Question / Help x264 Fast vs Faster?

[xSonic521x]

I have a 4770k @ 4.2 GHz and can stream almost everything fine with the Fast Preset except for maybe say Dolphin (Gamecube and Wii Emulator), but even then that's only with about, I'd say maybe 5 seconds of a very noticable FPS drop every 5 minutes or so. So I figured I'd go to Faster for that but I was wondering how much quality loss there is? I can't seem to find any pictures and any local pictures or recordings I try don't seem to point out the difference unless it truly is that small. Also I've been reading about on here, and I've seen conflicting arguements, where as, "If you jump from Faster to Fast you'll notice a huge quality difference" and others that say "Slowest is only about 30% more cleaner in terms of quality compared to Ultra Fast" (Or Very Fast, I forget which) and that bitrate matters way more than the preset. If anyone can give me any insight into all these curiousities that'd be greatly appreciated.

 

[xSonic521x]

Anyone? .-.

 

[Sapiens]

Create test recordings for both presets and then watch them. If you can't tell a difference then there's your answer. Output quality depends on a lot of factors in addition to preset so the best way to get a meaningful answer to your question is to test for yourself.

 

[Videophile]

Honestly, there is not going to be a noticeable difference. If you take screenshots of identical frames, and looks at lines, sure, there will be something, but it not going to be evident in streams.

People won't come in and say "WOW man, your streaming at fast preset".

 

[xSonic521x]

M'kay, I was wondering that. I used to use Very Fast but use Faster now. Also, I have another, problem per say. I'm not sure if this is normal, but my bitrate when streaming seems to flucuate a lot. https://gist.github.com/a26f3c1b49f7442758da I noticed that it spikes up a lot when there's a fairly large amount of music or sound effects playing at a time, it went up from 1600 setting, all the way up to 2200 at one point.

 

[xSonic521x]

That's from an older stream but more or less same settings except for bitrate size and I have custom buffer size disabled. But what could cause it to fluctuate so much?

 

[Sapiens]

It's normal for the bitrate to fluctuate a bit even in CBR mode.

 

[xSonic521x]

M'kay, thank you. =) I hope one day there we be some alternative solution for people to be able to watch streams on twitch aside from lowering bitrate or them getting better internet. I used to do 2000 all the time and that was fine for most everyone, but lots of mobile people and people in rural areas had problems so I went down all the way to 1500. =( But hey, what's the point of streaming if you can't bring in many viewers right?