Transcode & AI accelerators
One decision, five kinds of answer. Transcode (Plex/Jellyfin) wants QuickSync or NVENC; AI detection (Frigate) wants a Coral, Hailo, NPU or GPU; local LLMs want VRAM. The one that is already inside your box (iGPU/NPU) is often the right - and cheapest - answer.
| Accelerator | Type | Transcode | 1080p streams | Frigate | TOPS | VRAM | PassMark | GPU sharing | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen AI (XDNA2) | npu | - | - | maturing | 50 | - | - | - | built-in |
| Intel QuickSync (UHD Gen12 iGPU) | igpu | H.264/HEVC 4K (AV1 decode) | 8 | OpenVINO | - | - | - | sr-iov | built-in |
| Intel Arc iGPU (Core Ultra) | igpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode | 8 | OpenVINO | - | - | - | sr-iov | built-in |
| Intel AI Boost NPU (Core Ultra 100) | npu | - | - | OpenVINO | 11 | - | - | - | built-in |
| Intel AI Boost NPU (Core Ultra 200V) | npu | - | - | OpenVINO | 48 | - | - | - | built-in |
| Google M.2 Accelerator A+E key | tpu | - | - | EdgeTPU (native) | 4 | - | - | - | $74.99 Buy on Amazon |
| Google M.2 Accelerator B+M key | tpu | - | - | EdgeTPU (native) | 4 | - | - | - | $75.55 Buy on Amazon |
| Google M.2 Dual Edge TPU | tpu | - | - | EdgeTPU (native) | 8 | - | - | - | ~$40 Check price on Amazon |
| Google Coral USB Accelerator | tpu | - | - | EdgeTPU (native) | 4 | - | - | - | $140 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro P400 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 2GB | 1,666 | vgpu (unlock) | $76.00 Buy on Amazon |
| Hailo Hailo-8L (M.2) | npu | - | - | Hailo | 13 | - | - | - | ~$70 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro P1000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 4GB | 4,514 | vgpu (unlock) | $140 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc A310 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Arc) | 15 | OpenVINO | - | 4GB | 5,459 | - | $140 Buy on Amazon |
| Hailo Hailo-8 (M.2) | npu | - | - | Hailo | 26 | - | - | - | $243 Buy on Amazon |
| Hailo Hailo-10H (M.2) | npu | - | - | Hailo | 40 | - | - | - | ~$120 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia Tesla M40 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Maxwell) | - | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 10,220 | vgpu (unlock) | $277 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc A380 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 6GB | 6,313 | - | $140 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro T400 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Turing) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 2GB | 3,619 | vgpu (unlock) | $290 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Tesla P4 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 9,107 | vgpu (unlock) | $183 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro P620 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 2GB | 3,713 | vgpu (unlock) | $72.00 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro P2000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 5GB | 7,023 | vgpu (unlock) | $167 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A400 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 4GB | 5,980 | vgpu | $280 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3060 8GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 15,189 | - | $400 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc A580 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Arc) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 8GB | 12,037 | - | $200 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro T600 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Turing) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 4GB | 6,372 | vgpu (unlock) | $217 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc A750 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Arc) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 8GB | 12,638 | - | $318 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro P2200 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 5GB | 9,419 | vgpu (unlock) | $175 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Tesla P100 | gpu | - | - | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 9,621 | vgpu (unlock) | $167 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc B570 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Xe2) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 10GB | 14,096 | - | $260 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3050 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 12,482 | - | ~$230 Check price on Amazon |
| Intel Arc B580 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Xe2) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 12GB | 16,024 | - | $310 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Quadro T1000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Turing) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 6,517 | vgpu (unlock) | $402 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 12GB | 16,713 | - | $520 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4060 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 19,495 | - | $441 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A1000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 10,687 | vgpu | $465 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia Tesla P40 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Pascal) | 18 | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 11,596 | vgpu (unlock) | $460 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A2000 12GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 12GB | 13,667 | vgpu | $705 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc A770 16GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (Arc) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 16GB | 13,352 | - | ~$330 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 20,236 | - | ~$330 Check price on Amazon |
| Intel Arc Pro B50 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1/VP9 (Xe2 media) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 16GB | 12,542 | sr-iov | ~$349 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3070 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 22,092 | - | $415 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 8GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 8GB | 22,599 | - | $680 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 22,583 | - | ~$430 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 22,614 | - | ~$449 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3080 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 10GB | 24,995 | - | $1,589 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 5070 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 12GB | 28,667 | - | ~$549 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4070 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 12GB | 26,874 | - | $749 Buy on Amazon |
| Intel Arc Pro B60 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1/VP9 (Xe2 media) | 20 | OpenVINO | - | 24GB | 15,084 | sr-iov | ~$599 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia Tesla T4 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Turing) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 9,912 | vgpu | $728 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4070 Super | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 12GB | 29,939 | - | ~$600 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 2000 Ada | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 16,967 | vgpu | $718 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A4000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 19,368 | vgpu | ~$650 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 32,354 | - | ~$749 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 3090 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 26,510 | - | $1,550 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti Super | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 31,827 | - | ~$800 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 5080 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 35,626 | - | ~$999 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4080 Super | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 16GB | 34,241 | - | $1,895 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 45 | TensorRT | - | 20GB | 20,558 | vgpu | $2,236 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A5000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 22,873 | vgpu | $2,748 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | - | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 23,919 | vgpu | ~$1,500 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 4090 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 encode (NVENC Ada) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 24GB | 38,050 | - | $3,550 Buy on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX 5090 | gpu | H.264/HEVC/AV1 (NVENC Blackwell 4:2:2) | 12 | TensorRT | - | 32GB | 38,962 | - | ~$1,999 Check price on Amazon |
| Nvidia RTX A6000 | gpu | H.264/HEVC (NVENC Ampere) | 24 | TensorRT | - | 48GB | 22,633 | vgpu | $5,085 Buy on Amazon |
PassMark = GPU G3D score (raw graphics horsepower - a rough proxy only; a low-G3D pro card can still transcode well). 1080p streams = approximate simultaneous 1080p H.264 transcodes on stock drivers: consumer GeForce is capped by NVIDIA's NVENC concurrent-session limit, while pro/datacenter and Intel Arc cards are throughput-bound. Verify for your own build.
iGPU/NPU show "built-in" - they come inside the CPU/box, with no add-on card to buy. Discrete-GPU prices are approximate; used cards (Quadros) vary.