Max number of 4K video streams decoded by NVCODEC / gstreamer on quadro

I’m experimenting with the max number of 4K video streams I can decode simultaneously on the same video card with nvcodec gstreamer before playback gets choppy. My testing environment is a simple bash file like

gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=spacex.mp4 ! qtdemux ! h264parse ! nvh264dec ! glimagesink &
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=spacex.mp4 ! qtdemux ! h264parse ! nvh264dec ! glimagesink &
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=spacex.mp4 ! qtdemux ! h264parse ! nvh264dec ! glimagesink &

At the moment I tested it with a 1050 mobile and I got up to two 4K streams.

Can I expect better results with a modern quadro card? My Ideal target would be smooth playback of 4 4K video streams. I’ve budgeted a RTX A4000, can this card achieve that?

Hello @user48719 and welcome to the NVIDIA developer forums!

Please have a look at our NVENC/NVDEC decoder matrix which also lists the number of dedicated NVDEC chips per GPU. That should give you a good idea if the capabilities of each chip we offer might or might not fit your requirements.

I hope that helps.

This matrix here?

Am I correct if I say that my best-nvcodec-bang-for-the-buck here is a NVIDIA RTX 4000 with 2 NVCODEC cores?

Yes, my apologies that I forgot to add the link in the first reply.

But I think you might have checked the wrong line, RTX A4000 has only one NVDEC chip.

I mean the RTX4000 not the RTXA4000

I am sorry, I was going by your original post where you mentioned that you had budgeted an RTX A4000.
But you are right, the Turing based Quadro RTX 4000 has 2 NVDEC chips, combined with the higher bandwidth than the 1050 your use-case should theoretically be possible.

Ok, but I see that the NVIDIA QUADRO RTX 4000 has 3 DP output and 1 USB-C output. Can it support 4 display with a USB-C to DP adapter?

The USB-C on this generation of Quadro cards is not a DP or Thunderbolt standard but rather VirtualLink. That standard implements additional functionality for Virtual Reality headsets as well as a subset of the DisplayPort over USB specification, with differences mainly on the side of USB 2.0 support.
That said, high-quality adapters for USB-C to DP should work. I have personally used one in the past on an RTX 2060 which has the same USB-C port.