Question / Help X264 nvenc quicksync... thats all??

[Abgematzt]

Hello,

i try to buy a stand alone encoder card for OBS. Reason: I dont wanna use x264 because the cpu power i need for the applikation (Game, Chatbot, TS3, other software they running at my live streams to twitch simultan) and the nvenc hardware encoder are not the best.

What i didnt need:
- a capture card
- a second pc

What iam looking for is a pure hardware encoding card for my live game streams they i can use in the OBS Studio Software. For what?

currently i stream at 1080p at 60 FPS. But i see 720p 60FPS streams, they looking so clear and smooth.. wow. I attempt to stream with x264 ... ok, wonderful. But 92% CPU usage its a little bit to much :(

I see cards from matrox and other manufactures, but i feel thats all capture hardware. I dont wanne capture. I will encode without CPU/GPU usage.
Exist encoder cards they are supported by OBS? If yes, which one?

 

[dodgepong]

The hardware encoders that OBS supports are NVENC (on nVidia GPUs), AMD AMF (on AMD GPUs), and QuickSync (on Intel integrated graphics). Technically it also supports the hardware encoder on the AVerMedia Live Gamer HD but that encoder is very, very bad.

 

[koala]

The quality of the nvenc encoder is about the same as the x264 encoder with veryfast preset. If you want better quality, you have to use x264 with "faster" or better presets - this usually means a second PC just for CPU power for encoding. And better than "faster" only consumes significantly more CPU but gives not significantly better quality.

 

[mrchillington]

There is literally no other option for hardware encoding then the above mentioned. And if there was it would probably more expensive then building a simple pc for encoding only, and you don't a capture card unless you want to capture console Gameplay.

 

[Abgematzt]

Ok! Thx a lot for the helpful answers. Bad to thear that the avermedia Live Gamer HD Card are the only one hardware solution outside of nvenc and cpu usage; i know the results of this card on xsplit. driving pixels on a car chase game :(
how good supports OBS mutlicore devices? its a multicore CPU with a lot of cores but slower mhz better then a cpu with less cores but high speed on every core for encoding?

 

[Boildown]

Ok! Thx a lot for the helpful answers. Bad to thear that the avermedia Live Gamer HD Card are the only one hardware solution outside of nvenc and cpu usage; i know the results of this card on xsplit. driving pixels on a car chase game :(
how good supports OBS mutlicore devices? its a multicore CPU with a lot of cores but slower mhz better then a cpu with less cores but high speed on every core for encoding?

If you care about your game, you don't want to sacrifice clock speed for more cores. If you care about your stream, you want more cores even if the clockspeed is lower. The middle ground is either the worst or best of both worlds, depending on your perspective. There is no "right" answer.

I would just get the latest Intel 6 core / 12 thread i7 if I were doing it new and didn't want to dual PC it. But that isn't for everyone.

x264 that OBS uses has excellent support for multicore CPUs. NVEnc, AMD AMF, and Quicksync don't care how many cores you have.

 

[Deleted member 121471]

Ok! Thx a lot for the helpful answers. Bad to thear that the avermedia Live Gamer HD Card are the only one hardware solution outside of nvenc and cpu usage; i know the results of this card on xsplit. driving pixels on a car chase game :(
how good supports OBS mutlicore devices? its a multicore CPU with a lot of cores but slower mhz better then a cpu with less cores but high speed on every core for encoding?

I run a Ryzen R7 1700 @ 3.4GHz and can stream 720p@60FPS on fast/faster preset without any problem. 1080p@60FPS recording using x264 is also possible as long as the game is optimized and not CPU-bound. OBS handles the 8 cores/16 threads (available ones, that is), even with a game, webcam, etc... using some of those cores.