs if you like). There is a LOT of info in there that can help analyze your system and make tweaks. I think ultimately as a community we always try to make what you have work, or make it more bearable. If thats not an option, help with upgrades that don't break the bank. Case in point, I recently upgraded the dual CPU sockets in my system for $20 (and that was for a lot of 4 CPUs... was the best deal plus gave me two extra if any were DOA)

[stewart]

There are 4 cameras offline at the moment since I have a leg of the wireless bridge down but the rest are up there. There are 23 cameras shown, a few that are Mobotix cameras with dual lenses in single streams. 2 are busted and need to be replaced. Once these are all up there are plans to add 4 more and I need room to grow + convert the cameras from h.264 to h.265 for better compression.

[Matts1984]

I think it could be interesting to start adding Substreams for some of your cameras and observe what happens (doing 5 or so should be a noticeable difference). You would/should see a significant drop in the MP/s that BI has to process while maintaining your recording quality. Worst case if you don't like it - some have had negative experiences - just remove the config and you go back go only normal streams.

Also, I haven't seen it make a CPU improvement but based on the admin guide it seems to be best practice to set your i-frame/keyframes to the same value as your FPS (end result should be a "1" in the dashboard window). I believe having this optimizes correlating timestamps and alerts BUT in some situations it can also improve CPU. We've seen some cameras that don't seem to provide the capability to tweak this - but I think most do. Right now your keyframes appear all over the place.

[stewart]

Adding the substreams doesn't seem to make a difference. I've struggled with the i-frame situation as I've seen several guides give differing information. Right now, all streams and substreams have FPS and i-frames at 10.