Transcode calculator
How many simultaneous Plex/Jellyfin transcodes your box can sustain - and whether it covers your household.
Result
- Built-in iGPU
- streams
- Add-on card
- + streams
- Total capacity
- streams
How to read this
- A transcode only happens when a client can't direct-play the file (wrong codec, too little bandwidth, burned-in subtitles). Direct plays cost almost nothing - so real households rarely need as many transcodes as they have users.
- Counts assume hardware transcoding (QuickSync / NVENC) with 4K HDR tone-mapping - the heaviest common case. 1080p-only loads go further.
- An AI-only accelerator (Coral, Hailo) adds zero transcode capacity - it's for Frigate detection, not video. It won't appear in the add-on list here.
- Discrete-GPU figures are simultaneous 1080p transcodes on stock drivers - consumer GeForce is capped by NVIDIA's NVENC concurrent-session limit; the community NVENC patch, and pro/datacenter and Intel Arc cards, go higher.
Approximate, curated estimates - verify against your own codecs and client mix.