Question / Help Trouble with high CPU%

[Sharp155]

So I'm having a heck of a time trying to stream with certain games.I've tried many different options to get my CPU usage down but there are so many settings, it makes it hard to find what works and what doesn't. Currently I'm trying the QuickSync option instead of the x264 and that seems to help bring the CPU usage down a little bit.

First of all, this is an idea of what is happening. While preview streaming Dying Light on mostly low settings my CPU usage is in the 60%-88% range and the game runs smoothly. When I try GTA5 with mostly low/medium settings it says I am getting over 150FPS but the game is choppy but cutscenes are smooth. And for Star Wars Battlefront my CPU usage is up in the 60%-80% range but the gameplay is smooth.

So what is considered too high or dangerously high CPU usage? And what happens if it stays in the 90"s for a long time?

These are my stream settings using 64bit OBS. Also have my webcam set to record at 1280x720

And my PC SPECS are

CPU: Intel i7 4770k
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Formula
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB
SSD: Samsung 850 PRO 512GB
Monitor: ASUS VG248QE
Webcam: Logitech HD C920
Mic: Audio-Technica AT-2020


Let me know if you need any more details or want me to test something out. This gets to be frustrating.

 

[Icemanvincy85]

It depends of your connection speed, you use 2400 so i guess you have a 3 MB upload speed then. If not, that would be the problem...with your cpu you could set the x264 to medium without problem, i never use the Quicksync so maybe best quality is too much..who knows better the Quicksync could help you more

 

[Sharp155]

Sorry, I should have posted a pic of internet speeds.

 

[Sharp155]

It depends of your connection speed, you use 2400 so i guess you have a 3 MB upload speed then. If not, that would be the problem...with your cpu you could set the x264 to medium without problem, i never use the Quicksync so maybe best quality is too much..who knows better the Quicksync could help you more

I tried that and it makes my CPU usage go higher :(

 

[Cryonic]

Slower presets will increase the CPU load. And for medium you need a 12core Xeon or an overclocked 5960X to make sure you dont run into a CPU limit :-)
Even my 5820K @ 4,5GHz cant hold 1080p 60FPS with the "fast" preset, only faster is avaliable and i take about 40% CPU usage only from OBS while running halfway decent stuff for the encoder.

 

[Icemanvincy85]

I tried that and it makes my CPU usage go higher :(

with your upload speed you could use bitrate and buffer 3500 without problem. It's strange that cpu go higher with an i7....i have a bad cpu and i'm bound to use superfast. Veryfast is the safest option but you can push harder on cpu usage.

So start with veryfast :)

 

[Sharp155]

But is having my CPU usage in the 80-90% range bad?

 

[Cryonic]

That depends on what you do. If that is just a streaming PC, doing nothing else - that good, its being used.
If this is your gaming rig or your only PC (so streaming, gaming and communication happens there at the same time) - you might want to turn it down a bit, 90% will have a decent impact on the game performance.

 

[alpinlol]

a log would have been nice.

and i highly doubt that an i7 4770k can run 720p60 on medium preset (as suggested) even if it could handle it the gain is marginal for the extra cpu usage (veryfast is pretty much the best)

for qsv if you are actually streaming with it your cpu usage while streaming should maybe (if even) 3-8%.

also make sure you arent running your own stream in the background on the same machine due to flash player being a bit*h