Question / Help What CPU specs to run a 5-window OBS stream?

[Sir Willard]

Just getting started on setting up a live stream or maybe just actual play DnD campaign ala Drunks & Dragons or Critical Role.

I'm imagining 2 mics and 3 video cameras, maybe 4, each a "window" in the overlay. Maybe a 5th window that runs a prepared slide show of still art images.

That being said, what kind of hardware do you imagine I'll need? Some kind of a hub, I guess, for the cameras and mics. Then a pretty strong computer, yes? So...just HOW strong? And could laptops be in that conversation?

Thanks so much!

 

[carlmmii]

If it's any indication, I run 5 cams + 2 captures on a 3770k, and it hovers around 40-50% for OBS, and 70-90% usage with everything going. The biggest thing is making sure you're being frugal with big resource hogs -- browser sources are a huge one, and if you have to run Chrome without hardware acceleration, make sure you don't have anything running that will tax the cpu too much (such as viewing your own stream at source quality).

The problem you'll run into with laptops is the issue of usb bandwidth. Each camera needs its own chunk of bandwidth, and getting just 2 of them to play nicely on the same host controller can be a chore. The my setup, each usb2.0 cam gets its own host controller (2 usb2.0 controllers, and 2 usb3.0+2.0 controllers), and the usb3.0 devices are balanced appropriately. For a laptop, you're lucky if you have more than just a single usb3.0+2.0 host controller... that severely limits your options, but there are ways to make it work if you drop resolutions and can use usb3.0 cams.

 

[Sir Willard]

If it's any indication, I run 5 cams + 2 captures on a 3770k, and it hovers around 40-50% for OBS, and 70-90% usage with everything going. The biggest thing is making sure you're being frugal with big resource hogs -- browser sources are a huge one, and if you have to run Chrome without hardware acceleration, make sure you don't have anything running that will tax the cpu too much (such as viewing your own stream at source quality).

The problem you'll run into with laptops is the issue of usb bandwidth. Each camera needs its own chunk of bandwidth, and getting just 2 of them to play nicely on the same host controller can be a chore. The my setup, each usb2.0 cam gets its own host controller (2 usb2.0 controllers, and 2 usb3.0+2.0 controllers), and the usb3.0 devices are balanced appropriately. For a laptop, you're lucky if you have more than just a single usb3.0+2.0 host controller... that severely limits your options, but there are ways to make it work if you drop resolutions and can use usb3.0 cams.

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--Thanks for the reply and info!

When you say you run all that on a "3770K," is that CPU size, or vid card size? And, either way, isn't that really small? If so, are you saying it doesn't really take that much cpu to run your 5 cam stream? Thanks again. :)

 

[Boildown]

When you say you run all that on a "3770K," is that CPU size, or vid card size? And, either way, isn't that really small? If so, are you saying it doesn't really take that much cpu to run your 5 cam stream? Thanks again. :)

It means his CPU is one of these: https://ark.intel.com/products/65523/Intel-Core-i7-3770K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3-90-GHz- . Its still a really decent CPU, actually.

If you don't already have an older i7 like his, and you were going to build one today, I'd get a newish i7/i9 or a high core count Xeon (can be older) or one of the new highly cored Ryzen 2s. Just pay attention to the USB root hubs that the motherboard you choose supports like carlmmii said, assuming you're using USB cameras. And it sounds like laptops aren't realistically going to work.

 

[Harold]

For a 5-camera setup, a laptop outright won't do the job.
I'd go with a desktop and use a multi-input capture card like the blackmagic decklink quad2 (if you need 5 or more cameras) or the decklink duo2 (for up to 4)

An i5 4690k is mostly capable of running the 5 cameras (source: I did it with one for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtyn27nTfsE )
I'd still recommend building new with 7th or 8th generation intel i5 or i7 based desktops.

 

[Sir Willard]

Great info. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, so, here’s a random thought. In a worst case scenario where I can’t get a designated desktop for this, could I prerecord each camera, transfer them to a pc, then load them from the hard drive into an overlay on OBS and save the product as a single audiovideo file or whatever? Or is OBS only for live streaming, not prerecorded feeds?

 

[Harold]

for what you're trying to do with prerecorded, an actual video editor would be better than obs.

 

[DylanNicolosi]

Hello, I was wondering what the optimal specs are needed to operate OBS with two cameras and two mics.