Question / Help Getting the most out of my PC

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prophetmatteo

New Member
Hey guys, I've been streaming for some time now, but I feel like I am not getting the most out of my setup at times. I generally stream League of Legends at Very High in 720p, but would like to up to 1080p.

I can add any other information you deem needed, this is what I thought would be some of the essential stuff. I'd like to minimize the impact on my PC as much as possible. I sometimes experience dropped frames (anywhere from 0.5 to 6-7%) that as of yet I am unable to pinpoint as to why they are occurring. There was no static in my upload as far as my ISP could check, so I guess it could be CPU spikes that are causing it (I have noticed them at times when the dropped frames occur, but not always).

My PC:
CPU - i5 2320
RAM - 2x Kingston 4GB 1333Mhz
Monitor - 23" LG IPS234
Motherboard - ASRock B75M-GL B75/1155
PSU - CoolerMaster GX-Lite 500W
GPU - Sapphire HD 6870 1GB DDR5
HDD - WD Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA (7200rpm 16mb buffer)
Webcam - Microsoft Lifecam HD Studio (used at 1080p or lower with the MJPEG filters from one of the popular guides)
My current settings:
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My network connection to Frankfurt (Tested on first two servers):
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prophetmatteo

New Member
http://pastebin.com/xpNL6TxU

This is from today via Frankfurt Twitch server, might paste another one from the Amsterdam server, they are the closest ones to me and with the least ping. Switched to veryfast beforehand as you told me to :)

I know I am experiencing stalls in my connection, yet my ISP can not find the reason for them. The OBS rate next to the FPS normally shows between 1800 to 2300-2600 kb/s, yet when I have stalls it jumps around between 700 and 1400 before going back to 2000~.
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
enable cbr padding

2k bitrate should be working fine for you

im more worried about the fact that your quicksync is checked but its greyed out :/ because quicksync would be quite nice for the impact on your system performance while playing and streaming
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
An i5 is not going to be able to keep up with encoding 1080p video, even at 30fps.
Run another bandwidth test; a 6MB at http://www.testmy.net/upload as speedtest is worthless for livestreamers; it measures overall transfer speed, not constant throughput.
Dropped frames are a network issue. Lagged frames are a local (encoder, CPU) issue. The Frankfurt server has long been known to be problematic; try switching to another ingest and see if that helps with the dropped frames.

From what I'm seeing, yes. You are getting the most out of your PC already. You will need a hardware upgrade to stream at 1080p; the i5 is simply too weak to keep up with that amount of real-time video encoding.


Beyond that, 2000kbps is the maximum recommended for a non-partnered streamer anyway, and will deliver an excellent 720p@30 stream... much higher, and your viewers will likely start complaining about stutter/choppiness. Once partnered, you have access to transcoded stream quality options... but really, going up to the 3000-3500kbps needed for a good-quality 1080p@30 stream isn't a great idea until that point.

If anything, I'd recommend dropping your encoder preset back down to Veryfast (as ultrafast kind of tends to look like crap). Focus on quality first.
 
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prophetmatteo

New Member
s7YN9lZ.png
I did it several times, gave the same result. It is slightly weird, my upload speed (realistically, when uploading torrents per say) is 700kb/s and above, no matter where it's a local torrent service or one like thepiratebay. I have noticed that my upload when streaming also stays around 200-300kb/s, which is bothersome to me. Why do I never experience these problems when uploading torrents?

Here is what I have done.

1. Switched over back to veryfast as recommended.
2. Enabled CBR Padding.
3. Switched to Amsterdam - slightly higher ping, less jitter, which I suppose is better?

Number 1 and 3 were initiated during my second stream in the evening, I lost under 1% frames in an hour, due to 1 occurrence of an unstable upload. I guess it might realistically be just a problem of how far away I live (i.e. Bulgaria)?
Information:
1. I do not have a second monitor, I remember trying the method that Jim/R1ch used to get a virtual second monitor to enable the QuickSync, but then reverted it, because I would stray my mouse to the left where it would go to the virtual monitor which I could not see, which annoyed me. I think that is the only reason why I do not have QuickSync at the moment.
2. I have obtained a Twitch partnership, I'm finalizing the papers for it.
3. I forgot to mention this - I receive my internet through the TV Cable lines, it goes straight into a router (not a wifi one) which then leads it straight to my PC. I was offered a Wifi router but abstained, because I felt it would lower my download/upload speed.

Problems:
1. How do I determine whether the upload problem is from my ISP's side or from the server (Frankfurt, now Amsterdam). I am worried, since the speeds drop to 700-1400 before going back normal, so this kinda yells ISP to me, but they haven't been able to detect why.
2. What upgrades would I need to do in the future to jump to 1080p. What would you guys suggest that I upgrade and how?
3. New workaround for QuickSync without the virtual monitor thing? Maybe just buy a second monitor?

Thank you guys for being so helpful <3
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
well you want to have an i7 for 1080@30 streaming so you dont suffer huge performance decrease in your games and also a stable upload which sustains at least 3k bitrate ... then again 720@60 with like 2000-2500 bitrate is way better in my opinion in the way the stream itself feels and looks as an viewer
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
It's because torrents (mentioning illegal activity here is very, very frowned upon by the way, in regards to TPB) are still using 'dead file' transfers which are able to take advantage of short-term speed spikes (streaming can't), as well as multi-link connections (which streaming also can't).

This is exactly why speedtest.net is worthless for livestreamers.

I would advise not exceeding 2200kbps with that result, and testing that multiple times over the course of the day to check and monitor your network fluctuation levels. It is not going to be enough for 1080p@30, or good-quality 720p@60 (which generally needs at least 2500, if not 3000kbps to look excellent... and you need a margin for game communication, and your audio which isn't factored into that bitrate setting).

You can most likely use QuickSync... but it is not recommended. It looks very poor, similar to the Ultrafast encoder setting.
I'd advise going with 720@30, or possibly 720@45 with a 2000-2200kbps rate, QSV off.

As far as going up to 1080p@30 (@60 is non-feasible due to the limitations of the Flash player itself), you have two roadblocks. One, your CPU. It will be unable to keep up with encoding that much data in real-time with any quality. You can bypass this (slightly) by turning on QSV, or raising your encoder setting to Ultrafast. In either case it will look very poor. Two, your bandwidth available. Lowest recommended for semi-decent quality 1080@30 is 3000kbps, recommended 3500. Which you don't have as constant throughput. You can try to run it at 2000-2200kbps, but it will look like a hot mess even on Fast (which very few top-end CPUs will have the power to swing). Add on the CPU issue, and it's simply un-feasible.
 
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prophetmatteo

New Member
What CPU would you suggest as a feasible upgrade in the future? As far as my upload, I'm currently using a what you would call "mediocre" service provider, that is just currently one of the few available in my neighbourhood. Within the next year the premium service providers will finally be within the center of my city and I will probably move on then to their services, since they offer 10-20mbit/s international upload, albeit at the expense of the download speed.

I excuse myself for mentioning the, ahm, illegal activities, it is just still normal in my country (Bulgaria) for the laws regarding online activity to be in any way acted upon, one of the reasons why we still freely have dynamic IPs, in fact we have to pay more for static ones.

Edit: I just realized I was testing to Dallas and not Amsterdam. Here's a more correct test:
dBqtrTu.png
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
Really, an i7 (or equivalent Xeon for a small price drop) is the gold standard for a streaming system.
You do appear to have the bandwidth available; once your partnership goes through, jumping to 2500-3000kbps would be workable, along with trying out 720@60 streaming.

Beyond that, it's mostly trial and error, watching your CPU load, temps, stepping rate (frequency and multiplier) to make sure you aren't throttling down.
Just spitballing, I'd say that 720@45 with 2500kbps and the Veryfast preset would probably be workable. Stream for 5-10 minutes, check the logs for late/lagged frames and dropped frames (you'll have to exit OBS to open the most recent one, it keeps the logs' file handles open while it's running) and tweak based on that.
I'd personally not go above an 85% CPU utilization to allow a variance margin, but I know some people will run up to 95%... likely to get some problems developing during high in-game action though at that point, or if a background process needs to 'wake up' and eat some CPU cycles for a bit.

And no worries, dynamic IPs are still the standard here. Illegal activity (enforced or not) is just not OK to mention here on the forums. :) Cheers!
 
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