Question / Help OBS on Linux vs Windows

[Pepcfreak]

Is there a drastic difference when encoding?

I have the new Ryzen 1800x and want to utilize it to the fullest extent possible.

Since Linux runs a lot lighter than Windows, does OBS encode better in Linux vs Windows?

 

[Fenrir]

They're using the same libraries to encode, so performance for the actual encoding itself should be comparable. Capture methods are going to vary.

 

[Pepcfreak]

They're using the same libraries to encode, so performance for the actual encoding itself should be comparable. Capture methods are going to vary.

Im looking to use the Linux box as a totally separate box and trying to squeeze every bit out of the CPU as i can.

So in your opinion the windows machine and Linux machine would use about that same CPU encoding + system?

 

[sebix]

I'd recommend to use the system you have more experience with. It doesn't help you if the system is a bit faster while having other problems.

On Linux you can use a very minimal window manager, e.g. icewm which would reduce the complexity of your system.

 

[Pepcfreak]

Im good with both honestly.

Was just hoping there would be a significant cpu usage improvement when encoding like Linux normally does.

 

[Fenrir]

Im good with both honestly.

Was just hoping there would be a significant cpu usage improvement when encoding like Linux normally does.

Honestly, your best bet is to just try it out and see which works best. I have windows and Linux on my primary desktop, and I don't have any noticeable difference in CPU usages when it comes to the actual encoding between them. I run lightweight Linux though, so Windows can seem heavy by comparison.

 

[David Carver]

As others have said there isn't going to much in difference if you use Linux or Windows for the encoding. Where the difference comes in is in the way of support for third party extensions and tools. Many of the tools and extensions are designed for Windows use as that is where the support is, and many are not cross compiled to Linux. So if you can live with the extensions that come with Linux and don't mind writing your own third party tools, then you should be fine using Linux.

 

[John Zapf]

The testing I did was all on the same hardware using the same streams, so it was a very good test.

I installed Linux Ubuntu Studio and ran my 3 streams, and it was using:
Ubuntu Studio
CPU 6.9 - 7.3 %
GPU 9-17 %

And then install Windows 11 Pro and ran the same 3 streams.
Windows 11 Pro
CPU 2.2 - 3.4 %
GPU 17 - 27 %

Not sure if this helps anyone. To me looks like windows was utilizing the video hardware better as I did have that checked on 3 streams on both tests. NVidia Drivers were installed on both.