Question / Help I7 8700k Best quality settings.

[Germanyy]

As stated above, just built a new pc and finally started streaming again, however I can NOT get the quality I guess acceptable? It seems pixely.
I have tried NVENC, QSV, and x264
Rig specs:
I7 8700k 4.8GHz OC
GTX 1080ti 11GB
32GB DDR4 2666mhz (forgot brand)
120mm water cooler
Alienware motherboard.
I PLAY IN 1080! Not 1440.
I have the 1 gig up and down package.
Theoretically speaking 600 down and 300-500 up.

I have tried almost every setting in OBS possible.
Most successful one was 720p60fps at fast, 6k bitrate, but even then it was still eh. If I set it onto medium obs uses 50-60% of my Cpu, now correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t that seem a little high? I’m playing a game that takes around 10% cpu on max settings...lol

Now where I am at right now is, NVENC high quality, CBR, 6k bitrate, 1080p60fps, and some how it looks better then the 720p60fps on fast.
Is there something wrong with my cpu or are my settings legit crap.

 

[Germanyy]

No one....

 

[n3v3rm1nd]

Well 6mbit just can only look as good and 1080p60fps would need at last 10mbit. Just use 720p or 900p. When I look at my own footage with 6mbit on 720p60fps in NVENC High Performance ( when my son Streams) its completely acceptable. You could bump up b-frames to 4 maybe this can help more

 

[DEDRICK]

50-60% CPU is about right for Medium, my 2700X uses up to 60% doing 720p60 Slow but it's a 16thread CPU.

What you are perceiving as better looking with 1080p60 is it's sharper and higher detail because it's not downscaling, but it will macroblock like crazy on heavy motion / high detail scenes when using NVENC

To really reap the benefits of x264 you need to run Medium or Slow, some people will say there's diminishing returns going beyond Fast but it's simply not true. Medium is the default x264 preset, both Medium and Slow enable several motion estimation benefits that are turned off or down on lower presets.

It also helps to not be so picky, 99% of viewers won't be able to tell the difference. If you don't mind losing a bit of FPS in game, crank your CPU preset, if you want max FPS use NVENC or a lower x264 preset

 

[n3v3rm1nd]

It also helps to not be so picky, 99% of viewers won't be able to tell the difference. If you don't mind losing a bit of FPS in game, crank your CPU preset, if you want max FPS use NVENC or a lower x264 preset

This. If it's not stuttering an the content is good noone cares. Quality differences Between both of them are pretty marginal in higher bitrates but when you only want to lose 1-3fps then NVENC is the way to go or an StreamPC where you can hog the CPU with x264.

 

[Germanyy]

50-60% CPU is about right for Medium, my 2700X uses up to 60% doing 720p60 Slow but it's a 16thread CPU.

What you are perceiving as better looking with 1080p60 is it's sharper and higher detail because it's not downscaling, but it will macroblock like crazy on heavy motion / high detail scenes when using NVENC

To really reap the benefits of x264 you need to run Medium or Slow, some people will say there's diminishing returns going beyond Fast but it's simply not true. Medium is the default x264 preset, both Medium and Slow enable several motion estimation benefits that are turned off or down on lower presets.

It also helps to not be so picky, 99% of viewers won't be able to tell the difference. If you don't mind losing a bit of FPS in game, crank your CPU preset, if you want max FPS use NVENC or a lower x264 preset

Yes, but sadly then if it's running 50-60% that leave so little room for say PUBG or anything else really.
IS the only TRUE way of flawless 900p60ps is to build a dedicated system.

 

[Germanyy]

This. If it's not stuttering an the content is good noone cares. Quality differences Between both of them are pretty marginal in higher bitrates but when you only want to lose 1-3fps then NVENC is the way to go or an StreamPC where you can hog the CPU with x264.

Here's my legit problem, It almost seems like I get worst quality when it's on fast-medium. I can go slow but it EATS my CPU. 70-80%. NVENC or QSV look better then 720p60fps medium preset. Is there something wrong.

 

[n3v3rm1nd]

Yes, but sadly then if it's running 50-60% that leave so little room for say PUBG or anything else really.
IS the only TRUE way of flawless 900p60ps is to build a dedicated system.

You can do that on your system. High Quality NVENC with 4 B-Frames and it will look perfectly fine. Just looked at 720p60fps High Performance NVENC 2 B-Frames footage of Overwatch that my sone streamed today. Is it somehow blocky? Yes a little bit but I can see everything good in high motion.

Here's my legit problem, It almost seems like I get worst quality when it's on fast-medium. I can go slow but it EATS my CPU. 70-80%. NVENC or QSV look better then 720p60fps medium preset. Is there something wrong.

Idk, usually the above mentioned settings deliver perfectly fine results. Maybe you mixing up files or even you eyes need some rest since they got sensitive or something. Can happen.

 

[Germanyy]

You can do that on your system. High Quality NVENC with 4 B-Frames and it will look perfectly fine. Just looked at 720p60fps High Performance NVENC 2 B-Frames footage of Overwatch that my sone streamed today. Is it somehow blocky? Yes a little bit but I can see everything good in high motion.



Idk, usually the above mentioned settings deliver perfectly fine results. Maybe you mixing up files or even you eyes need some rest since they got sensitive or something. Can happen.

Could be my eyes man for real. Been streaming every night for 7 hours for a month now. You mention setting it to 4 B Frames?

 

[n3v3rm1nd]

Could be my eyes man for real. Been streaming every night for 7 hours for a month now. You mention setting it to 4 B Frames?

Yes this will gives you better quality at the cost of latency (marginal, i mean the time for preparing the frames and sending them to twitch not input or anything gaming related!) and cpu/gpu processing power (propably marginal too)

 

[entropy187]

I play PUBG, and I use x264 720p60fps, preset faster @ 5000kbps bitrate. Looks good tbh. With nvenc I'd have it really realy bad pixels especially with low bitrates. (twitch is entrobeast if you'd like to see some vods of quality) anyway i feel this is the best for me, little game dropped fps and smooth stream

edit:

specs are similar, except 16gb ram, and i play in 1440p

 

[Germanyy]

Still getting pixels at 720p60fps medium, no FPS drop or frame droppage. Really I don’t know what’s going on. I saw someone today who used QSV and it still looked better then mine..

 

[jordanamp133]

A guy told me to remove display capture from a scene that you have game capture in as that causes issues. If you have that then you can create a new scene for your game capture and keep display capture seperate.

 

[ScaryRage]

So i got the exact same PC Specs and i test NVENC and All cpu preset from fast to slow.
So if you use NVENC use High Quality and not Default as preset. Level 4.2 and High as Profile ofcourse. Deactivate Use-Two-Pass-Encoding, and you can try to bump up the B-Frames. (Didnt try that yet).
But with all these settings i managed to get a better picture Quality with the CPU Preset fast then with the NVENC encoder. Medium looked good but not perfect. Slow looked almost perfect but u will never be able to stream in slow when u dont use a Streaming PC. It used like 90% of my 8700k.
However im wondering how people like Ninja and Kingrichard managed to get such nice Quality even with NVENC.

 

[Germanyy]

A guy told me to remove display capture from a scene that you have game capture in as that causes issues. If you have that then you can create a new scene for your game capture and keep display capture seperate.

Have done this. This has always caused me problems too lol.

 

[Germanyy]

So i got the exact same PC Specs and i test NVENC and All cpu preset from fast to slow.
So if you use NVENC use High Quality and not Default as preset. Level 4.2 and High as Profile ofcourse. Deactivate Use-Two-Pass-Encoding, and you can try to bump up the B-Frames. (Didnt try that yet).
But with all these settings i managed to get a better picture Quality with the CPU Preset fast then with the NVENC encoder. Medium looked good but not perfect. Slow looked almost perfect but u will never be able to stream in slow when u dont use a Streaming PC. It used like 90% of my 8700k.
However im wondering how people like Ninja and Kingrichard managed to get such nice Quality even with NVENC.

Right now I have it on 720p60fps set to medium at 6k bitrate. Lanczos filter, and it still pixely. Especially if I have allot of screen movement.
When I tried NVENC the pixels when I had fast movement were the same as fast preset.

 

[ScaryRage]

https://i.gyazo.com/4c69ab5ad00d748a421a2250fbda2911.png this settings with 720p 60fps should not be pixely.

 

[PuLzoH]

I found this video very helpful for myself and apparently others, this guy has one of the best looking streams and knows what he is talking about hope this helps
[MOD EDIT: Removed link.]

 

[Fenrir]

Please be aware that there is no such thing as "best settings" and any guides that claim as such are generally misleading. Do not follow any guides that do not explain why you are setting something, and you understand what you're changing, why you need to change it, and what the effects will be.

 

[bobhumplick]

Right now I have it on 720p60fps set to medium at 6k bitrate. Lanczos filter, and it still pixely. Especially if I have allot of screen movement.
When I tried NVENC the pixels when I had fast movement were the same as fast preset.

if you see a high profile streamer who is using nvenc and it looks really really good then they are over the bitrate limit and streaming 15000 or something and twitch lets them get away with it. then the encoding kicks in and viewers can actually watch them cause the bitrate is reduced. for all the plebs out there you gotta do the encoding yourself

that being said try upping your bit rate a little at a time till you max it out. id stay with cpu encoding mind you but youd be surprised at what you can get away with. : )