Wowza Details Five Hardware Variables Controlling Server Transcoding Capacity
Wowza published an article detailing five hardware variables—CPU, GPU, NVENC, VRAM, and system RAM—that critically influence server stream transcoding capacity. The company emphasizes that understanding these components and their interactions is essential for accurate hardware sizing and load testing in streaming deployments. The article highlights that the first component to saturate sets the ceiling, making comprehensive evaluation more important than single-spec focus.
Key Takeaways
- Five variables govern server stream capacity: CPU, GPU compute, NVENC/NVDEC fixed-function blocks, GPU memory (VRAM), and system RAM.
- The first hardware component to saturate acts as the bottleneck, underscoring the need for comprehensive evaluation rather than focusing on any single specification.
- NVENC session capacity, not raw compute, frequently sets the ceiling for output renditions on NVIDIA GPUs, with data-center cards supporting more sessions.
- VRAM capacity often limits concurrency before compute power, as every active session and AI model consumes GPU memory, leading to failed sessions if full.
- CPU handles demultiplexing, packaging (HLS, MPEG-DASH), and software transcoding; GPU handles scaling, filtering, AI inference, and hardware encode/decode via NVENC/NVDEC.
Why It Matters
Accurate stream capacity planning requires understanding the interplay of CPU, GPU, memory, and specialized hardware encoders like NVENC. Streaming providers often misallocate resources by overemphasizing one component, leading to bottlenecks and underutilized hardware. Recognizing that the component which saturates first dictates overall throughput is crucial for efficient infrastructure investment and deployment sizing. Operators should actively load test candidate configurations, paying attention to sustained thermal behavior and specific performance metrics for each component, especially as AI inference layers become more common in video workflows.
Read full article at wowza.com
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