Question / Help HELP PLEASE (:

[NoFlex]

Hey I am new to streaming.. I am very limited on internet quality and such, but I am hoping my computer can compensate for me. If you guys can help, I stream some Solo games and I also stream Battlefield 4 and Cs-go. Keep in mind... the bitrate cant be too high on the Multiplayer profile because my ping will sky-rocket. I also never know when to use a 64bit or 32bit version. Also, should i stream at 30fps or 60fps. Please help with any suggestions.

-PC Specs-

Brand- Acer
GPU- GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
CPU- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40GHz
Installed Ram- 12GB
Storage- 1TB
System Type- 64-bit Operating system(Windows 8.1)
Current Screen Resolution- 1920 x 1080, 60Hz

-Internet-

At&t
Upload- (Ranged)
(Lowest) 1.7Mbps (Highest) 1.95Mbps
Download- 22/23ish Mbps

 

[Doadin]

Well right of the start i can tell you your not gonna get 1080p with that upload.

According to the obs estimator you have upload for 480p or 720p and recommends using 1445 max bit/buffer.(this is inputing your lowest upload into the estimator) for 720p i would recommend 1500+ bitrate for low motion so for fps's i would go higher.
According to twitch "Recommended bitrate for 720p: 1800-2500" and "Recommended bitrate for 480p: 900-1200".

So for bitrate i would maybe try 720p@30fps with 1500 bitrate. If you have problems with droped frames or high ping i would drop down to 480p@30fps with 1200 bitrate so you would have the best 480p quality as far as bitrate goes. Depending on how well those two work maybe consider 720p@60fps with 1700 if it turns out your net can handle it. Also with high motion often people say that 60fps is a must, so depending on how that 720p@30fps with 1500 bitrate went you could also try 480p@60fps with 1500 bitrate instead and compare quality and go from there.

As far as settings go i would use x264 with a preset of very fast maybe faster. Quick sync and NVENC dont do well with low bitrates so i probably wouldnt even mess with those.Depending on your game settings and how much cpu you have left, I know even with a 4790k cs:go at 200+fps is gonna use ~50% cpu so the "faster" cpu preset would be pushing it. A cs:go "fps_max" setting in game of 100 or lower would result in only around 20% usage on a 4790k so probably ~30+% on a 4770. Therefore you could probably get away with a higher x264 preset to get better quality (I have the same setup as you but with a 4790k and 16GB ram) (gametime.maxvariablefps 61 in BF4 i wouldnt go below 61 since you have a 60Hz display) I dont know if the default in bf4 is higher or not if it is you can set that to lower its cpu usage to leave more for obs. Also idk if there is a config file like cs:go you have to use or not you would have to research that.

With all that in mind, remember that also a lower resolution will lower obs cpu usage too so if you end up going for 480p instead of 720p for bitrate reasons you could probably up your x264 preset considerably.

Overall i would probably try 3 different settings(all with x264):
1. 720p@30fps 1500 bitrate with faster preset
2. 480p@30fps 1200 bitrate with fast preset
3. 480p@60fps 1500 bitrate with fast preset

Im guessing a mix of 1 or 3 would be best. And depending on cpu usage and net speeds you would have to play around and up both to see how much you can push em.

 

[alpinlol]

64bit obs can be used at all times since its capable of capturing 32bit games

720p30 with 1250bitrate should be a decent start with an 4770k you can try using fast preset maybe even medium this will compensate a bit for everything else theres not much you can do keep in mind to use the lowest possible aac audio bitrate which should be 48 or something like that

 

[NoFlex]

How low

64bit obs can be used at all times since its capable of capturing 32bit games

720p30 with 1250bitrate should be a decent start with an 4770k you can try using fast preset maybe even medium this will compensate a bit for everything else theres not much you can do keep in mind to use the lowest possible aac audio bitrate which should be 48 or something like that

---How much does audio affect bitrate/quality? Normally I have it at 126... But ill lower it.. Also! I play some singerplayer games, so ping wont be any issue there... What should my settings be for those games..?

 

[NoFlex]

Also does

Well right of the start i can tell you your not gonna get 1080p with that upload.

According to the obs estimator you have upload for 480p or 720p and recommends using 1445 max bit/buffer.(this is inputing your lowest upload into the estimator) for 720p i would recommend 1500+ bitrate for low motion so for fps's i would go higher.
According to twitch "Recommended bitrate for 720p: 1800-2500" and "Recommended bitrate for 480p: 900-1200".

So for bitrate i would maybe try 720p@30fps with 1500 bitrate. If you have problems with droped frames or high ping i would drop down to 480p@30fps with 1200 bitrate so you would have the best 480p quality as far as bitrate goes. Depending on how well those two work maybe consider 720p@60fps with 1700 if it turns out your net can handle it. Also with high motion often people say that 60fps is a must, so depending on how that 720p@30fps with 1500 bitrate went you could also try 480p@60fps with 1500 bitrate instead and compare quality and go from there.

As far as settings go i would use x264 with a preset of very fast maybe faster. Quick sync and NVENC dont do well with low bitrates so i probably wouldnt even mess with those.Depending on your game settings and how much cpu you have left, I know even with a 4790k cs:go at 200+fps is gonna use ~50% cpu so the "faster" cpu preset would be pushing it. A cs:go "fps_max" setting in game of 100 or lower would result in only around 20% usage on a 4790k so probably ~30+% on a 4770. Therefore you could probably get away with a higher x264 preset to get better quality (I have the same setup as you but with a 4790k and 16GB ram) (gametime.maxvariablefps 61 in BF4 i wouldnt go below 61 since you have a 60Hz display) I dont know if the default in bf4 is higher or not if it is you can set that to lower its cpu usage to leave more for obs. Also idk if there is a config file like cs:go you have to use or not you would have to research that.

With all that in mind, remember that also a lower resolution will lower obs cpu usage too so if you end up going for 480p instead of 720p for bitrate reasons you could probably up your x264 preset considerably.

Overall i would probably try 3 different settings(all with x264):
1. 720p@30fps 1500 bitrate with faster preset
2. 480p@30fps 1200 bitrate with fast preset
3. 480p@60fps 1500 bitrate with fast preset

Im guessing a mix of 1 or 3 would be best. And depending on cpu usage and net speeds you would have to play around and up both to see how much you can push em.

Also does downscaling kill your bitrate or something? because i normally have my base at 720 and downscale to 480.. should i just put my base at 480?

 

[NekoMina]

No, downscaling doesn't kill your bitrate. Downscaling compresses your base resolution down to your viewable resolution, reducing the number of pixels used to display the same information. The lower the resolution, the less data that needs to be sent. Therefore, you can send LESS information to display the same information.

There WILL be a minimal loss of quality when downscaling, but it's either sacrifice quality or performance.

 

[Doadin]

How low


---How much does audio affect bitrate/quality? Normally I have it at 126... But ill lower it.. Also! I play some singerplayer games, so ping wont be any issue there... What should my settings be for those games..?

Its the same thing, like 126 audio is 126 bitrate. Its a pretty small amount even for the max setting but i wouldnt go over 160 i think which is what twitch recommends. So basicly you can do uploadspeed - 20%(which would be like 1800 for your highest test) - *your audio bitrate*(which you said you use 126 so now 1674) and thats what you should set your bitrate to to get the most out of it. If you have any mp3 on your pc you can see their bitrate to see comparable audio as far as i know its at least fairly similar. And you will notice that they are probably in 160+ which is very clear. this is probably what alot of top streamers use. And ive heard alot of people say that you can go as low as like 60 and still be decent enough to stream.