Question / Help Stream with NVENC looks better then x264?

[ScaryRage]

Hey,
I've tried streaming with my 8700k on the Preset: ''medium'' and a bitrate of 7500 (1080P).
Then i tryed streaming with NVENC with my 1080Ti on Preset Default and got same (maybe even better) quality with the NVENC preset.
I've also heard that some popular streamers like Ninja or KingRichard started streaming with the Gpu even with a streaming pc?
I remember KingRichard said that the NVENC encoder looks really good nowdays compared to some years ago and also may be a better solution then x264.
What you guys think about that?

 

[Nilvgaming]

Well in my testing of streaming i can still see quite difference between x264 very fast and NVENC specially in game like overwatch which is really high motion. x264 is much less blurry at 6000 bitrate. So i'm sure if you can push encoder lower it will be even better.

I was using Overwatch as quality benchmark doing 1080p60fps with 6000k bitrate on my ryzen 1700 with x264 veryfast. And then NVENC with high quality preset at same bitrate. The highest difference really comes at those high motion scenes, which x264 just does better job. But i mean NVENC is definitely good enough quality at that bitrate already. So if question is about using NVENC or not streaming at all then it's definitely a viable option, but if your CPU can handle x264 it does make sense to use it.

There is just so many variables when you are benchmarking quality, that it's really hard to tell. Also if you got streaming PC i don't see much reason using NVENC because you can't really push the encoder harder for quality like you can in x264.

About your streaming is that dedicated streaming PC? or are you playing and streaming on same computer with 8700k? also what are you streaming to be able to push medium preset and play on the same computer?

 

[koala]

Nvenc on a Pascal chip (GTX 10x0) is about the same quality as x264 with the "veryfast" preset. The "medium" preset can result in better quality, but only as long as you have the CPU power for it. Otherwise you will get dropped frames which you see as long lags, which makes parts of your video some kind of slideshow. This is what probably happens for you: your computer isn't able to handle your game and x264-encoding in medium preset at the same time.
The quality difference between "faster" and "medium" is almost negligible, but the difference in CPU demand is huge, so you might try the "faster" preset for x264. But it's still very CPU demanding for 1080p. The performance of your game might still suffer from the CPU demand of the stream encoder.

Usually, you are better off with nvenc than with x264, because this relieves your CPU from so much work that your game will run as smooth as if you don't record the first place.

 

[ScaryRage]

3 Other Questions for NVENC Encoder:
1. Which level would you set for best quality? I can choose between 1 - 5.1
2. Should i turn up Bframe to 4 for better quality?
3. Preset: ''High Quality'' or ''Default''

 

[ScaryRage]

3 Other Questions for NVENC Encoder:
1. Which level would you set for best quality? I can choose between 1 - 5.1
2. Should i turn up Bframe to 4 for better quality?
3. Preset: ''High Quality'' or ''Default''

Can someone please just answer this 3 questions? would really appreciate it.

 

[Harold]

1> leave level at automatic in 200% of situations.
2> not really no.
3> Try them and see how things go.

 

[ScaryRage]

1> leave level at automatic in 200% of situations.
2> not really no.
3> Try them and see how things go.

With ''not really no.'' You mean that it can get a little bit better, but nobody will be able to notice right? Or can i also get even worse quality bumping it up from 2 to 4?

 

[Harold]

Advanced output mode, while allowing for more fine-tuning of options, does not automatically mean that your stream or recording will have better quality. Often, it can result in lower quality, because it can allow changes to settings that really shouldn't be changed. In most cases, Simple output mode is the best option to get the most out of OBS. To change back to Simple output mode: 1) Go to Settings > Output in OBS. 2) Change "Output Mode" from "Advanced" to "Simple".

From our factoid bot on our discord.

These fine tunings you're doing are likely going to end with terrible quality.