Question / Help some build questions

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wekky

New Member
I'm looking to replace my PC soon. I can spend about $1500. My goal is being able to stream 1080@60 without having a noticeable affect on gameplay. Mainly I play SC2 and Dota.

So, some questions:

- Are capture cards worth it? I've heard some people say they don't make much of a difference when you're gaming on the same computer as you're streaming. Others have said it makes a huge difference in CPU usage.

- AMD vs. Intel CPU? My understanding is that AMD does slightly better in video rendering and with programs that use multiple cores, but Intel generally has superior single-core performance (better for games).

- Does Hyper-Threading make a significant difference for OBS?

- Depending on the answer to the HT question, would I get better streaming performance out of, say, an OC'd i5 4670K or an Xeon E3-1230?

- Builds I'm considering:
Intel: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LmJL
AMD: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LnBZ
 
1080p60 just isn't a very reasonable goal. The bandwidth required for it to look decent is generally beyond the Twitch broadcast requirements of 3500 Kbps or less (which in many cases isn't even enough to make 1080p30 look decent), and Flash decodes it very poorly resulting in high CPU usage and choppy video for your viewers. Most people trying to do 1080p60 streams, even with excellent hardware, end up with something that isn't a smooth 60 FPS at all and looks worse than a 1080p30 or 720p60 stream. They also invest a lot more than $1500 into their streaming setups, so if that's your budget I suggest you lower your target to something more sensible.

- Capture cards are worth it for 2PC setups. 1PC setups very rarely benefit.
- Yes, hyperthreading matters for video encoding.
- An Intel i7-4770K would be the best choice for streaming given your budget. Get an aftermarket HSF and overclock it.
 
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