Looking for a Mini PC with AV1

Flyw4vy

New Member
Looking for a Mini PC with AV1 just to run OBS and stream XBox gameplay via a USB 3.0 Capture Device. Must have at least Two Display Ports. All the PC will do is capture the gameplay and stream it via OBS but I want AV1 please. I've tried searching around but I don't seem to be getting very far so thought I would try here and see if anyone can help me in the right direction. Not wanting to spend more than £300 on the Mini PC ok but feel free to show me what you got thank you.
 

Flyw4vy

New Member
Forget about the price I just want links for a mini pc that has AV1 that I can use as an OBS streaming PC that will capture gameplay from a USB 3.0 Capture Card. Does anyone have any info or ideas please ? All the mini PC will be doing is streaming via OBS the gameplay captured from the USB capture device. It won't be used for anything other than to stream.
 

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
I believe Koala meant discrete (instead of 'external'). that is, a PCIe add-in GPU (vs part of CPU).
Though with a really small PC, using Thunderbolt 3 or 4, and an external case holding a discrete GPU is an option. But realistically, at that point, from a size perspective, your probably better off getting a SFF or mini-tower instead

There are a number of Mini PCs that support a small form factor GPU. However, modern GPUs tend to be full height, so that limits how mini the PC can be and still support a discrete GPU. However they do exist, and I've seen numerous recent articles/blog/YT videos on such.
ex https://www.servethehome.com/minisforum-ms-01-launched-10gbe-mini-pc-first-look/
note the PCIe slot is mechanically x16 but only x8 electrically. Then again, depends on what you are doing as that may not be an issue
Having researched this previously, I suspect your best path is to identify the GPU you want to use (from what I recall hearing, the cheapest AV1 encoder is one of the Intel ARC series). You'll want to research features that are important to you beyond AV1 encode offload from CPU (you probably one need 1 encoder... some higher end GPUs have dual encoders), then size and power requirements. Most Mini-PCs don't have a power supply not extra connection for a power hungry GPU. So power budget will be important, and then size/space constraints.
I suspect you'll want to come up with a list of low-power discrete GPUs, small in form factor, and then find a mini PC that will fit.

Servethehome.com has a whole 1L miniPC review going on. A number of their lower-end really small stuff won't apply to what you are looking for.
 

tphakala

New Member
I recently tested ARC750 as eGPU on 11th Gen Intel NUC over thunderbolt, while GPU was visible and available OBS was dropping like every other frame, this may be due to resizeable BAR not being available over thunderbolt on 11th Gen Intel CPUs. I eventually decided to build a micro ATX system to replace NUC and it has been working fine since.
 
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