Question / Help Very Simple Questions About Recording/Streaming

[wrice4]

So I just upgrade all of my pc components, and I wanted to know a couple of things since I upgraded everything and my pc will be beefier than before:

1. Before I upgraded I had to record with NVENC, (gtx 970) because my i5-4690k (4.7ghz OC) couldn't handle playing pc games and recording at the same time. With the new CPU, should I change it back to recording at x264, or leave it on NVEC? Should I try out Qsync instead? Never used it before.

2. Same question for streaming purposes. I know I have read NVENC is horrible for streaming, or at least quality wise, and you have to have a higher bitrate.

3. Currently my recording is NVENC cqp 16. What bitrate does this record at, for editing/exporting purposes?

Old PC setup:
i5-4690k overclocked to 4.7ghz with 6 fan water cooling system
gtx 970
ddr 3 16gb 2400 ram

New setup:
i7-7700k default overclock for now
gtx 1070
ddr 4 32gb 3200 ram

 

[Sapiens]

1. Both CPUs should be able to manage x264 fine in the vast majority of cases. If you want to use a hardware encoder, use QSV.
2. You aren't bitrate-limited in local recordings so use the recording quality presets and QSV.
3. It doesn't record at a specific bitrate, it aims for a quality target and adjusts the bitrate as necessary.

 

[wrice4]

1. Both CPUs should be able to manage x264 fine in the vast majority of cases. If you want to use a hardware encoder, use QSV.
2. You aren't bitrate-limited in local recordings so use the recording quality presets and QSV.
3. It doesn't record at a specific bitrate, it aims for a quality target and adjusts the bitrate as necessary.

1. @Jim helped me the other day because my recordings with x264 were horribly choppy and unwatchable. After sending him my logs he said my current cpu was not powerful enough to record and play at the same time because OBS didn't have enough resources to record properly, while playing. I had 91% skipped frames. Once switched to NVENC, it went down to 4% skipped frames.

2. I don't fully understand since I asked about streaming? Also, are you saying use qsv for streaming vs x264?

3. I usually always export my videos, from PP, at a CBR level. That is what why I am asking, as I don't know what level to set it at. VBR in the past hasn't worked the best.

 

[Sapiens]

Sorry on 2, trying to answer forum posts at work is probably a bad idea. Yes, you want to use x264 for streaming if possible. Without seeing a log file I can't really say what was going wrong with the 4690K but it should be pretty capable of managing something like 720p30 streaming unless you're also running something extremely CPU-heavy and/or aren't managing system load between that and OBS.

For recording the default is to use VBR and that's what CQP values will do. If you want to record at CBR for some reason then you'll need to manually configure the encoder for that.

 

[wrice4]

Sorry on 2, trying to answer forum posts at work is probably a bad idea. Yes, you want to use x264 for streaming if possible. Without seeing a log file I can't really say what was going wrong with the 4690K but it should be pretty capable of managing something like 720p30 streaming unless you're also running something extremely CPU-heavy and/or aren't managing system load between that and OBS.

For recording the default is to use VBR and that's what CQP values will do. If you want to record at CBR for some reason then you'll need to manually configure the encoder for that.

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/horribly-choppy-recordings-with-recommended-settings.64634/

My initial thread.


I will try to use x264 to stream, and record, and see how it goes. Does QSV have any benefit for recording, over the x264?

As far as the VBR, I guess I will just need to put my exports at a VBR too, but determine some range. Just trying to match recording settings for best export quality.

 

[Sapiens]

QSV is still a hardware encoder but it tends to provide better quality than NVENC or AMF, so we usually recommend that if it's available.

As far as the logs in your previous thread it looks like a case of running the game without vsync (or some other form of frame rate limiter) and using a stream resolution that's too high. You should be downscaling to something like 720p for higher paced games like H1Z1 anyway.

 

[wrice4]

QSV is still a hardware encoder but it tends to provide better quality than NVENC or AMF, so we usually recommend that if it's available.

As far as the logs in your previous thread it looks like a case of running the game without vsync (or some other form of frame rate limiter) and using a stream resolution that's too high. You should be downscaling to something like 720p for higher paced games like H1Z1 anyway.

Gotcha, makes sense.

I was running the game without vsync, forgot to try to turn that off. What do you mean a stream resolution thats too high? I have not streamed any pc games laterly. Only streaming I have done is via an elgato with my xbox one...which is perfectly fine. Speaking of streaming, my upload speed is 5mbps, so I have been streaming at 4000kbps. Should I leave my stream to downscaled 720p 60fps or try for 1080p 30fps, with 4000?

Are you saying I should be downscaling my recording to 720p with h1z1? Or are you talking about streaming?

 

[Sapiens]

The log file I looked at had an H1Z1 attempt at 1080p. Won't look good and will put a lot of extra stress on the CPU and result in mediocre image quality at best. The encoding resolution combined with no vsync is probably what killed things, but even at 720p performance would have been poor with no vsync. For streaming high motion games to Twitch 720p with x264 is usually a better choice. For recording you can let a hardware encoder take care of it, throw 1080p60 at it if you want, the encoder won't care.

 

[wrice4]

The log file I looked at had an H1Z1 attempt at 1080p. Won't look good and will put a lot of extra stress on the CPU and result in mediocre image quality at best. The encoding resolution combined with no vsync is probably what killed things, but even at 720p performance would have been poor with no vsync. For streaming high motion games to Twitch 720p with x264 is usually a better choice. For recording you can let a hardware encoder take care of it, throw 1080p60 at it if you want, the encoder won't care.

By the way I stream with restream.io, so its streaming to youtube and twitch. I will keep the stream at 720 60fps.

Once I switched to NVENC, on my old pc specs, it recorded 1080p fine. My processor just couldn't handle it, like you said. With my new setup I will try to record at 1080 with vsync enabled. If that doesn't work I will downscale it.

Thank you so much for the help. I do appreciate it.