Minimum Laptop to stream 1080p 60fps

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MujStach

New Member
Hello, I am considering various options for streaming on OBS, which I have been practicing for several years. I can't find information on which laptop OBS could run in 1080p 60 fps without overpaying.
I'm currently using a borrowed mini PC with i5-6400T which already has HD Graphics 530 integrated.
I tested OBS settings on it. All I could squeeze to make it acceptable was 720p, 30 FPS and about 3000 bitrate on the CPU (x264), because on the graphics card the windows screen itself lagged.
Everything is on windows 10.

I dream about an integrated laptop, but not too big, preferably around 13 inches, so that it can be used as a second PC only for streaming image from main laptop/computer like Elgato (PS5) games or main games on that computer, at the same time I would prefer not worry that what will show on the screen, the image from OBS will not lag and just with a constant 1080p 60fps.

Is there a chance for such equipment, or do I have to look at a gaming laptop? An additional PC would be used for office work and just to capture the image from the second PC, or I would stream something simple while traveling and not lagging, such as indie games or old productions.

I also want the cheapest option, it should fit under $500, and the lower the better.
Eventually mini PC also could be good, but also on integrater graphics :p

PS. Sorry for google translate english :p.
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
You mentioned office work. I don't know if that's an error in translation or not, but DO NOT MIX WORK AND HOME!!! Your company risks inheriting your junk, malware, social bombshells, etc., even if you never intended that, and you risk getting your stuff wiped out with no warning and no recourse. Always keep work and home separate!

Anyway, $500 seems low to me, but maybe things have improved since the last time I built one.

Two data points:
  1. The last rig that I built was a desktop for just over $1k. It was pretty much exactly $1k before I really understood that the GPU was *required*, so it's over by that much. That $1.2k or so is entirely hardware because the software is all free, including the operating system. No Winblows, Ubuntu Studio Linux.

    Ubuntu Studio – A free and open operating system for creative people.

    ubuntustudio.org ubuntustudio.org
  2. My personal laptop is a Dell M6800 from 2015. It was about $6k new with all the options, and after a bit of effort to get the drivers just right (old hardware, and OBS recently had some housecleaning), it runs OBS 29.1.2 just fine, which is current at the time of this writing. Also Ubuntu Studio, no Micro$haft for me anymore. (I stay on this part of the forum because most problems are not OS-specific at all)
Both will run 1080p30 all day. #1 has the Multiview open, which greatly increases the rendering load, and #2 has two separate and simultaneous instances of OBS, plus a dedicated audio processing app running a complex rig of its own, well beyond what OBS can do. The CPU load is comfortably low for both, but heavily dependent on how complex your scenes are (mine are not, on either rig) and whether you use the CPU or a purpose-dedicated section of the GPU to encode the result.

My advice for buying a new computer:
Get a GOOD one! If you get one that barely does the job, it'll be fine for the first few months or so, and then it won't keep up anymore. Not because the computer slowed down, but because you're becoming more comfortable with it and asking it to do more. As with almost everything, a massive system going easy is much better than a barely-adequate system running flat out.
 
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M

MujStach

New Member
AaronD said:
You mentioned office work. I don't know if that's an error in translation or not, but DO NOT MIX WORK AND HOME!!! Your company risks inheriting your junk, malware, social bombshells, etc., even if you never intended that, and you risk getting your stuff wiped out with no warning and no recourse. Always keep work and home separate!

Anyway, $500 seems low to me, but maybe things have improved since the last time I built one.

Two data points:
  1. The last rig that I built was a desktop for just over $1k. It was pretty much exactly $1k before I really understood that the GPU was *required*, so it's over by that much. That $1.2k or so is entirely hardware because the software is all free, including the operating system. No Winblows, Ubuntu Studio Linux.

    Ubuntu Studio – A free and open operating system for creative people.

    ubuntustudio.org ubuntustudio.org
  2. My personal laptop is a Dell M6800 from 2015. It was about $6k new with all the options, and after a bit of effort to get the drivers just right (old hardware, and OBS recently had some housecleaning), it runs OBS 29.1.2 just fine, which is current at the time of this writing. Also Ubuntu Studio, no Micro$haft for me anymore. (I stay on this part of the forum because most problems are not OS-specific at all)
Both will run 1080p30 all day. #1 has the Multiview open, which greatly increases the rendering load, and #2 has two separate and simultaneous instances of OBS, plus a dedicated audio processing app running a complex rig of its own, well beyond what OBS can do. The CPU load is comfortably low for both, but heavily dependent on how complex your scenes are (mine are not, on either rig) and whether you use the CPU or a purpose-dedicated section of the GPU to encode the result.

My advice for buying a new computer:
Get a GOOD one! If you get one that barely does the job, it'll be fine for the first few months or so, and then it won't keep up anymore. Not because the computer slowed down, but because you're becoming more comfortable with it and asking it to do more. As with almost everything, a massive system going easy is much better than a barely-adequate system running flat out.
Click to expand...
Hmm, when i mean home work, it was like watching youtube/internet, play indie games in 2D or maybe even 3D :p.
I had a laptop Omen 2020, got it for like 1100$, with ryzen 4800h and rtx 2060 (6gb vram). It was my only computer, which i streaming in 1080p60fps and playing games on the same machine. In games like doom eternal when i was off stream had like 70 fps, with stream it was more like 40 fps on the same settings. Now it is on second warranty service.
So i just looking for about small laptop/computer, which can do whole stream OBS to just capture image from main computer or PS5 (elgato capture card) with catch the camera and few streamer accessories.
AND MAYBE i will can also streaming on this, when i will be in journey far from my main computer for just straight games like dead cells or maybe even hades and the best if this will stream on 1080p 60fps, or 720p 60fps.

I understand that 500$ can be too low. I heard a little about AV1 in new intel processors, maybe this can help me? If you have confirmed laptop/miniPC settings that can solve almost 100% problems, it will also be good.
Thank you for reply.

PS. Sorry for my English, now i wrote myself :p.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
So you're *not* playing the game on the same PC that will capture it? That helps a lot.

I'm not sure what you mean by "mini PC". I have a hand-sized or so machine that takes a 12VDC barrel jack for power and is essentially just a few steps up from a Raspberry Pi, but with an Intel chip in it. It runs a modern desktop just fine, although the Windows that it came with took forever to load and kept crashing. Lubuntu Linux (resource-light version of Ubuntu) is solid on it, and reasonably responsive, but can't use the (apparently proprietary) built-in WiFi. Everything else works. You can take that for what it's worth. Ubuntu Studio (made for media production on capable machines) was too much for it all by itself.

Since it has no moving parts to eventually wear out - not even a fan - I'm thinking to use it as a 24/7 automation box for a digital sound rig: when the board turns on, push the standard settings into it so that the volunteers have something simple that they know how to use, and since it's there anyway, it might as well be a jukebox and recorder too. It remains to be seen if it can keep up with 32 tracks of 32-bit audio through a 2-hour concert, from USB sound card to USB hard drive, and play it back exactly as it was captured, to re-mix the same show on the same rig. (for practice, training, re-enjoyment, etc.)

If that's the sort of box you're talking about, then that's what I think of its performance. I wouldn't even try to run OBS on it.

---

Technically, I've gotten OBS to run on a Raspberry Pi (a few steps down from my mini PC), as an attempt to simply record a single HDMI capture directly to a file as-is. OBS itself ran okay - didn't take too long to load, responsive enough, and showed me a smooth live capture - but as soon as I tried to record, it fell flat on its face. Encoding was just way too much for it.

I also have an older laptop, that was cheap even when it was new, that seems to have similar performance to my mini PC, also running Lubuntu. OBS does record there, but only if it's capturing an NTSC camera (analog video, effectively 640x480 interlaced, so only 640x240 on the wire) at 10fps.
(The only thing I've used OBS for on that machine, is to stare at a bread machine that would occasionally turn itself off in the middle of the cycle, to see if I could catch the moment of failure. It always worked as long as it was being watched. :-/ )
 
M

MujStach

New Member
AaronD said:
So you're *not* playing the game on the same PC that will capture it? That helps a lot.

I'm not sure what you mean by "mini PC". I have a hand-sized or so machine that takes a 12VDC barrel jack for power and is essentially just a few steps up from a Raspberry Pi, but with an Intel chip in it. It runs a modern desktop just fine, although the Windows that it came with took forever to load and kept crashing. Lubuntu Linux (resource-light version of Ubuntu) is solid on it, and reasonably responsive, but can't use the (apparently proprietary) built-in WiFi. Everything else works. You can take that for what it's worth. Ubuntu Studio (made for media production on capable machines) was too much for it all by itself.

Since it has no moving parts to eventually wear out - not even a fan - I'm thinking to use it as a 24/7 automation box for a digital sound rig: when the board turns on, push the standard settings into it so that the volunteers have something simple that they know how to use, and since it's there anyway, it might as well be a jukebox and recorder too. It remains to be seen if it can keep up with 32 tracks of 32-bit audio through a 2-hour concert, from USB sound card to USB hard drive, and play it back exactly as it was captured, to re-mix the same show on the same rig. (for practice, training, re-enjoyment, etc.)

If that's the sort of box you're talking about, then that's what I think of its performance. I wouldn't even try to run OBS on it.

---

Technically, I've gotten OBS to run on a Raspberry Pi (a few steps down from my mini PC), as an attempt to simply record a single HDMI capture directly to a file as-is. OBS itself ran okay - didn't take too long to load, responsive enough, and showed me a smooth live capture - but as soon as I tried to record, it fell flat on its face. Encoding was just way too much for it.

I also have an older laptop, that was cheap even when it was new, that seems to have similar performance to my mini PC, also running Lubuntu. OBS does record there, but only if it's capturing an NTSC camera (analog video, effectively 640x480 interlaced, so only 640x240 on the wire) at 10fps.
(The only thing I've used OBS for on that machine, is to stare at a bread machine that would occasionally turn itself off in the middle of the cycle, to see if I could catch the moment of failure. It always worked as long as it was being watched. :-/ )
Click to expand...
I have now something like this and that size is good for me https://greencomputers.pl/eng_pl_Fujitsu-Esprimo-Q556-2-i3-6100T-8-500HDD-W10P-A-1772_2.jpg
Interesting experience you had.
I have also a laptop 12 inches which was a chromebook. A few days try it maybe 10 distros from linux to play on him, and ended on a galliumos. I didnt try run obs on him, but its enough to watch youtube on 720p and play Heroes of Might and Magic 2,3,4 or some indie games from steam like stardew valley :)
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MujStach said:
I have now something like this and that size is good for me https://greencomputers.pl/eng_pl_Fujitsu-Esprimo-Q556-2-i3-6100T-8-500HDD-W10P-A-1772_2.jpg
Click to expand...
That's a little bit bigger than mine, just to fit the CD drive, but the size doesn't necessarily say anything about the performance. I'd consider it to be in the same general category.

I've seen a few questions on here about using OBS on a chromebook. The universal answer was, "Don't!" Same as my experience on other low-performance hardware: it's fine for casual use, but OBS takes a lot, continuously.

---

Another point that people easily overlook is the thermal performance. It's one thing to have awesome specs that would technically support OBS just fine, but if the thermal design is lacking, it'll throttle back and kill the show. For those machines, the idea is to load things quickly, and then sit and cool off while the user looks at them. It'll probably play a finished movie without a hiccup, but only barely.
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
This is the rig that I built a couple of years ago for about $1.2k:
Screenshot_20230618_093340.jpg

Screenshotted this morning, and then killed the quality so this forum would accept the file size.

That's three 1920x1080p60 monitors, with OBS's fullscreen projector on one of them and the Multiview on another. Also Studio Mode under the Multiview. Lots of rendering! Some overlapping sources, and the lyrics come from another machine as a full-frame NDI image with transparency. So there's a fair amount of local network activity as well.

The sensors that I put on the taskbar show the total CPU load around 50% constant, spread evenly across all 8 cores. It doesn't change when streaming or not, because we're using the GPU for the encoding, not the CPU. Since it's constant, I'm perfectly okay with adding more to this rig in the future.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MujStach said:
Hmm, but you also have dedicated graphic card.
Click to expand...
It makes a HUGE difference, to have a dedicated section of silicon to encode video. Even on a GPU, that function is often separate from everything else, so it doesn't affect a game, and you can slam it with the settings because that's all it's doing anyway.

To do it on the general-purpose CPU, sends its usage through the roof! And that *is* shared with the game.
 
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