Question / Help Ryzen 2700X High CPU, 144hz Dual PC Streaming, Headaches...

[zfleeman]

Here is the log file for my most recent recording test: https://pastebin.com/nw8ywBNM

I have been slowly building a second PC for streaming. I have a nice gaming rig with two 144hz monitors, and I wanted to be able to stream new/nicer looking games that are running on my PC with a second computer.

FIRST DILEMMA
I kind of assumed that the 2700X would be a good processor for 1080p/60fps streaming at 9,000kbps, but it's still buckling with the 'fast' x264 preset on the streaming computer. I'm getting encoding/high load errors when trying to stream a faster-paced game like Counter-Strike. I wasn't expecting this with the Ryzen. The gaming PC is duplicating my main display into the Elgato HD60 Pro capture card in the streaming PC. I thought I was pretty well-versed in messing with and understanding 264, but go ahead and preach to me. I thought this would perform at least a little better than my i7-7700K was.

I was also expecting something better looking than this: https://youtu.be/jzNDu9pkBFE. Note: you can see when the encoder gets overloaded when I spin the camera.

SECOND DILEMMA THAT'S NOT REALLY RELATED TO OBS (SORRY)
I think I have my 144hz monitor duplicating to the 60fps HDMI output correctly, but my main monitor now lacks the buttery smoothness that I've come to expect with a 144hz monitor. I can get games to perform just fine when I mess with fullscreen/vsync settings, but whenever I drag my windows around on the Windows desktop, they're all jittery. I've been following guides that I've found with bad Google searches like this one (https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/35qk17/2pc_setup_144hz_monitor_60hz_capture_card_hdmi_i/ ), but I'm not sure how to get a setup that makes it truly seem like the gaming PC is encountering no extra load due to streaming.

 

[zfleeman]

I've been able to take care of the second dilemma, but I'm still very frustrated with the performance of my Ryzen 7 2700X trying to encode 1080/60 on 'fast' or 'faster'. Could I get some tips? I think I've done a lot of optimizations with the processor (installed the chipset and whatnot), but I'm still having higher-than-expected CPU utilization. I'd really appreciate the help.

 

[BK-Morpheus]

I think the 2700x should be able to encode 1080p 60fps with fast preset on a dedicated streaming PC, so maybe by eliminating different variables, you can pin point the source of the problem.
Is the CPU load relatively high (let's say more than 10% average overall load) , when OBS is just launched, but not encoding?
If so, we know, that it's not really just the encoding process that is tanking the CPU, so in the next step I would create a new scene collection (not a single scene) for testing. Is the CPU load better with a new, empty scene collection?
If so, start adding a source, check CPU load and keep going with the next source. If the CPU load is noticeable increasing at one point, you are a step closer to a solution.
Maybe a video or browser source is causing troubles, or the capture card driver is causing problems that result in a high cpu load.

 

[zfleeman]

Wow, that was it. I'll start rebuilding my scenes one by one. I think I only got up to 60% while encoding with just the capture card selected as a source. I have a few 1080p videos that I might have on continuous loop (not sure) in the scene collection I was using previously.

Looks like it was all of my videos + songs + webcam + browser source that might be doing it. Thank you. I'm also going to try to OC the processor a bit now that I know I have some room to maybe even step it up to the 'medium' preset.