Question / Help Live gamer hd questions

A

autowash

New Member
I currently have 2 pc's, my gaming rig and an old rig. I'm considering buying an avermedia live gamer hd so I can use my old rig to stream and continue to game on my other. I just want to be able to game without any lag or hindrance from having to stream/game on the same pc. Here are my questions...

1. Will my old rig be able to handle/work with the capture card.
2. Will I see a significant increase to stream quality with a dual pc setup?
3. Should I just put together a new cheap pc as my second stream pc? Is it worth it?
4. Will I still be able to run my gaming monitor at 144hz while using the capture card?

Gaming rig:
CPU: I5 4690k
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
RAM: G.SKILL 16GB 1866
SSD: Samsung 850 evo 500gb
PSU: EVGA 80 PLUS Bronze 750w
GPU: R9 390

Old rig:
CPU: i7 920 @ 2.67ghz
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R-SLI
RAM: 8GB
GPU: GTX 750 TI
PSU: 800w

Possible new streaming rig?:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($98.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($39.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Raidmax ATX-402WB ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($23.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $361.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-09 19:39 EST-0500
 
1) Yes
2) No (Not really, unless you know how to REALLY strip down and streamline the OS)
3) Maybe (there is currently a glut of Xeon CPUs on the market, if you buy a couple of E5-2670s and an SMP mobo to handle them, it could be worth, and not TOO expensive. Not really worth it if you're streaming to Twitch and aren't a Partner though, or planning to make a run at becoming one)
4) No (Some video cards can mirror outputs at different refresh rates, usually only nVidia cards though, and even then many get screen-tearing problems on the captured video due to lack of vsync)

Don't bother with the AMD 6300. AMD based systems aren't great for real-time video encoding, and even an 8000-series. If you want to build an encoder rig on the cheap, read this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/47bzdc/budget_friendly_secondary_streaming_pc_guide/
You'll just be wasting money with the build at the end of your post, it'll perform worse than the i7-920.

I'd also recommend a better capture card. Avermedia gear is strictly starter-grade. Look into an Elgato HD60 Pro, Magewell 1-channel, Datapath Vision, or Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI.

Frankly though, the hassles a 2 PC setup carries really isn't worth it unless you're doing it professionally. Maybe not even then.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the informative post, very helpful. So I would be better off just upgrading my i5 to an i7 4790k or so for hyper threading?
 
Yep.

Have you considered overclocking the i7-920 though? At that point it could be worthwhile; it's not hard to do, and can set some fairly impressive gains with a proper cooler.

Even so, unless you're Partnered it's not realistic to go past 720p@30fps video on Twitch, due to the realistic 2000kbps bitrate limitation to minimize viewer buffering. You'd mostly be looking at running lower presets, and the hassle of a 2PC setup absolutely isn't worth it for the minimal 'polish' gains.
 
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