Question / Help 32-bit or 64-bit version? Which one should I use?

RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
Title says it all. Or should I OBS Classic? But then do I use the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Classic?

Compooter Speks:
Windows 10 Anniversary
i7 6700k overclocked to 4.6 GHz
32GB DDR4 3000 MHz
MSI GTX 980 ti Golden Edition with a slight overclock
I like to stream to Twitch at 720p 30fps. When not streaming, I record gameplay at my native 1440p and 60 fps.
Don't want to pay $400 for a decent video editor (Sony Vegas *cough*) so I will be experimenting with GoPro Studio in the near future.
 
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RytoEX

Forum Admin
Forum Moderator
Developer
If you have no specific need for OBS Classic, then you should definitely use OBS Studio. If your computer is running a 64-bit OS, then I'd recommend using the 64-bit OBS Studio.

Streaming to Twitch at 720p@30f should be perfectly fine with your build, assuming your Internet connection is sufficient. Recording at 1440p@60f seems like it might be a stretch, but kudos if it works!

Please note that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (and some subsequent hotfixes) are causing problems with webcams and other connected video capture devices. If you use webcams or video capture devices as part of your setup, you may experience some problems with those until the related Windows issues are resolved or worked around.
 
RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
RytoEX said:
If you have no specific need for OBS Classic, then you should definitely use OBS Studio. If your computer is running a 64-bit OS, then I'd recommend using the 64-bit OBS Studio.

Streaming to Twitch at 720p@30f should be perfectly fine with your build, assuming your Internet connection is sufficient. Recording at 1440p@60f seems like it might be a stretch, but kudos if it works!

Please note that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (and some subsequent hotfixes) are causing problems with webcams and other connected video capture devices. If you use webcams or video capture devices as part of your setup, you may experience some problems with those until the related Windows issues are resolved or worked around.
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Alright, thanks. What are the reason(s) that I should use the 64-bit over the 32-bit, though? What are the benefits? Any negative side-affects from using the 64-bit?
 
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RytoEX

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Forum Moderator
Developer
The 64-bit version can access and allocate more memory than the 2/4 GB limit that 32-bit applications have, which is useful for a resource hungry process such as encoding. Being able to use more memory can alleviate memory allocation issues (it seems?) when recording at large resolutions. I do not know of any downsides to using the 64-bit version over the 32-bit version.
 
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CoDEmanX

Member
Use 64-bit unless there's a reason why you can't. Some drivers / plugins may not support 64-bit, in that case you would be forced to use 32-bit.

In case of my laptop, I need to use 64-bit to grab the external display connected via miniDP - not sure why that is, as there's only 4GB RAM, which should be fully addressable even using 32bit. Although it might require more address space if you add the iGPU memory...
 
Harold

Harold

Active Member
Typical ram use for OBS (both classic and studio) does NOT require 64-bit OBS. Capture hardware compatibility is reduced in 64-bit.

You actually should be using 32-bit unless something specific on your system requires it.
 
RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
Harold said:
Typical ram use for OBS (both classic and studio) does NOT require 64-bit OBS. Capture hardware compatibility is reduced in 64-bit.

You actually should be using 32-bit unless something specific on your system requires it.
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My only 'capture hardware' is an external Logitech webcam capable of 1080p60fps video which works just fine with all 64-bit applications so I won't have any problems with using the 64-bit version. And just because OBS doesn't use much memory is not a good excuse to completely deny yourself from using a 64-bit version of anything.
 
RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
Harold said:
It's actually "32-bit until proven otherwise"
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But WHY is it "32-bit until proven otherwise"? Everything is going 64-bit these days. Windows 10 doesn't even have a 32-bit option anymore and I don't know of any desktop cpu's manufactured in the last few years that aren't 64-bit. Why not use the 64-bit version as that is the way technology is going? Wouldn't it be better to use the 64-bit version just like my OS uses and many of my modern AAA games do?
 
Harold

Harold

Active Member
Everything is going 64-bit these days
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Have you even LOOKED at task manager lately?

ALL of microsoft office is still 32-bit, xsplit is 32-bit ONLY, chrome is still 32-bit before it's 64-bit, as is firefox.

Not to mention how many driver package support programs are 32-bit.

There is minimal performance benefit to 64-bit, and actually a potential reduction when you're dealing with 64-bit address space in an application that struggles to even require 32-bit.
 
RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
Office has 32- and 64-bit options and have both since at least Office 2010. Just because x-split is 32-bit only doesn't mean that OBS should be run as that as well. And, as you pointed out, Chrome has a 64-bit option as well. I did not say that you SHOULDN'T use the 32-bit.

I asked for you to clarify why you said "32-bit until proven otherwise".*

I am not seeing any reason as to why using the 64-bit version is a bad thing, other than only a small fraction of programs may not work well with it, and I do not seem to have any of those programs. So why not use the 64-bit? Especially when I am recording at 1440p60fps with 702/full color range, I would like to be able to have access to my full 32GB of RAM when recording at that high of a bitrate. And since they fixed the issue with the 64-bit OBS-Studio not being able to read 32-bit drivers I would really like to be able to use the 5% performance boost that comes with it. (@Beardedbob provided the link stating that above)

*That is all I'm asking.
 
Harold

Harold

Active Member
I would like to be able to have access to my full 32GB of RAM when recording at that high of a bitrate.
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Does it even use anywhere close to 2 while you're trying?

And since they fixed the issue with the 64-bit OBS-Studio not being able to read 32-bit drivers
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Where did you see this because I can't find the matching entry in either studio's changelog or code.
 
RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
Harold said:
Does it even use anywhere close to 2 while you're trying?
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Not sure, I haven't actually watched my RAM usage while streaming or recording because I have other stuff open that I need more than hardware monitoring software.
Harold said:
Where did you see this because I can't find the matching entry in either studio's changelog or code.
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\/ And @Beardedbob posted the link where it says this. \/
Beardedbob said:
@Harold the below thread and comments from dodgepong seem to to say otherwise given if you have a 64bit OS you can benefit from performance increase.

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/64bit-vs-32bit-obs.8032/
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Osiris

Active Member
Dodgepong used the word "might". I doubt the performance increase will be close to 5%
 
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RAZR31

RAZR31

New Member
@Osiris Correct. I was also just looking through the patch notes (while referencing the date when the linked forum post was posted which is 2013) and the OBS Studio patch notes only go back to 2014 (version called OBS MAC 0.2.4). I am taking this to mean that the linked forum post is talking about OBS Classic and not Studio. But I am not 100% sure though as I don't think OBS MP was in production back then (meaning 2013) and I don't know if Classic could run on MACs, but I'm not sure. I did some testing on my own machine though and OBS Studio 64-bit can capture a 32-bit program (tested World of Tanks client 0.9.15.1) so this makes me think that OBS Studio 64-bit can most likely capture other 32-bit applications just fine. I think someone would have to do much more testing than I did though to prove that wrong.
 
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Osiris

Active Member
OBS Studio 64bit can game capture 32bit applications, because it includes both 32bit and 64bit game capture dlls.
 
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