Question / Help Encoding / Streaming with dual GPUs?

[LyfeOnEdge]

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster. My name is Andrew / Lyfe. In my current setup:

I have two graphics cards, an Asus Dual GTX 1060 6GB, and an Asus Dual GTX 1070 8GB.

My question is whether it is possible to setup OBS to game on the GTX 1070 (Which is connected to my default monitor.) while using the GTX 1060 (Which is connected to my two secondary monitors that I use for OBS, my music player, viewing my muted twitch stream for quality control, twitch chat, MSI Afterburner, etc.) for the video encoding.

BTW here's my monitor setup from the front and side. I hacked together two monitor stand kits in order to mount them like this.

The top monitor is a 25'' LG Ultrawide 25UM57, the middle and bottom monitors are both 27'' AOC e2752She.

 

[alpinlol]

The question should be: Why do you wanna use NVENC over x264?

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

The question should be: Why do you wanna use NVENC over x264?

I don't know. With my setup which one would provide an overall better 720P 60Hz for streaming first person shooters?

 

[alpinlol]

I don't know. With my setup which one would provide an overall better 720P 60Hz for streaming first person shooters?

according to your Specs in your Description an i7 6700k is quite suited for streaming 720p60@veryfast.

I dont really see the reason for the 2nd GPU since it comes with no benefits rather harm.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

according to your Specs in your Description an i7 6700k is quite suited for streaming 720p60@veryfast.

I dont really see the reason for the 2nd GPU since it comes with no benefits rather harm.

I would appreciate your help with the settings. I previously assumed that a GPU was required in order to render the stream. I was unaware that it could be rendered using the cpu. I bought the GTX 1070 after the GTX 1060 for faster draft preview in Adobe AE.

 

[alpinlol]

I would appreciate your help with the settings. I previously assumed that a GPU was required in order to render the stream. I was unaware that it could be rendered using the cpu. I bought the GTX 1070 after the GTX 1060 for faster draft preview in Adobe AE.

Great foundation is always using somehwat default like downscale of 1.5, 30 fps, veryfast preset (default), video bitrate of 2000 (depending on your connection), audio bitrate of 96

btw. the pictures you tried providing arent working and the size of the Monitors doesnt really say much about the Resolution but since your main Monitor is a ultrawide you will most likely have a distored picture if you want to use 16:9 resolution since thats what most users will be watching or play on a 16:9 resolution yourself.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

Here is some information for you:
Down Speed: 110 Mbps
Up Speed: 12 Mbps, however I know Twitch limits non-partnered users, and people with limited down speed won't be able to watch high-bitrate broadcasts.

Here is a clarifying image I made for you of my wiring routing. I game on the monitor that is level with my head, which it the bottom one.

I am using a default 16:9, the ultrawide is only to give me more space so I don't have to constantly minimize and swap between programs when I'm working.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

/bump/

 

[Harold]

You're better off with a single video card, especially given that the 6700k only has 16 pci-e lanes total. Because of the amount that OBS uses the GPU in addition to your game, you're actually causing yourself a MAJOR performance hit by having 2 cards.

Remove the 1060 and put the 1070 in the slot closest to the cpu.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

You're better off with a single video card, especially given that the 6700k only has 16 pci-e lanes total. Because of the amount that OBS uses the GPU in addition to your game, you're actually causing yourself a MAJOR performance hit by having 2 cards.

Remove the 1060 and put the 1070 in the slot closest to the cpu.

I intentionally swapped the GTX 1060 to one of my other pcie slots, and installed the GTX 1070 in the main slot connected directly to the i7 6700k rather than the pcie 16 slot connected to the Z-170 chipset. The bandwidth is nowhere near saturation on either, so I am not taking a performance hit. Additionally I need both cards for faster rendering in Adobe AE and other applications that can utilize multiple non-SLI'd video cards for work.

 

[Beardedbob]

Hi,

What capture card are you using? whats your internet upload speed? are you over Ethernet? are you streaming to twitch?

Assumption made that you want the best and you are streaming to twitch non partnered with a 5mb upload + use the following as the starting point and tailor

x264 software
cpu preset fast (if laggy drop to veryfast)
CBR
Bitrate 3500 (turn to 2000 if you want to use the best twtich recommneds to allow greater viewing potention for people with lower download speeds)
720p
60fps (if using 2000 bitrate swap to 30fps)
keyframe = 2

run report and repost obs.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

You're better off with a single video card, especially given that the 6700k only has 16 pci-e lanes total. Because of the amount that OBS uses the GPU in addition to your game, you're actually causing yourself a MAJOR performance hit by having 2 cards.

Remove the 1060 and put the 1070 in the slot closest to the cpu.

You should watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rctaLgK5stA

And in addition I have my setup so that the 1x16 pcie lanes from the CPU are connected to the GTX 1070 and the PCIE slots delivered by the Z170 are connected to the GTX 1060

 

[Harold]

GPU-Z, show the pci-e mode of all your video cards.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

GTX 1060 PCIE x16 3.0 @ x16 3.0
GTX 1070 PCIE x16 3.0 @ x16 3.0


EDIT:
You were right, they both update to x8 3.0 when you hit the "?" next to it.

 

[Harold]

image not visible.

 

[LyfeOnEdge]

My image hosting is weird. They show up at x16 until you hit the "?"
Here was the original image direct linked to google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ChD1FF_nEocVFjbHNQQVVFQjA/view?usp=sharing

However, the PCIE bandwidth requirements of a GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 still aren't even close to approaching the max bandwidth of 3rd gen PCIE @ x16 which is why even a GTX 1080 only sees a 4% or 5% decrease in performance at ultra settings on a PCIE 2 @ x16. Due to the doubling of speed between generations there is still no bandwidth bottleneck.

 

[EnduringGuerila]

OK, so just to be clear. This works?
I just upgraded to a 1080 ti and I want to game with that and encode with h.264 in OBS using the old card, not the 1080ti.
I have a i7-4790k instead so I know the infrastructure is a bit different.

 

[EnduringGuerila]

What is the difference in performance with the two setups?
I feel like it would enable you to
- higher/more consistent game framerate (GPU 1)
- have a much higher quality encoding (GPU 2)
- use less CPU than x.264 (which was tanking my fps)

 

[Harold]

No it doesn't. and Definitely won't on your system.

The 4790k only has 16 pci-e lanes
if you have 2 video cards, that only leaves you with 8 lanes for each
Because of how OBS renders, you will be crippling performance on your main video card for precisely ZERO gain.