Question / Help C985 vs HD60 PRO in 2015 October

[yoloist]

so which is best for me? i want to stream in 1080p60fps or 720p60fps.

i have single computer with 2 monitors. my cpu is i7 4790k gpu is gtx 970. i play csgo, dota 2, blade and soul. without capture card i do get fps drops and the cpu usage is high and hoping those internal PCIE devices could help me lower my cpu load and increase my fps. also by using these capture cards does it delay what is shown on the monitor? because csgo for example benefits from a monitor with 144hz. so now there is more cables like the hdmi pass through and a capture card n such is there going to be a delay between what is actually happening on the game and between what is shown on the screen? because if i buy these capture cards im forced to use hdmi cables, which i currently use display port cables to connect my pc and monitor.
i cannot afford dedicated second streaming pc but i can afford one of those avermedia c985 or the elgato hd60 pro. I heard capture cards are useless if you are using one computer to game/stream but i believe technology has advanced in 2015 that those capture cards have their x264 encoder on them to considerably reduce cpu usage while providing good frames.

any help is appreciated! so guys which should I buy?

 

[Osiris]

Well since the C985 can't record at 1080p@60fps, the only option is the HD60 PRO.

 

[yoloist]

so u mean http://www.avermedia.com/consumer/product/record_stream/live_gamer_hd this wont stream in 1080p@60fps? I thought the famous twitch streamer summit1g uses this for his stream or he streams in 1080p@30fps? what about gameplay delay/lag on the monitor using capture cards?

 

[yoloist]

feel free to recommend any other 1080p@60fps cards. streaming!!!

 

[Osiris]

Yes, the C985 only has 1080p@60fps passthrough, it cannot record at 1080p@60fps.

 

[FerretBomb]

Yep, AverMedia are kind of scummy with their marketing at times. Many of their cards support high rate inputs, but only *record* at a lower rate. Their marketing pushes the higher rate as 'supported', and relies on newbies not realizing that just means you can plug in a source of that type.

That being said, unless you're a Twitch Partner or are streaming to YouTube/Hitbox, you aren't really going to be able to spare the bandwidth for 720p@60 streaming, far less 1080p@60. Non-partners are advised to stick to 2000kbps or less to minimize buffering, due to not having transcodes (quality options) available at all times. 720p@30, or 480p@60 fit into this realistic bitrate limitation nicely, and more people than I can count have made Partner running on 720@30. It's the "golden point", and with good reason. Anyway, on to capture cards.


HD60 Pro is one of the newest and is a very strong showing, with good availability, responsive developers, and quick English support. Does HDMI with embedded audio, and has a built-in passthrough. YV12 color sampling is a down side. A price point of $200 helps, too, and they're reliably in-stock so you don't have to wait.

My favorite is the Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI. 1080p@60 recording, passthrough daughtercard. Does HDMI, DVI, Component, VGA, S-Video, Composite, and RGB. Embedded HDMI/DVI or RCA plug audio. RGB24 color sampling. $330 on SolarisJapan, with a long shipping wait time. They also don't do English support, so you're stuck relying on the community if something weird happens.
You can get a version of this from SabrePC for $200 though as the Yuan SC512, lacking the passthrough daughtercard (I removed mine within a month and just use a splitter if I want a straight-through display) and DVI->HDMI adapter ($7 on Amazon). Same exact card down to the silkscreening. Down side is that they're in stock erratically, so you may have to wait a couple weeks to buy one.

More expensive, Datapath. These are high-three/low-four digit price point cards. The Vision-E series don't handle embedded audio. The DVI-DL is really expensive. If you're working a professional production setting these would probably be a go-to, but they bite the wallet hard unless you luck out and get one on eBay from a parts reseller/recycler.

BlackMagic. They're frankly a hot mess at this point. With the new BMIP 4K messing up badly in OBS due to non-standard-compliance (it works in MP) and coming out sounding like a dustbuster even at idle (they've mostly fixed this with a driver update), the $190 price point is tempting. If you have a bunch of other BM gear it might be good to keep single-point-of-troubleshooting. Otherwise, really can't recommend throwing money at this one at present.

tl;dr:
If you want a card NOW/want strong and reliable English support: Elgato HD60 Pro
If you can wait a few weeks for restock: Yuan SC512

 

[yoloist]

thank you very much for the help and info.

 

[syntox]

Hi guys, does that mean that now we can use c985 and it's encoder in OBS on single PC to reduce CPU usage and improve stream quality? Can you point me to any info or tutorials on it please?