Question / Help What cpu for gaming and streaming

Hey guys, I'm currently running two computers in my stream setup and it's getting old. My current gaming pc is a 5960x and my stream pc has an e5 2660 v2. The end goal is to stream at 1080p and game at 1440p 144hz. Would a 7940x be enough with 14 cores or should I step up to the 7960x?
 

TryHD

Member
i would stay at a two pc setup. Streaming and gaming on the same pc will be always worse against a two pc setup because obs need gpu power too.
 
i would stay at a two pc setup. Streaming and gaming on the same pc will be always worse against a two pc setup because obs need gpu power too.
Unfortunately my second PC can only do 720. You think it's smarter to just upgrade the stream PC?
 

sam686

Member
Would a 7940x be enough with 14 cores or should I step up to the 7960x?
Both have AVX512 that might help, as x264 have started to use them on recent updates.
Try asm=AVX512 or asm=AVX2 or asm=AVX, but using it on unsupported CPU will instantly crash OBS when encoder starts. Most of the time, auto-detection (no "asm=") works fine.

Faster GHz speed (7940x) wins on this benchmark website.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-7940X-vs-Intel-Core-i9-7960X/m353078vsm357952

There is a limit on how well x264 can do with too many threads. Can limit x264 threads with threads=16 or less.

Edit: your gaming pc seems better then your streaming pc. The streaming PC CPU (e5 2660 v2) is kindof slow, and is without AVX2.

Edit 2: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2660-v2-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5960X/m13068vs2580 This shows how terrible your old streaming PC's CPU is, compared to your gaming pc.
 
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Both have AVX512 that might help, as x264 have started to use them on recent updates.
Try asm=AVX512 or asm=AVX2 or asm=AVX, but using it on unsupported CPU will instantly crash OBS when encoder starts. Most of the time, auto-detection (no "asm=") works fine.

Faster GHz speed (7940x) wins on this benchmark website.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-7940X-vs-Intel-Core-i9-7960X/m353078vsm357952

There is a limit on how well x264 can do with too many threads. Can limit x264 threads with threads=16 or less.

Edit: your gaming pc seems better then your streaming pc. The streaming PC CPU (e5 2660 v2) is kindof slow, and is without AVX2.

Edit 2: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2660-v2-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5960X/m13068vs2580 This shows how terrible your old streaming PC's CPU is, compared to your gaming pc.
The original plan for the 5960x was to have one PC to stream and game from but unfortunately it was struggling with 720p streaming. I used a spare Xeon I had laying around for a streaming PC since I had all the parts. The Xeon does quite a bit better at streaming than my 3930k @4.5 GHz did so I just left it in the box. I really want one PC for all my needs.
 
Both have AVX512 that might help, as x264 have started to use them on recent updates.
Try asm=AVX512 or asm=AVX2 or asm=AVX, but using it on unsupported CPU will instantly crash OBS when encoder starts. Most of the time, auto-detection (no "asm=") works fine.

Faster GHz speed (7940x) wins on this benchmark website.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-7940X-vs-Intel-Core-i9-7960X/m353078vsm357952

There is a limit on how well x264 can do with too many threads. Can limit x264 threads with threads=16 or less.

Edit: your gaming pc seems better then your streaming pc. The streaming PC CPU (e5 2660 v2) is kindof slow, and is without AVX2.

Edit 2: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2660-v2-vs-Intel-Core-i7-5960X/m13068vs2580 This shows how terrible your old streaming PC's CPU is, compared to your gaming pc.
Also I'm currently using Ubuntu on the streaming PC and setup an nginx server to transcode the stream which comes from the gaming PC via nvenc @25k bitrate
 

sam686

Member
How are you capturing the game? With a capture card or capture device?

If using OBS in gaming computer, gaming computer can be slowed down by OBS, game capture, and encoder (NVENC). Also, streaming computer have to do something more: decode video that came from gaming computer.

Capture card (USB 3.0 or PCI-E or faster) is the best way to avoid any slowdowns on gaming computer. Be sure to get a capture card that is compatible with Linux. There is OBS-Studio for Linux. But I don't know about the limitations of g-sync and cloning mixed refresh rate. Getting to clone 1440p native and 1080p downscale for capture card might not be a problem with NVidia's "DSR" Dynamic Super Resolutions found in NVidia control panel, manage 3D settings, on newest NVidia graphics cards.
 
How are you capturing the game? With a capture card or capture device?

If using OBS in gaming computer, gaming computer can be slowed down by OBS, game capture, and encoder (NVENC). Also, streaming computer have to do something more: decode video that came from gaming computer.

Capture card (USB 3.0 or PCI-E or faster) is the best way to avoid any slowdowns on gaming computer. Be sure to get a capture card that is compatible with Linux. There is OBS-Studio for Linux. But I don't know about the limitations of g-sync and cloning mixed refresh rate. Getting to clone 1440p native and 1080p downscale for capture card might not be a problem with NVidia's "DSR" Dynamic Super Resolutions found in NVidia control panel, manage 3D settings, on newest NVidia graphics cards.
Gaming computer uses nvenc @25k to the streaming computer over the network and the stream pc uses nginx to transcode to twitch.
 

alpinlol

Active Member
As already mentioned if you want to stream 1080p60 and play in 1440p with 144hz its best to use a 2 pc Setup with a capture card.

Your current gaming PC is still plenty to play on but the streaming pc is lacking, an upgrade there would be the most beneficial.
 
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