Question / Help Picking the right hardware

[Tinitus]

Hi there,

I don't know if I'm in the right subforum, so please excuse me if I'm wrong here.

I use OBS to stream events, not games. I'm currently running OBS on an Intel i3 2120 and the performance is not very good.
With OBS Studio I'm now able to stream and record in different resolutions and bitrates which is awesome for me.
I would like to upgrade my hardware to something more powerful dedicated to the task of streaming and I'd like for you to recommend to me the way to go.

Here's the setting:

Each PC (there are 4 in total) has two cameras (IP Cameras with a direct show filter) connected to it as well as an Avermedia LGP Lite for grabbing Powerpoint and stuff.

I'd like to stream 960x540 with about 2000kbits (4 times that is all my internet connection can handle) and record in 720p at 6000-7000kbits (it's for youtube, no need to go 20000 here).

Right now I'm using x264 for recording and streaming which gives me a cpu load of 100% and changing scenes will cause hickups.

Now there is Intels Quicksync and Nvidias CUDA (I don't plan on using AMD). I find a lot (!) of conflicting information online about both technologies.

Can I use Quicksync and CUDA at the same time (e. g. have onboard and dedicated graphics on at the same time?).
I read alot about quicksync online but most of it is about 2nd i processors, were 6th generation now and I'm left puzzled.

Can I assign quicksync to handle the stream and Cuda to do the recording?
Am I better off using quicksync and (software) h264? or even CUDA and h264?

I'd like to keep costs low as I need to buy 4 pcs. My I5 (don't know the model on top of my head) laptop handles streaming and recording fine at the settings given above with about 50% cpu using quicksync and h264. Seems the I3's I have are just very old...

Can you recommend me something like "Get this and that I5, use Quicksync and h264" or "Get an I3 and a GTX whatever, run quicksync as well as CUDA" or even "LOL dude how dumb are you, read this *link*" ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Harold]

So you're using a capture card to capture the screen of the exact same system you're broadcasting from?
If so, stop. That doesn't offer any performance boost and in fact can cause a performance loss depending on capture card.

The recording profile can do crf-based bitrate selection with the ultrafast preset to reduce cpu use on that side as much as possible.

CUDA isn't the name of nvidia's hardware h264 encoder. NVENC is. Quicksync and NVENC aren't really good for streaming, especially since the mediafoundation implementation of the encoders doesn't properly support constant bitrate.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=35375968 This is the core of the system I built for webcasting, using an appropriate power supply and case for my use situation. The system itself is capable of streaming 720p using the veryfast preset while recording 1080p using ultrafast and still has cpu time left over. No hardware encoders needed.

 

[Tinitus]

I'm not capturing my own pc, I capture basicly what the projector in the room sees, e. g. other peoples laptops with power point or keynote or whatever.

So you are basicly saying I should go all software and get the beefiest cpu possible for the budget, right?

Another question: You say quicksync or NVENC (sorry for mixing it up with CUDA) aren't good for streaming. Are they good for recording though? Would streaming with h264 and recording with quicksync work better?

Or is all software the way to go here?

 

[Harold]

qsv/nvenc are okay-ish for recording, but you'd better plan to use a LOT more disk space for the recordings compared to x264. nvenc is especially bad for streaming, often requiring double the bitrate or more, and that's before you even factor in the fact that the mediafoundation encoders don't support constant bitrate properly (which is effectively required for streaming)

Because you're going with capturing content from another computer instead of from the same computer, you can more readily go with an i5 based machine rather than an i7 based one.