Question / Help Streaming PC Requirements?

[canuck_brian]

Hello,

I am currently gaming and streaming with just a single PC. It works, but there is definitely a FPS hit when streaming.

I'm thinking of using a spare PC as a dedicated streaming PC. But I'm not sure if it's specs are up to the challenge.


Gaming PC:

• Intel i7 2600K 3.4Ghz (4.4Ghz Turbo)
• 16GB DDR 3
• AMD 7970
• 2 x 120GB SSD Raid 0

Streaming PC: (proposed)

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz
• 8GB DDR 2
• nVidia Geforce 570 Ti
• 1 x 120GB SSD
• Elgato HD60

Will the specs on the proposed Streaming PC be good enough to do 720p60 transcoding?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dping]

Hello,

I am currently gaming and streaming with just a single PC. It works, but there is definitely a FPS hit when streaming.

I'm thinking of using a spare PC as a dedicated streaming PC. But I'm not sure if it's specs are up to the challenge.


Gaming PC:

• Intel i7 2600K 3.4Ghz (4.4Ghz Turbo)
• 16GB DDR 3
• AMD 7970
• 2 x 120GB SSD Raid 0

Streaming PC: (proposed)

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66Ghz
• 8GB DDR 2
• nVidia Geforce 570 Ti
• 1 x 120GB SSD
• Elgato HD60

Will the specs on the proposed Streaming PC be good enough to do 720p60 transcoding?

Thanks in advance.

to be honest, I had a x3360 (basically a Q9550) OC'd to 3.4 and 720@48fps would put me about 70% usage as I recall. so I would think that probably not even as a dedicated would it do 720@60 well enough. you could try the VCE build on your main PC and take the load off of your CPU...https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-branch-with-amd-vce-support.13996/ this is what I did to get 720@60 before my upgrade

 

[canuck_brian]

to be honest, I had a x3360 (basically a Q9550) OC'd to 3.4 and 720@48fps would put me about 70% usage as I recall. so I would think that probably not. you could try the VCE build on your main PC and take the load off of your CPU...https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-branch-with-amd-vce-support.13996/ this is what I did to get 720@60 before my upgrade

Hey, thanks for this. I'll try it out tonight. Did it make a big difference for you?

 

[dping]

Hey, thanks for this. I'll try it out tonight. Did it make a big difference for you?

in CPU intensive games such as l4d2, BF4 (non mantle) and CS:GO, yes it will work good. anything GPU intensive (mantle based) its better to use x264.

 

[canuck_brian]

I'm playing H1Z1 and Arma 3 based games right now. H1Z1 seems to have no issues. At most I'll see it drop down to 50fps in urban areas. However Arma 3 based games seem to suffer a lot (sometimes dropping to 25-35fps), though I notice my CPU is only at 70-80% usage. However when I stop streaming it jumps up to 60fps immediately. This is while using the Elgato HD60 on my gaming machine.

 

[dping]

I'm playing H1Z1 and Arma 3 based games right now. H1Z1 seems to have no issues. At most I'll see it drop down to 50fps in urban areas. However Arma 3 based games seem to suffer a lot (sometimes dropping to 25-35fps), though I notice my CPU is only at 70-80% usage. However when I stop streaming it jumps up to 60fps immediately. This is while using the Elgato HD60 on my gaming machine.

I think you are doing it wrong :P
if you think that the elgato benefits single PC setups you are incorrect. you should not lose any in-game fps while streaming to a capture card. it basically acts as cloned monitor to capture the screen and stream it to another.

 

[canuck_brian]

I understand how the Elgato works. I got it because some games I play do not work well with OBS in fullscreen mode. The game or OBS crashes. H1Z1 is a perfect example. If I was using software capture on it, and put the game in fullscreen mode, the moment I press my hotkey to tell OBS to start streaming, the game crashes to desktop instantly. Using the Elgato gets around that. I understand that the PC still has to do all the processing work of transcoding the video for broadcast on Twitch. I appreciate your input though as I'm still fairly new to all of this.

 

[dping]

I understand how the Elgato works. I got it because some games I play do not work well with OBS in fullscreen mode. The game or OBS crashes. H1Z1 is a perfect example. If I was using software capture on it, and put the game in fullscreen mode, the moment I press my hotkey to tell OBS to start streaming, the game crashes to desktop instantly. Using the Elgato gets around that. I understand that the PC still has to do all the processing work of transcoding the video for broadcast on Twitch. I appreciate your input though as I'm still fairly new to all of this.

no prob. H1Z1 from my understanding works with game capture using the anticheat hook. i'd give that a go

 

[canuck_brian]

Thanks for the tips yesterday. I downloaded the branch of OBS that you suggested and tested that out. It helped quite a bit. I think I just need to play with the settings to tune the quality. It seems to pixelate quite a bit when there's lots of motion. I'll do some research on settings for VCE and try to get the pixelation and blockyness down.

 

[dping]

Thanks for the tips yesterday. I downloaded the branch of OBS that you suggested and tested that out. It helped quite a bit. I think I just need to play with the settings to tune the quality. It seems to pixelate quite a bit when there's lots of motion. I'll do some research on settings for VCE and try to get the pixelation and blockyness down.

i dont recall what your bitrate was before but youll need 3500 for vce but it will always look blockier than x264. Its a tradeoff.

 

[canuck_brian]

I had my bitrate set to 2500 when I was testing last night. Upload speed isn't an issue for me, have tons of bandwidth. I'll try upping it to 3500 tonight. Also read up on some setting tweaks to improve quality that I'll try out as well.