Question / Help A monster PC vs a Laptop. Help needed!

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Bru7aL

New Member
Hello!
I'm new to streaming but I'm quite passionate about it. However, there is an issue with my settings or my machine as my stream is not as fluid as it should be. I have 1 PC and 1 Laptop. The problem is that when I stream from my PC the stream is choppy and stutters while when I stream from the laptop it is as fluid as any tier 1 stream. I will add the characteristics of both and add links for the respective stream sessions. Could you pls tell me what am I doing wrong and how can I fix my streaming experience on the PC?
It is worth mentioning that when I stream on the Laptop its CPU usage is over 60% and GPU close to 100%. At the same time, when I stream on the PC, the CPU usage is barely reaching 25% with OBS accounting for 3-5% of that.

Both computers have similar SSD and video cards (GTX1060) and both run on Windows 10, and while streaming both run Fortnite with over 100 FPS.

The PC has the following characteristics:
Two Intel processors - Xeon CPU x5687 @3.60Ghz, for a total of 8 cores and 16 threads.
24 GB of DDR3 1333 (6x4GB - in three pairs)

The Laptop (Acer Predator Helios 300) has the following characteristics:
CPU - Intel Core i7-7700HQ @2.80Ghz
RAM - 16 GB of DDR4 2400+

Here are my most recent OBS logs with links to the respective video output of each stream:
The Laptop's latest OBS log - https://hastebin.com/yaxihoraga
And this is how it looks on twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262102644

Now the dual CPU PC's latest OBS log - https://hastebin.com/ixuyipiloj
and here is the twitch link for the video - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262099941


From the examples above you can clearly see a drop in quality when streaming from the PC. Please, please, please someone help me out. Nothing on my PC should be bottlenecking the stream and yet I can't manage to fix it despite testing all possible quality options with bitrates ranging from 2500 to 8000. Also, my internet connection is more than awesome. Here is the latest speedtest but usually it is like 4 times better (the network is being used by several laptops (watching streams and videos) at the moment):


Any ideas/suggestions will be MUCH appreciated!

EDIT: Here are the results of an online analysis of my PC stream: https://r-1.ch/analyzer/results/bru7almike.a7bf31
 
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Did you try enabling VSYNC or framerate limiter in fortnite?
 
Yup, VSYNC ON/OFF.
I've also tried using High settings (not Epic) and Low as well. Same thing. It is the quality of the stream that is the problem, not the game. I have the same issue with other games, such as League of Legends. The only way to bypass the stuttering on the PC seems to be using <2500kbs and the FASTEST encoding option. And still, the difference is not that much.
 
The logs show your CPU (slightly) and GPU are being overloaded.

Do games run well on your desktop when you're not streaming? Temperatures are all in check?

Are you using a custom video encoder on OBS? Not recognizing that NDI/newtek entry.
 
The NDI entry is actually something I added today. The NDI plugin for OBS. I tried to hook up my PC and laptop and play on the pc while streaming from the laptop because otherwise, the laptop overheats. In regard to the gaming quality - games run great even when I'm streaming. When playing off-stream Fortnite runs with over 200 FPS (except when i'm in Tilted Towers, but everyone experiences FPS drops there). The temps are fine on both CPU and GPU. The GPU never exceeds 59 degrees Celsius. However, when I check the Task Manager it shows 3D in the GPU section at over 90% when playing Fortnite while the GPU memory usage remains in the 2GB area. But that is also the case when playing on the laptop ... so i dont know...
In regard to the Video Encoder on OBS, in both cases i used:
Output Mode - Simple
Video Bitrate - 6,000
Encoder - Hardware (NVENC) - this is the Nvidia encoder.

Also, I've recently had my PC cleaned (hardware-wise) but I'm not sure if the thermal paste of my CPUs was renewed.
 
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On your rather old server oriented System with the x5687 you have Xbox Game DVR enabled, while its disabled on the notebook. Disable it on the PC aswell and see if that changes anything. But dont get blinded by the core count of your x5687 because its only equal to the 1st generation of i series CPUs
 
I've just disabled it and there was no impact on my stream quality, unfortunately. Any other ideas? No matter how simple it might be, You better spit it out, because I've already run out of ideas.
Also, my machine might be old but you know the saying - old but gold.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262320066
Here is my latest video test - 1080p 60fps. Looks just as good as the top streamers with 20k+ viewers. ^.^
 
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Code: 
[game-capture: 'Fortnite 1'] init_hook_info: user is forcing shared memory (compatibility mode)

Turn off multi-adapter compatibility hooking
 
Thanks harold, haven't used OBS during the last 2-3months, so the "compatibility" mode for the game capture is now called SLI/Crossfire capture mode? That's nice.
 
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