You seriously do not have to live with it, you can get it to work really nice, with zero stuttering and extremely minimal performance hit.
The fastest thing I found for using crossfire is to use OBS in conjunction with Dxtory. Basically, you use Dxtory to capture the game footage (not record it), set the output to RAW and to Directshow. Now in OBS you add a video capture device and select Dxtory Video 1. Don't ask me why this is less resource intensive than just using the gamecapture in OBS, but it is by a large margin. I am sure one of these guys will hop in and say, "look dude it can't be faster, your an idiot it is impossible!" but hey it is possible and I can prove it.
I have tried every single program out there to try and get it (crossfire streaming) to work, and that is it. At one point in time you could do it with Mirrilis Action! via APP but they broke it. Playclaw kind of worked half way decent, but it is still a significant hit, Dxtory/OBS or Dxtory/X-Split works really well, but you need to
make sure you grab the 2.0.129 release or earlier of Dxtory as they changed something in the newer releases with crossfire and it causes performance to be about on par with just using the OBS MP game capture alone.
hope that helps.
in case you think I am an idiot and I don't know what i am talking about (all streaming done on a 4930k with 3 290x's):
OBS/Dxtory: BF4 all ultra (resolution 2560x1440) streaming at 720p/30 fps while having 150-200 fps in game:
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5728630
OBS/Dxtory: BF4 all ultra (resolution 3200x1800) streaming at 720p/30fps while maintaing 100 fps in game:
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5726630
Action! before they broke it (1.17.3): Bf4 1440p, ultra, etc.. still 200fps
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5726050
Action! later releases (broke it) 70 fps....
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5726063
Playclaw: 100 ish fps
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5722145
OBSVCE- 70 fps (OBS Old version yes i know crossfire got shut off in the old versions but OBS MP even with crossfire optimization on isn't much better really still a huge performance hit)
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5726278
Last but not least here is some actual MP footage to show you, it isnt effecting the framerate while using OBS/Dxtory together and it has
no stuttering. BF4 all ultra 1440 streaming at 720p30fps Metro. Still pushing 200-300 fps.......
http://www.twitch.tv/the9quad/c/5424984
So yes it can be done, but it must be a really difficult problem because even the programs that get it working end up breaking it in later releases. But yeah
you do not have to live with it, you can get it working perfectly with little to no performance hit. Just grab that older version of dxtory and use it with OBS. Dxtory is like 20 or 30 dollars though, but hey they work together nice.
Oh programs I tested were multiple versions of: playclaw, action, xsplit broadcaster and gamecaster, obs, ffsplit, evolve, raptr, overwolf, mishira, and wirecast. I tried everything i could afford to try, because I really wanted something to work.
