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eGPU pressure issue

edited April 2021 in SecuritySpy
I'm running an eGPU with my Mac mini for SS. I have the machine set to restart daily because after a day or so the pressure spikes into the red causing significant lag. Other times, even during heavy motion (windy day for example) the pressure hardly creeps up at all. I have all cams set to 10 FPS (there are 8 of them total). Not sure what would cause the pressure spike. Ideas?

Comments

  • I can't tell from this information exactly what is happening, but I can give you some information about this that will hopefully be useful. If I am understanding you correctly, you are seeing high (red) video decoder pressure in the Camera Info window for some/all of your cameras, is this correct?

    This means that video frames are being queued for decoding faster than they can be decoded at that particular time. The causes could be high camera frame rates, high numbers of cameras, temporary video encoder/decoder activity by other applications, or temporary video encoder activity in SecuritySpy due to recording or web streaming.

    The following will help to mitigate this situation:

    - Distribute cameras between the internal hardware and the eGPU for decoding: this is done via the Camera Info window with the "Hardware Video Decode Status" column visible: click the purple indicators to set some cameras to the eGPU until you get low decoder pressure across the board.

    - If you see decoder pressure for the cameras assigned to the eGPU but not to the internal hardware, switch some cameras back to the internal hardware. Likewise the other way round if you see the inverse.

    - Make sure that the "Recompress video data" option under Preferences > Cameras > Device is turned OFF for all cameras.

    - Reduce the frame rates of all cameras: we generally recommend a frame rate of around 8-10fps for general-purpose video surveillance.
  • I figured an eGPU would eliminate or reduce the pressure issues, that's why I purchased it. What seems odd to me is that it's not consistent. Like I said sometimes I'll have all kinds of motion going on, but the pressure is fine. The only third party app I have open is SS. Regardless I'll redistribute as you suggest and see what happens. Thanks, Ben!
  • Yes, the eGPU will definitely help with decoder pressure issues, many of these can be very powerful and can significantly increase performance. However the distribution of cameras across internal hardware and eGPU does have to be done manually, it doesn't happen automatically. More info is in the user manual: Using External GPU Devices.

    The amount of motion doesn't affect decoder performance too much - it's mainly the rate of frames going through (as well as their resolution and codec) as well as other competing tasks that the hardware has to do at that particular time (e.g. video encoding for web streaming).
  • I'm now having an issue where no matter what encoder I choose, the pressure is often in the red and the entire machine stops responding. This wasn't the case with the last version. Also causing issues on the iOS app (just a grey screen where the video feed should be).
  • by the way, 5.3.3b11 works better. Pressure bar is so far staying in the grey using purely eGPU.
  • Could you please email us and include the debug file (SecuritySpy menu > Debug submenu > Create Debug File On Desktop and we'll look into this further for you.
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