Question / Help Have an i5 4670K? Pls tell me how much CPU% streaming uses

[MrWendal]

I'm thinking of upgrading, wondering if an i5 4670K is right for me. Could someone with one tell me how much CPU it uses when streaming 720p@30FPS? (also 720p@60FPS if anyone wants to test that).

If you are wondering how to test how much CPU just OBS uses, you can do that using windows Resource Monitor:

1. Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open Task Manager.

2. Click the Performance tab.

3. Click the Resource Monitor button in the bottom right of the screen.

To get an accurate reading in Resource Monitor:

1. click Monitor>Stop monitoring.
2. load your game and obs, start streaming.
3. During the game alt-tab back to resource monitor, hit Monitor>Start Monitoring. Go back to the game and play.
4. After playing for a few minutes, alt-tab back to resource monitor and stop monitoring.

That will give you a slice of pure streaming to read the data about.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Joppsta]

Re: Have an i5 4670K? Pls tell me how much CPU% streaming us

snip

Why don't you just check out reviews on the chip itself? I am running an i7-2600K with a 680 and haven't had any issues streaming 720p.

If you want my personal opinion I think you should just pull the trigger, you'll enjoy the chip.. although it depends on what you're upgrading from whether it is worth it or not.

 

[Blackhive]

Re: Have an i5 4670K? Pls tell me how much CPU% streaming us

If you have a 2nd gen i5 or i7 it'd be worth the upgrade. If you have a 3rd gen ivy bridge I wouldnt bother. Streaming on average for me uses anywhere from 15-25% cpu usage on veryfast (i have a 3770k). and if you're really concerned with it you can use quick sync on the 4670k which wont use your cpu. regardless the 4670k will not have any problems streaming 720p 30 or 60fps, although with quick sync you'll want to stick to 30. Actually in general if you're not partnered you want to stick to 30 with 2000-2500 bitrate due to twitch non-partnered unfiltered limits.

 

[Boildown]

Re: Have an i5 4670K? Pls tell me how much CPU% streaming us

It depends on the preset. UltraFast barely uses any CPU, while Medium will probably max it out. The slower the preset, the more CPU it uses. In addition you likely have the opportunity to use Quicksync which off-loads much of the CPU burden.

It also depends on your video card, because OBS uses both. An old video card, like the GTX 200 series, will bottleneck OBS.

And it also depends on your content. FPS games usually have the whole screen moving at once, which is harder on the encoder than, say, RTS, which might only have action in a small part of the screen at any given time. So without knowing which game you're playing and your graphics settings, no one is going to be able to give you an accurate answer, even if they have a 4670k and the exact same video card as you.

I would go for a hyperthreading 4core/8virtual CPU if you can afford it, OBS will make good use of the extra CPUs. I.e. the 4770k instead of the 4670k. I know gamers prefer the 4670k, and their Ivy and Sandy equivalents, but if you plan to encode (for example, with OBS) the full i7 is just better.

 

[Blackhive]

Re: Have an i5 4670K? Pls tell me how much CPU% streaming us

if you're in a pinch, 4670k with these settings will work just fine for streaming:
1920x1080 downscale>1280x720 Lanczos
30 fps
2000-2500 bitrate
veryfast
keyint=60

(optionally, to take the load off your cpu, install your intel graphics drivers, then in OBS enable the following)
enable quick sync
enable custom x264 options for quick sync

but as boildown said if you're looking to encode with the cpu and can splurge the money, the 4770k would be a better choice.