Question / Help H264 vs NVidia NVENC - Internet wise

[Sander de Kievit]

Hello everyone,

Currently I am streaming on YouTube with a bitrate of 1500 and buffer size of 1800kbps on the H264. Yet H264 is really heavy anyway and I do record video's on OBS with the NVidia Codec at 18000 bitrate and 1080p60fps, but I know if I use the same bitrate of 1500-1800 with the NVidia codec the quality is worse. Yet I was wondering does NVidia nvenc use less internet then H264 at higher bitrates? Asking since I want to get the best performance to quality ratio.

My upload speed is like 3mbps up on speedtest.

Sincerely,

Sander

 

[Poet]

A "bitrate" is the number of bits per second transferred on your network.

To put it simply: A bitrate of 3000 on H264 will use the same amount of bits per second as 3000 on NVENC, or anything else for that matter. The quality IS affected by bitrate depending on which encoder you're using, but this does not change the amount of bits per second, regardless.


EDIT: If your connection can support 3mbps, try upping the bitrate as close to it as you can. I think you'd be surprised what the connection can handle. YouTube supports up to 3100. If I were you, I'd try NVENC with as high a bitrate I could without frame dropping (maybe 2800 or something). Once you hit the sweet spot, see if you enjoy the quality.... if not... stick with H264.

 

[Sander de Kievit]

A "bitrate" is the number of bits per second transferred on your network.

To put it simply: A bitrate of 3000 on H264 will use the same amount of bits per second as 3000 on NVENC, or anything else for that matter. The quality IS affected by bitrate depending on which encoder you're using, but this does not change the amount of bits per second, regardless.


EDIT: If your connection can support 3mbps, try upping the bitrate as close to it as you can. I think you'd be surprised what the connection can handle. YouTube supports up to 3100. If I were you, I'd try NVENC with as high a bitrate I could without frame dropping (maybe 2800 or something). Once you hit the sweet spot, see if you enjoy the quality.... if not... stick with H264.

I will try and play around with it. I have noticed on my own streams I started dropping frames at around 2250-2500 kbps. I will see how NVENC does :) Thanks.

 

[Harold]

nvenc will do precisely 0 better and will only give you worse picture quality compared to x264.

 

[Poet]

nvenc will do precisely 0 better and will only give you worse picture quality compared to x264.

That's your personal experience, and obviously not that of the person asking the question. There are many cases where nvidia might be better, and perhaps the OP found one of those cases.

For example, if you're using a game or application that's extremely CPU intensive, you might see MAJOR benefits from using nvidia. You might also see benefits if you have a second GPU available that you use expressly for recording footage on (ie: some people do this with intel quicksync internal GPUs).

This is even more the case when they're using any kind of resolution scaling, filters, or high compression.

The person asked how they could get it to work with nvidia because they felt that h264 encoding was "heavy"... it implies they are feeling their CPU bogged down. They didn't ask for am opinion on why most people don't use it.

 

[Harold]

dropped frames are not cpu

Your entire argument is based on CPU use where this user is having problems with INTERNET CONNECTION.

nvenc isn't going to help.

 

[Poet]

dropped frames are not cpu

Your entire argument is based on CPU use where this user is having problems with INTERNET CONNECTION.

nvenc isn't going to help.

lol There was no argument for CPU responding to their problem. It was responding to YOUR POST that I referenced CPU.

The reason nvidia was suggested AT ALL was because the OP specifically asked about how they could get it to work with nvidia. They said in their post that they already record videos with nvidia. Their post suggested they found a need for it as they have ALREADY BEEN USING IT.

You told them not to use it. I suggested reasons to you why they might want to. That's when CPU came into the picture. Caught up? Great :)

Cheers, thanks!

 

[Harold]

Streaming with nvenc was not going to help the OP's problem.

The bitrate limit was going to be the same.

The picture quality was going to be WORSE.

They were still going to have the same problem

 

[Harold]

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/dropped-frames-disconnecting-lag-read-this-first.8870/

 

[alpinlol]

Without you guys fighting.

Dont try to use more than 80% of your Upload for stuff like live streaming since there can be peak moments which will end up in dropped frames if you have a solid 3mbit upload I would suggest testing 2500 and going a bit above to see how your connection handles it.

As already answered Bitrate = Bitrate no matter what encoder it will have the same strain on your Connection. On the other hand it has impact on your usage x264 is cpu based which will result in obviously higher cpu usage while nvenc is a fixed hardware encoder on a separate part of the GPU dont forget to mention QSV which is the equivalent from intel to nvidia though on current gen intel i CPUs the picture quality comparing QSV NVENC will end up in the favour of QSV

 

[wdapunisher]

You moving your bitrate up to 2250 and dropping frames is a result of your bandwidth. Speedtest does not accurately reflect your bitrate to the servers. I know for Twitch there are apps out there that run bandwidth tests to the ingest servers and typically for me, they are about 1000mbs lower than my speedtest upload speed. I have a 5.5mbps upload as read from speedtest and typically start dropping frames around 2800 bit rate in OBS. My CPU isn't even flexing it's muscle and it still drops frames, because of my upload speed and bitrate.

If you can avoid streaming with NVENC, do so. It doesn't handle streaming well as it sucks with CBR and you still see wild fluctuations with bitrate as the load requires. You'll get a much better quality picture using x264 and CBR. For recording, it does pretty good provided you use the proper settings.