New computer spec questions for OBS Studio

[jermz27]

I need to replace a computer for one of our users and was hoping I could get some insight as to which computer (mostly which processor and video card) would be the best for a user that is using OBS Studio.

He described his usage as: “I use it for the Virtual camera option with and without scenes, presentations with multiple scenes and sources, video creation / recordings for clients internal and external showing software usage and PowerPoint”.

A couple questions that I have are:

Processor - Does OBS take advantage of multiple cores? Is it better to go with more cores but a slower clock speed or less cores with a faster clock speed?

Processor - Does OBS work better with certain series of processors? For example, i7 vs i9 vs Xeon Processors?

Video cards – Just a note: I have had way too many issues with AMD Video cards and/or drivers in the past, so I would prefer to stick with Nvidia if possible. I will keep an open mind, so if there is a benefit to going with AMD over Nvidia, I am open to suggestions.

All computers that I am looking at would have an M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive and 32GB of RAM.

Here are the systems and processor/video card options for the 3 machines that I am looking at:

Optiplex 7080:

Processor Options:

10th Gen i7-10700 (8-Core, 16MB Cache, 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz, 65W)
10th Gen i7-10700K (8-Core, 16MB Cache, 3.8GHz to 5.1GHz, 125W)
10th Gen i9-10900 (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 2.8GHz to 5.2GHz, 65W)
10th Gen i9-10900K (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 3.7GHz to 5.3GHz, 125W)

Video Card Options:

AMD Radeon RX 640, 4GB, FH (DP/mDP/mDP)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 SUPER™ 6GB GDDR6
NVIDIA GeForce® GT 730, 2GB, FH (DP/DP)
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6
AMD Radeon RX 640 4GB FH (DP/mDP/mDP) Dual


Precision Workstation 5820:

Processor Options:

Intel 10th Gen i9-10900K (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 3.7GHz to 5.3GHz, 125W)
Intel Xeon W-2104 (3.2GHz, 4C, 8.25MB Cache, No Turbo, No HT, (120W)) DDR4-2400
Intel Xeon Processor W-2225 (4C, 4.1GHz 4.6GHz Turbo HT 8.25MB (105W) DDR4-2933)
Intel Xeon Processor W-2235 (6C, 3.8GHz 4.6GHz Turbo HT 8.25MB (130W) DDR4-2933)

Video Card Options:

AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200, 4GB, 4 mDP
AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100, 8GB, 4DP
AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, 8GB, 4DP
AMD Radeon Pro W5500, 8GB, 4 DP

NVIDIA Quadro® P1000, 4GB, 4 mDP
NVIDIA Quadro P2200, 5GB, 4 DP
NVIDIA Quadro RTX4000, 8GB, 3DP, VirtualLink


XPS Tower Special Edition

Intel 10th Gen i7-10700 processor (8-Core, 16M Cache, 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6


Any help would be greatly appreciated. If there is anything that I overlooked or if I can provide any other information, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Processor - Does OBS take advantage of multiple cores? Is it better to go with more cores but a slower clock speed or less cores with a faster clock speed?
Processor - Does OBS work better with certain series of processors? For example, i7 vs i9 vs Xeon Processors?

Yes to multi-core. For non gaming, the slight differences on per core performance is unlikely to be impactful on OBS usage, especially a new PC that should have performance headroom today
As for which series, depends on other factors, including real-time video encoding considerations. Hopefully someone else can comment on CPU specifics. Considerations would be whether you need QuickSync, or other feature not specific to OBS

And most important aspect not in your list is expected PC lifetime? 3 yrs? longer? And what about doing any video editing [as that would have its own GPU implications]? ie - do they plan to use Premier Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or other upper-end editor?

RE GPU
For licensing reasons and more, most ingest servers take H.264, and AMD isn't good at this. See EposVox YouTube video for longer discussion, but for decent longevity/value, today's basic recommendation is to get a Turing based nVidia GTX 1650 Super or better card. Others have indicated that for video encode offload, even the latest RTX 3xxx aren't that much faster than the 1650S, but I'm not authoritative on whether that is true or not. Assuming no gaming, nor video editing, or other usage scenario that would take advantage of higher-end GPUs, the 1650Super would be my recommendation.

A few months ago, I got the Optiplex 7080 with i7-10700K and 1660 Super (because 1650 Super not offered) for a dedicated streaming/OBS system (no gaming). Works great, with lots of overhead, as was plan as I'm expecting 5 years life out of it (got the Premium NBD onsite 5yr warranty), connected to AVR UPS.
Anandtech had a great article (today) on the 10700 vs10700K, and why unless you are going to overclock (which I don't recommend for warranty/longevity reasons), not worth paying much extra for the K model (assuming motherboard not limiting Turbo modes.. see article)

I prefer (in for my own personal use) business class machines for better engineering/reliability [proven out over decades]
The Precision is overkill, and unnecessary, in my opinion for this use case. You aren't talking certified software (like SolidWorks, etc) and associated support. I'd only consider Precision in this use case if there was a specific hardware config desired not available in Optiplex. Note, I have Precisions in my house, so its not like I'm opposed to the line-up.
I saw the recent sale on this - XPS Tower Special Edition w/ Intel 10th Gen i7-10700 (8c/16t) & RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6.. not bad
And that setup would be something very similar to the the Optiplex I have now (with slightly lower build quality for case and motherboard)

I was annoyed when I got the Optiplex as I what I really wanted was an AMD Ryzen Zen 2 or 3 based system with X570 mobo, in a PC like the Optiplex 7080 and the GTX GPU. Threadripper is overkill for me (and what you describe). But neither Dell, nor HP [nor other Tier 1 vendor) offer such Zen 2 or 3 system (yet)... what is offered is consumer grade, lower-end B450/550 motherboards with PCIe 3 compromises I'm not ok with. I'm hoping that product cycles mean new PCs designed around Rocket Lake -S CPU coming out in 2 months, will mean matching Ryzen/Zen 3 systems at same time (hopefully not just wishful thinking... AMD seems doing well on DIY builders, and datacenter servers, but the whoel chipset/PC offering for business class PCs... not so much . And I'd want front-panel USB4 (full Thunderbolt data speed) and that seems near impossible in non-boutique build.. urgh
Personally, I really want a well-engineered PC with Ryzen 5900X on X570 & RTX x060 to replace my aging primary PC (again, no gaming, but numerous VMs and Photo and video editing).