What's the bare minimum spec for smooth 4K video playback?

Arterion · 15 May 2025 at 14:59

I have an old USFF with a 7th gen i5 and 8GB RAM which sometimes gets a bit stuttery when playing 4K .mkv files via VLC.

Tetras · 15 May 2025 at 15:02

Do you know what codec it uses?

What % of use is the IGP versus the CPU?

tamzzy · 15 May 2025 at 15:22

also what cable type are you using?
iirc, hdmi on the 7th gen igpu will only do 4k @ 24hz/fps
you'd need to connect via display port for 4k @ 60hz/fps

Arterion · 15 May 2025 at 15:29

Tetras said:
Do you know what codec it uses?

What % of use is the IGP versus the CPU?

Will need to check this, thanks!

Arterion · 15 May 2025 at 15:29

tamzzy said:
also what cable type are you using?
iirc, hdmi on the 7th gen igpu will only do 4k @ 24hz/fps
you'd need to connect via display port for 4k @ 60hz/fps

it's HDMI, so that may explain it. The PC has a DP, but the TV doesn't. Or can that be adapted at the other end?

Kurgen · 15 May 2025 at 15:38

Arterion said:
it's HDMI, so that may explain it. The PC has a DP, but the TV doesn't. Or can that be adapted at the other end?

you can go DP from PC to HDMI on TV with adaptor or cable , i do it all the time. you cant go HDMI from PC to DP..

Im not sure on your requirements, but when i had a PC just for you tube a Quadro P400 / P600 will decode 4k youtube videos. and your CPU will sit there doing pretty much nothing.. they are also low profile and fit in most SFF PCs if supplied with correct low profile bracket

AI answer " yes, an NVIDIA Quadro P400 can decode MKV files. The Quadro P400, like other NVIDIA GPUs, supports various video codecs, including those used in MKV containers like H.264 and H.265 (HEVC). It can handle both decoding (playing) and encoding (transcoding) of these codecs."

Mr Evil · 15 May 2025 at 16:43

Kurgen said:
AI answer " yes, an NVIDIA Quadro P400 can decode MKV files. The Quadro P400, like other NVIDIA GPUs, supports various video codecs, including those used in MKV containers like H.264 and H.265 (HEVC). It can handle both decoding (playing) and encoding (transcoding) of these codecs."

The AI is wrong. MKV files can contain *any* codec, including future codecs that no current card has hardware support for. If you look at nVidia's rather helpful support matrix, it lists a few codecs that the P400 doesn't support.

Last time I had to think about this was when our media PC with an i3-3217U started struggling to decode some things. AV1 in particular is difficult, as it didn't have hardware support for it, and it needs a fast CPU to decode in software. AV1 is also becoming somehwat popular, so being able to decode it is important. I can't tell you what the bare minimum is, but the replacement PC with an AMD 4700U can decode 4k AV1 no problem, and is fast enough that it can do it in software if it has to.