WolfsGoRawr
Member
I assume something is wrong, which is why I'm here on this forum posting these posts!
Question / Help High CPU usage (i7-4770k)
- Thread starter WolfsGoRawr
- Start date
Boildown
Active Member
High CPU utilization is not a sign of a problem. Duplicated frames is a sign of a problem, or your game lagging out only when OBS is active is a sign of a problem. Looking at a CPU monitor and seeing the utilization is high is a sign that x264 is doing work, not that there's a problem.
WolfsGoRawr
Member
The fact that the utilization is that bloody high worries me, as it should not have to work that hard for what I ask it to do. I use faster. not fast or medium! Only 45 fps and not a whole lot of bitrate either.
Sapiens
Forum Moderator
What exactly does this mean? What is your frame of reference to say whether your CPU is "working too hard"? I run my 2500K at 4.5 GHz and it isn't uncommon for some games to push it into the 70%+ utilization range on their own. Have you checked to see what the game's CPU utilization percentage is compared to OBS?WolfsGoRawr said:
WolfsGoRawr
Member
Titantall is build around source though, should be fine.
- I have an 4770k and my CPU is getting beaten by other 4770k under the same settings (Even on the same game)
And other "weaker" I7 are performing a lot better then mine. Hence i'm trying to figure it out.
My "frame of reference" is other casters that I'm in contact with.
- I have an 4770k and my CPU is getting beaten by other 4770k under the same settings (Even on the same game)
And other "weaker" I7 are performing a lot better then mine. Hence i'm trying to figure it out.
My "frame of reference" is other casters that I'm in contact with.
Krazy
Town drunk
There are a lot of hilarious misconceptions being thrown around in this thread.
A non overclocked 4770k should absolutely be struggling to stream a high motion, "next gen" FPS, especially if you start monkeying around with the preset. Saying that it should be fine because it's "built around Source" is not very useful considering Source is pretty flexible and you can do a lot of things with it. It can be as demanding or undemanding as you want, really.
Anecdotal evidence from "other streamers I have talked to" is pretty useless, as not all systems and OBS configurations are the same. Maybe the extra webcam in the scene is adding too much stress, maybe Window Capture being less efficient on Win7 than Game Capture is causing extra problems for you. Maybe the other streamers aren't actually properly informed enough about streaming to give you accurate info about their own setup (this is sadly the case more often than not). So, what you really need to do is stop focusing on what works for others, and figure out what works for your particular setup.
If you want to make full use of the power of your 4770k, get a good CPU cooling solution and look into overclocking. Even a mild OC to 4.0ghz will give you a tremendous performance boost, and on most motherboards should only require raising the multiplier, no need to monkey around with voltages or anything.
Another alternative is to make use of QuickSync. The Haswell iGPUs actually have quite good QSV encoding quality that is nearly on par with the Faster x264 preset.
A non overclocked 4770k should absolutely be struggling to stream a high motion, "next gen" FPS, especially if you start monkeying around with the preset. Saying that it should be fine because it's "built around Source" is not very useful considering Source is pretty flexible and you can do a lot of things with it. It can be as demanding or undemanding as you want, really.
Anecdotal evidence from "other streamers I have talked to" is pretty useless, as not all systems and OBS configurations are the same. Maybe the extra webcam in the scene is adding too much stress, maybe Window Capture being less efficient on Win7 than Game Capture is causing extra problems for you. Maybe the other streamers aren't actually properly informed enough about streaming to give you accurate info about their own setup (this is sadly the case more often than not). So, what you really need to do is stop focusing on what works for others, and figure out what works for your particular setup.
If you want to make full use of the power of your 4770k, get a good CPU cooling solution and look into overclocking. Even a mild OC to 4.0ghz will give you a tremendous performance boost, and on most motherboards should only require raising the multiplier, no need to monkey around with voltages or anything.
Another alternative is to make use of QuickSync. The Haswell iGPUs actually have quite good QSV encoding quality that is nearly on par with the Faster x264 preset.
WolfsGoRawr
Member
My CPU runs on 3.9 under load (turbo) and I got a noctua nh-d14.
I'm just using titanfall as the example as that is my latest experience with this "issue" I have it with TF2 as well.
I feel like I should be able to get better performance out of my CPU.
I will mess around more and see what happends, I just feel like something is off and I can't put my finger on it.
QuickSync has been nice to get lower loads on your CPU while casting, but everybody says it is bad for quality, especially in fast & flashy games.
I will see if I can find a way to "optimize" my stream more without losing quality.
I should have the hardware for it, correct.
I'm just using titanfall as the example as that is my latest experience with this "issue" I have it with TF2 as well.
I feel like I should be able to get better performance out of my CPU.
I will mess around more and see what happends, I just feel like something is off and I can't put my finger on it.
QuickSync has been nice to get lower loads on your CPU while casting, but everybody says it is bad for quality, especially in fast & flashy games.
I will see if I can find a way to "optimize" my stream more without losing quality.
I should have the hardware for it, correct.
Floatingthru
Community Helper
Nothing is really off, most people really don't know how to compare directly, and in a stock setting the CPU will only hit 3.7ghz in a 4 core load. If you are using demanding settings then it will use as much as your CPU as possible. There is no way I can do 720p@60fps on medium playing Titanfall that won't work. OBS will use ~60% of the CPU alone at those settings on my 4.2ghz 4770k, because of how much motion there is on that game. People love to make up shit when they have no idea what they are talking about.
If you want to run insane settings on a one PC set up wait for Haswell-E a real 8 core with HT for 16 threads. Just expect it to cost an arm and a leg.
If you want to run insane settings on a one PC set up wait for Haswell-E a real 8 core with HT for 16 threads. Just expect it to cost an arm and a leg.
Boildown
Active Member
"Everyone" 's information is out of date. While true for Sandy and mostly true for Ivy, Haswell's QuickSync implementation has been found to be quite good: http://www.tetrachromesoftware.com/q264 ... est_1.htmlWolfsGoRawr said:
WolfsGoRawr
Member
Ill stay on faster for now then. I would increase bitrate a lot more so I would not need a higher preset to make it look good but grabbing transcoding has been wonky as of late.
Faster should be alright with 45 or even 60 fps on most known games at the moment I reckon.
well see how things progress
Faster should be alright with 45 or even 60 fps on most known games at the moment I reckon.
well see how things progress
WolfsGoRawr
Member
Honestly, I have no idea how to use QSV properly, and on top of that you have to use a slightly higher bitrate to get the same quality. As a none-partnered streamer that is a heavy pay off.
But it looks like with the haswell + partnership the QSV is the way to go for 720p streams!
interesting.
But it looks like with the haswell + partnership the QSV is the way to go for 720p streams!
interesting.
Krazy
Town drunk
Well...as has been said several times already, that's not the case with Haswell QuickSync anymore. The quality is nearly on par with Faster, so it's better than the OBS default of Veryfast. As in, you don't need more bitrate for the same quality anymore.
Getting QuickSync working is just a matter of making sure the iGPU drivers are installed, and either plugging in a monitor to the slot on your motherboard to activate the GPU, or enable a virtual display.
Getting QuickSync working is just a matter of making sure the iGPU drivers are installed, and either plugging in a monitor to the slot on your motherboard to activate the GPU, or enable a virtual display.