Recommended Nvidia GPU For Hardware Acceleration In Milestone Xprotect 2018 R2?

 Here is what the System Requirements Page lists specific to hardware acceleration. I copied in the OS section because it clarifies what OS supports hardware acceleration:

I reached out to Milestone for a GPU recommended list, as I couldn't find one on their website.

See the below link.

GPU Support

Out of interest, is any system using AMD GPUs? Can they be used at all?

Interested in this question as well. Sean Thanks for posting the link to the Cuda GPU listing. I was wondering what a general rule of thumb would be for performance from each model. There is a large price difference between the K80 and the V100. 

Here, Jack - search for the NVIDIA Graphics Card Support List in the Milestone Content Portal.

Hi Jack,

Officially, the decoding code for the Smart Client, Recording Server, and Mobile Server is supported on any nVidia video card that is Kepler series or newer (look under the second column called "Micro-architecture" to see the series).  The being said, lower end cards (especially in older series) will provide little-to-no benefit.

As for recommendations, I would recommend something in the Pascal series (it is the latest series with the exception of Volta which only has a few cards out right now) not only because it is the current series but also because previous series don't support h.265.  For the recording server, I would recommend a Quadro card because they are designed for 24/7 use, they use less power, and they run cooler.  Also, nVidia updated their EULA recently to say that GeForce cards cannot be used in a data center.

As for which Quadro card, that depends on how many cameras you have and the frame rate, resolution, and codec of those cameras.  In a lot of cases though, a P1000 or P2000 will do fine and if it is a smaller system, a P600 would work.

If you have more details about the system (camera quantity, frame rate, resolution, and codec), I can provide a little more guidance.

Jared

Hi Jared,

Is there anyway to confirm that a server running Recording Server with a supported GPU card is effectively offsetting the resources?  Sort of like enabling the Overlay Details in Smart Client...Is there a way to visually confirm the GPU is actually enabled and working?

Thanks!

Hi Jack,

You can use a program called GPU-Z.  You can run it, make sure the Nvidia card is selected from the drop-down at the bottom and then select the Sensors tab.  The value you that you want to look at is the "Video Engine Load".  The is the decoding engine on the Nvidia cards.

If the server is running Windows 10 1709 or newer (likely not the case since it is a server), you can also view this in Task Manager by going to the Performance tab and selecting the Nvidia card.  The "Video Decode" chart will show you if it is working.

Thanks Jared!  As usual, a very detailed and informative answer to my question!

+1 on Jared's comment.  The P1000 and P2000 work really well for Smart Client hardware acceleration.