Question / Help x264 CPU Preset recommend for AMD FX-8350 with 4.00 GHz?

[ABOhiccups]

Hello,
I want to stream PC Games up to 1080p or 720p with 60fps on Twitch such as CS:GO, Batman Arkham City, Star Wars: KOTOR Series, Dota 2, etc. I'm using AMD FX-8350 CPU with 4.00 GHz CPU Speed.

Which x264 CPU Preset setting do you recommend to stream PC Games without overheating and having computer turn itself off?

 

[Cryonic]

Overheating should not be a problem anyway, doesnt matter what you throw at your CPU.
The preset depends on your resolution and FPS (i expect 720p 60FPS here) and also on the game. With heavy load on your CPU use the default preset, when playing something less demanding, go slower (faster/fast, try it). If you hit 90% - thats a bit too much, with spikes you will start to lose FPS.

 

[FerretBomb]

Test and monitor your thermals with something like RealTemp or CoreTemp, as well as your CPU load and any throttling. How hot your rig runs will depend on what kind of cooler and paste you're using, their condition, how clean the system is, ambient temps and so on. The only way to be sure is to test, watch it and see.

Start off at Veryfast, and move down a step slower after 10-30 minutes of testing to allow things to stabilize.

Unless you are partnered, it is not suggested to stream at 1080p or 720p@60 anyway; the max recommended bitrate for non-partnered streams is 2000kbps. This is enough for a watchable 720p@30 stream, or 480p@60 if you have a specific reason to need the higher bitrate (ex: Super Metroid flashes sprites for trasparency, capturing at 30fps tends to have things disappear or just stay solid. Switching to 60fps fixes this), but is nowhere near enough for 1080p or 720@60.

Good luck on the KOTOR series by the way; great games, but they haven't aged too well, and have some capture issues as well as problems running on anything higher than XP, or in a widescreen format.