Question / Help i7 4790k and 100% CPU/GPU Usage

L

lifewithstrife

New Member
Hey guys - I run a partnered stream and mostly play Team Fortress 2. My setup includes two PCs and the SC-512N1-L/DVI Capture Card. I've been having issues where both my CPU and GPU usage of the streaming PC hits 90-100% and the stream suffers because of it. The stream is no-where near as smooth as it used to be, and OBS is giving me constant warnings.

I recently upgraded from an i5 4690 to the i7 4790k, and changed from the Avermedia Live Gamer HD card to the one listed above. My specs:

Gaming PC:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.20GHz
• Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E
• Ram: 12.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (EVGA) 3GB
• Memory: 450GB INTEL SSD & 2TB HD

Streaming PC:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k @ 4GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H LGA1150
• Ram: 8GB Single-Channel DDR3
• Video Card: None
• Memory: 120GB SSD
• Capture Card: SC-512N1-L/DVI

I never had any problems with the Avermedia Live Gamer HD. Using the same settings with this new card has been very difficult.

Stream settings:
Downscaled to 1280x720p
FPS: 60
X264 Preset = Very Fast
Bitrate: 3500

I've noticed that the CPU usage goes down a lot when I use YUY2 as an Output Format and not RGB24.

VERYFAST YU12 720P 60FPS = 65-70% CPU 75% GPU
VERYFAST RGB24 720p 60FPS = 85-95% CPU 80% GPU

I really don't think my CPU usage should be this high. I've contacted other users of the card and they are below 50% and have a very crisp/smooth livestream. I've noticed a few of them have dedicated GPU cards in thier streaming PCs though, maybe that's what I need? I'm a bit relctant though as I bought this new i7 CPU to fix the issue, and it didn't so I'm down £260.

If anyone can throw some suggestions my way or share some thoughts I'd really appreciate it. Thank you to @Jack0r, @Kadano @dping and @FerretBomb for their help already.

UPDATES:
- Setting the capture card resolution to the same as the OBS seemed to almost halve the CPU usage.
- I still can't seem to use a better X264 preset than 'Very Fast' without hitting very high CPU usages.
- Outputting as RGB24 always results in higher CPU and GPU usage than YU12 or YV12.
- Upgrading to Windows 8.1 was not a fix.

Latest thoughts are to pick up a GPU for my streaming PC and report back here.


 
Last edited:
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
Hey guys - I run a partnered stream and mostly play Team Fortress 2. My setup includes two PCs and the SC-512N1-L/DVI Capture Card. I've been having issues where both my CPU and GPU usage of the streaming PC hits 90-100% and the stream suffers because of it. The stream is no-where near as smooth as it used to be, and OBS is giving me constant warnings.

I recently upgraded from an i5 4690 to the i7 4790k, and changed from the Avermedia Live Gamer HD card to the one listed above. My specs:

Gaming PC:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 960 @ 3.20GHz
• Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E
• Ram: 12.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (EVGA) 3GB
• Memory: 450GB INTEL SSD & 2TB HD

Streaming PC:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k @ 4GHz
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97M-D3H LGA1150
• Ram: 8GB Single-Channel DDR3
• Video Card: None
• Memory: 120GB SSD
• Capture Card: SC-512N1-L/DVI

I never had any problems with the Avermedia Live Gamer HD. Using the same settings with this new card has been very difficult.

Stream settings:
Downscaled to 1280x720p
FPS: 60
X264 Preset = Very Fast
Bitrate: 3500

I've noticed that the CPU usage goes down a lot when I use YUY2 as an Output Format and not RGB24.

VERYFAST YU12 720P 60FPS = 65-70% CPU 75% GPU
VERYFAST RG24 720p 60FPS = 85-95% CPU 80% GPU

I really don't think my CPU usage should be this high. I've contacted other users of the card and they are below 50% and have a very crisp/smooth livestream. I've noticed a few of them have dedicated GPU cards in thier streaming PCs though, maybe that's what I need? I'm a bit relctant though as I bought this new i7 CPU to fix the issue, and it didn't so I'm down £260.

If anyone can throw some suggestions my way or share some thoughts I'd really appreciate it. Thank you to @Jack0r and @FerretBomb for their help thus far.
Click to expand...
Would you mind posting a logfile when you streamed for at least 5 minutes?
giphy.gif
 
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
I derped, pasted it in there now. Also here: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/a2a554bf78a9c4350400
Click to expand...
I think what he means by watching the CPu usage, is it is rare for OBS to be taking that much CPU usage...make the below changes and do the same test again:


Code: 
Aero is Disabled

SA7160 PCI, Analog 01 Capture 1920x1080

Interface: BT 802.11ac Wireless USB Adapter

Stalled for 2229 ms to write 460923 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?

First, enable Aero

Next try setting your cap card at 720@60 since you are just going to downscale anyway... then set a custom resolution in the OBS video tab directly to 1280x720.

Lastly, I noticed that your connection stalled once, could you switch to a wired connection and see if this problem persists?


Please make those changes, then restart OBS to do another 5 minute or so test stream with as much motion.

Monitor CPU usage, is it stable at 90% or is it fluctuating and peaking at 90%? That is way to much CPU usage from what you are outputting.

Lastly, watch temps just to rule that out
 
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
dping said:
I think what he means by watching the CPu usage, is it is rare for OBS to be taking that much CPU usage...make the below changes and do the same test again:


Code: 
Aero is Disabled

SA7160 PCI, Analog 01 Capture 1920x1080

Interface: BT 802.11ac Wireless USB Adapter

Stalled for 2229 ms to write 460923 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?

First, enable Aero

Next try setting your cap card at 720@60 since you are just going to downscale anyway... then set a custom resolution in the OBS video tab directly to 1280x720.

Lastly, I noticed that your connection stalled once, could you switch to a wired connection and see if this problem persists?


Please make those changes, then restart OBS to do another 5 minute or so test stream with as much motion.

Monitor CPU usage, is it stable at 90% or is it fluctuating and peaking at 90%? That is way to much CPU usage from what you are outputting.

Lastly, watch temps just to rule that out
Click to expand...

On the question of stablity, it was previously bouncing around 10% up or down on the CPU usage.

I updated everything besides the wired connection as I don't have a long enough ethernet cable on me at the moment. It is a lot smoother! Here's the Logs: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/7a1ad699be026bf232c3 and VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/lifewithstrifetest/b/660376659

CPU Usage: 45% (sometimes creeping up to 60%)
GPU Usage: 35% (sometimes creeping up to 45%)
CPU temperature bounced around 70-74°

It was a LOT smoother on the video if you check the VOD. Your suggestions halved the usage on both GPU and CPU. Are thew new percentages about right for the OBS settings I'm using? And thanks a lot for your help.

If that is your CPU temp on the integrated heat spreader then you are looking close to max for that CPU.
Max TCASE 74.04°C. If those are each core's temps, then you are fine
 
Last edited by a moderator:
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
On the question of stablity, it was previously bouncing around 10% up or down on the CPU usage.

I updated everything besides the wired connection as I don't have a long enough ethernet cable on me at the moment. It is a lot smoother! Here's the Logs: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/7a1ad699be026bf232c3 and VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/lifewithstrifetest/b/660376659

CPU Usage: 45% (sometimes creeping up to 60%)
GPU Usage: 35% (sometimes creeping up to 45%)
CPU temperature bounced around 70-74°

It was a LOT smoother on the video if you check the VOD. Your suggestions halved the usage on both GPU and CPU. Are thew new percentages about right for the OBS settings I'm using? And thanks a lot for your help.
Click to expand...
ok, so that of course is better but if you can open up resource monitor from the task manager performance tab and see exactly how much CPU obs is using and if there is anything else is using up a lot of CPU. but at least with those numbers, you can drop the preset just a little.

70-74 temps are a bit hot for IHS temps, or are those core temps that you are measuring? big difference.
 
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
dping said:
ok, so that of course is better but if you can open up resource monitor from the task manager performance tab and see exactly how much CPU obs is using and if there is anything else is using up a lot of CPU. but at least with those numbers, you can drop the preset just a little.

70-74 temps are a bit hot for IHS temps, or are those core temps that you are measuring? big difference.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention last night I overclocked to 4.6ghz and it should still be the same. So at default settings it'd probably be a lower temperature. I'm not sure what you mean by core temps - I use a program called Speccy and it just listed your hardware and temperatures (not sure how accurate it is).

OBS is using anything from 25-40% and it seems to spike upwards when there's a lot of movement going on.
 
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
I forgot to mention last night I overclocked to 4.6ghz and it should still be the same. So at default settings it'd probably be a lower temperature. I'm not sure what you mean by core temps - I use a program called Speccy and it just listed your hardware and temperatures (not sure how accurate it is).

OBS is using anything from 25-40% and it seems to spike upwards when there's a lot of movement going on.
Click to expand...
That sounds right. now the other programs using up CPU, close the ones that you dont use. this will help.

at 720@60, you should be able to use medium preset with most games since its dedicated. this isn't always the case, but it should be something to shoot for. That being said, fast preset works just fine and is what I use.
 
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
dping said:
That sounds right. now the other programs using up CPU, close the ones that you dont use. this will help.

at 720@60, you should be able to use medium preset with most games since its dedicated. this isn't always the case, but it should be something to shoot for. That being said, fast preset works just fine and is what I use.
Click to expand...
With Team Fortress 2 I just tried Medium, Fast and Faster and none seemed to work too well.

Medium resulted in 100% CPU usage.
Fast resulted in around the same, 90-100%
Very Fast varied from 50-95%?

I've turned off most applications but there's really not much downloaded on my 2nd PC besides things I use for streaming. Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated. If you had any other suggestions or thoughts please share them :D.

Picture of CPU usage graph (Medium - Fast - Faster):
kBUplUP.png
 
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
With Team Fortress 2 I just tried Medium, Fast and Faster and none seemed to work too well.

Medium resulted in 100% CPU usage.
Fast resulted in around the same, 90-100%
Very Fast varied from 50-95%?

I've turned off most applications but there's really not much downloaded on my 2nd PC besides things I use for streaming. Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated. If you had any other suggestions or thoughts please share them :D.

Picture of CPU usage graph (Medium - Fast - Faster):
kBUplUP.png
Click to expand...
As long as you were really moving around in game on that last test with faster, that would be ideal. I'm assuming the green is what OBS uses, and red being...I dont know. you might wan to to list processes using CPU here. when I stream, I usually have less than 2% used by anything else. in my case, game, and stream will use up to 80% but since yours is dedicated, you would want to make a lot of movement in-game and just keep it constant. then you can safely say, 90%.
 
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
dping said:
As long as you were really moving around in game on that last test with faster, that would be ideal. I'm assuming the green is what OBS uses, and red being...I dont know. you might wan to to list processes using CPU here. when I stream, I usually have less than 2% used by anything else. in my case, game, and stream will use up to 80% but since yours is dedicated, you would want to make a lot of movement in-game and just keep it constant. then you can safely say, 90%.
Click to expand...
I was moving around a lot, and as a very fast moving character. There really isn't anything using CPU other than OBS. Here's a picture of my Windows Task Manager:
TESTSSSSSSSS.jpg

Thanks again for all your help, I do appreciate it. Could I get your opinion on the video quality of this short VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/lifewithstrifetest/b/660492875 & could I also have a link to your Twitch profile? I'd like to see the quality of some of your previous broadcasts as you use the 'fast' preset.
 
Last edited:
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
Kadano said:
Seems like the 100% CPU bug of Yuan cards in Windows 7 to me. Upgrade to Windows 8, Yuan cards work better with that.
I’m using an SC500N1 and upgrading to Windows 8 decreased CPU load a lot. My power consumption went down ~30 Watts even in idle.

Source: http://www.thethrillness.com/2015/02/micomsoft-100-cpu-bug-fixed.html
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking the time to link me this thread, looks promising! This is probably a dumb question, but is Windows 8.1 okay? It's just a more up to date verson of 8 right?

Update: Bought and installed Windows 8.1 - no real difference in CPU usage :(.
 
Last edited:
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
I was moving around a lot, and as a very fast moving character. There really isn't anything using CPU other than OBS. Here's a picture of my Windows Task Manager: View attachment 7294
Thanks again for all your help, I do appreciate it. Could I get your opinion on the video quality of this short VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/lifewithstrifetest/b/660492875 & could I also have a link to your Twitch profile? I'd like to see the quality of some of your previous broadcasts as you use the 'fast' preset.
Click to expand...
btw, a looked at your video. looks decent. its very watchable. As for my channel? I honestly haven't done a solid test I've saved in past broadcasts. Most of the tests I do with streaming are with Windows 10 and OBS1, OBS1-VCE, OBS-MP or OBS-MP-VCE builds, so the tests I do aren't always of the quality that you might expect due to bugs in any one of the above.
Next time I stream a test session, I will record something in my saved area.
 
L

lifewithstrife

New Member
dping said:
btw, a looked at your video. looks decent. its very watchable. As for my channel? I honestly haven't done a solid test I've saved in past broadcasts. Most of the tests I do with streaming are with Windows 10 and OBS1, OBS1-VCE, OBS-MP or OBS-MP-VCE builds, so the tests I do aren't always of the quality that you might expect due to bugs in any one of the above.
Next time I stream a test session, I will record something in my saved area.
Click to expand...
My bad, I thought you streamed regularly or something, but I understand if not! Thanks for checking the VOD. I'm not sure if you saw the suggestion above, but it was said using Windows 8 may be a fix for the high CPU usage. For me, that wasn't the case (now running 8.1).

However the only thing that seems to be consistantly different between my setup and others is that I don't have a dedicated GPU. Three contacts of mine with the same capture card have no CPU issues with their setups, but they all have a graphics card in their streaming rig. At some point pick up a and let you know how I get on. (Thoughts on this?)

Thanks again!
 
D

dping

Active Member
lifewithstrife said:
My bad, I thought you streamed regularly or something, but I understand if not! Thanks for checking the VOD. I'm not sure if you saw the suggestion above, but it was said using Windows 8 may be a fix for the high CPU usage. For me, that wasn't the case (now running 8.1).

However the only thing that seems to be consistantly different between my setup and others is that I don't have a dedicated GPU. Three contacts of mine with the same capture card have no CPU issues with their setups, but they all have a graphics card in their streaming rig. At some point pick up a and let you know how I get on. (Thoughts on this?)

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
It sounds odd but make sure your ram is running at its rated speed and maybe check to see if you have room to overclock.

these are one of the few cases where RAM "might" help with OBS, or it might just help the game. Again, if your temps are good you could overclock and the obvious would be to get a dedicated (DX11 minimum) GPU. OBS does tend to use the GPU but usually the most GPUs are powerful enough not to notice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top