Question / Help OBS x246 vs NVENC HIGH CPU GPU USAGE. PLEASE HELP

[ZachZ7778]

Question/Issue:

I have a dual PC setup. My main computer has a GTX 1080 (8GB), i7 processor, 32GB RAM.
My streaming PC has a GTX 660, i5 processor, and 8GB RAM. (Yes it’s old).
It seems that every game I play these days on my main PC, takes up about 80%-100% of my CPU and GPU. So anytime I try to stream with x246, even with low bitrate, OBS instantly says “Encoding Overloaded”.
I’ve recently discovered the NDI plugin, but I still have the same issue if I try to use x246, and I drop frames in game too.
So I’ve had to resort to using the NVENC encoder which obviously produces lower quality but barely phases my computer.

So my question is, is there anything I can do to make games or obs be less intensive on my computer using x246?
If not, what are the best possible settings for using the NVENC encoder?

 

[koala]

You seem to have used a capture card before you tried NDI. If you use a capture card in your streaming PC to capture your gaming PC, the CPU and GPU usage from the game on your gaming PC isn't relevant to OBS on the streaming PC. If you have encoder overload on the streaming PC in this scenario, your CPU on the streaming PC isn't powerful enough to encode the stream with the requested settings. Switching to nvenc is a valid way to make encoding work. The nvenc quality of a GTX 660 is not bad. Better a smooth nvenc stream than having x264 with a choppy and laggy stream.

If you don't want to upgrade your streaming PC's CPU, your gaming PC may be better suited to play and stream at the same time. Use game capture and nvenc (on the GTX 1080 nvenc is a bit better than on the GTX 660) in a one PC setup and you may have a better stream. With 2 monitors, one for the game and one for OBS, it may be better this way than to use an old and not strong enough PC for the streaming/encoding part. Producing the stream is no light-weight operation that can be run on any old scrap PC. It heavily stresses the machine.

 

[ZachZ7778]

I did start out trying to use a capture card. In my main PC I have an Elgato HD60 Pro which I wanted to install into my streaming PC but it’s motherboard literally doesn’t even have a slot for it.
I then tried using the Elgato HD 60, and HD 60S, but they would both eventually start getting really out of sync and I was losing my mind.
I almost gave up all hope until I discovered the NDI plugin.
But I originally tried using my main gaming PC for streaming all in one but I literally set EVERY setting to lowest that obs had, and it would still say Encoding Overloaded. Which is why I am resorting to a dual PC.
I would like to upgrade my streaming PC but, it’s so old I’m afraid that if I upgrade one part, I’ll have to upgrade everything. Which in that case, I might as well just build a whole new PC. Which I’d like to do but I don’t have $3,000+ atm.