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

zfleeman

New Member
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

New Member
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

Active Member
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

New Member
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.
 
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