Question / Help OBS settings 2 pcs 1080 best quality?

[Wallack]

Hi all.

I have a 2 pcs setup for streaming and want to know what would be the settings I need to change to have the best quality possible at 1080 based on my specs.

My gaming pc is an i7 6700k with a 1080 gtx.
The streaming pc is a i7 920 with a HD7970, 8 GB DDR3 and a Live gamer HD as a capture card.

I dupplicate the signal from my gaming computer into the capture card and stream from there.

My internet connection, regarding upload is aprox 25 Mbps. Download is 250 if I'm correct but shouldn't really matter.

Both systems run windows 10.

Audio would go out from my main machine to the live gamer hd and played from there.

What could be the best quality I can achieve? I want 1080p and 30 fps for streaming but would like to see it as good as possible (regarding pixels and such).

Thank you very much. Currently I have set it up to 2500 to test it. Here is the result of that test:

https://www.twitch.tv/wallack/v/82618107 (ignore audio, not configured yet).

But wondering if I could get better quality.

Thanks.

 

[Boildown]

Depending on the content that you're streaming (what kind of game), 720p will probably look better than 1080p, because of Twitch's bitrate limitations. Unless you're partnered.

Other than that, you'll have to discover the best x264 preset to use. Start with Very Fast, do some 5 minute or longer encodes, and check the OBS logs for duplicated frames. If over 1%, then you're pushing the CPU too hard, change it to something faster. If close to 0% (like 0.0 to 0.25%, in that range), then change the x264 preset to something slower. If your duplicated frames are between 0.25% and 1%, then you've tweaked it for about as good of a quality as you're going to get.

 

[FerretBomb]

You really want the system with the more powerful CPU as your encoding machine. Chances are very good that you'll get better performance with a 1PC setup, and don't need to deal with the massive pain in the butt that a 2PC setup can be (read: is). I'd recommend either swapping to the 920 as the gaming PC (with a GPU swap) or just ditching it entirely and streaming from the 6700k. You'll likely be able to run higher settings than the 920 can handle, while also gaming on it anyway.