APU powered computer for stream capturing?

[Otto_iii]

So i've seen a few people create budget streaming computers with 2400, and potentially via proxy 3400 AMD processors, reasonably successfully but not much detail was given.  Has anybody ever done this and what type of quality can you expect out of it?  I doubt such a rig could pull in the highest quality streams but i wonder if say building a cheap APU based computer in a little ITX case (doesn't have to be ITX, but cool idea imo) might actually have some merit so was wondering if anybody has tried this setup, and what to expect out of it.  The new 3400gs can nearly play most AAA games at 720p and 60fps and or 1080 and 30fps, so i'd imagine they could do that or better but i have no clue what the actual overhead for say streaming at 1080p 60fps is.  

[PlayStation 2]

To clarify (because I'm probably reading into this wrong), are you planning on streaming exclusively with that computer or using it as an encoding machine for another rig?

[Enderman]

Are you talking about just streaming or streaming and gaming from it at the same time?

Why can't you stream and game from your current computer? There is literally no need for a second PC.

[Jurrunio]

I assume you mean dedicated streaming machine with Ryzen 5 APU? I dont see the point of it. You can get more compute performance out of say, an R5 2600. All you need to do is add a weak display adapter card as graphics output, which is super cheap.

[Otto_iii]

I meant as a capture computer so that the main computer wouldn't take much if any of a hit from streaming itself, a 2nd computer for capturing the stream, not playing the games 

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

I assume you mean dedicated streaming machine with Ryzen 5 APU? I dont see the point of it. You can get more compute performance out of say, an R5 2600. All you need to do is add a weak display adapter card as graphics output, which is super cheap.

 

Cost wise i suppose that makes more sense but 2 things, at what point do you actually require that sort of compute power for a capture computer? and 2nd off, this isn't as important but obviously doing that throws the potential ITX part out the window since those only have 1 PCI slot to my knowledge, but i just thought of the ITX part more as a fun idea so its not that important.

[Greenish]

3 minutes ago, Otto_iii said:

I meant as a capture computer so that the main computer wouldn't take much if any of a hit from streaming itself, a 2nd computer for capturing the stream, not playing the games

You are better off just running a R5 2600 so you can save on a new board or BIOS update and plop a cheap GPU in there

[Akira Shimazu]

you cant budget out for Streaming. sometimes even budget wont work.

[Sharp_3yE]

8 minutes ago, Otto_iii said:

I meant as a capture computer so that the main computer wouldn't take much if any of a hit from streaming itself, a 2nd computer for capturing the stream, not playing the games 

 

Cost wise i suppose that makes more sense but 2 things, at what point do you actually require that sort of compute power for a capture computer? and 2nd off, this isn't as important but obviously doing that throws the potential ITX part out the window since those only have 1 PCI slot to my knowledge, but i just thought of the ITX part more as a fun idea so its not that important.

Unless you are a streamer....just use one PC. Unless you have old hardware to build a stream pc. I wouldn't buy a to have a PC just to lightly stream. Kinda a waist of money. I think using the built in graphics would be perfectly fine for just using it as a streaming pc. An AMD cpu though should work pretty well to stream and play a game on. 

[Otto_iii]

1 hour ago, TheCMan said:

Unless you are a streamer....just use one PC. Unless you have old hardware to build a stream pc. I wouldn't buy a to have a PC just to lightly stream. Kinda a waist of money. I think using the built in graphics would be perfectly fine for just using it as a streaming pc. An AMD cpu though should work pretty well to stream and play a game on. 

Yeah, i suppose this is all true.  My general question, and im not getting the best specifics about this is how much CPU processing power does it really take for a capture computer, and how far off are current gen APUs, what would they be practically capable of. 

If i could continue with a theoretical, say you accidentally bought a 9700k awhile back and you are a huge "muh frames" type of person, and short for desk area so a ITX build is a must, what could a 3400g even offer so far as quality and frames as a capture computer etc?

I know its not the most sensible question, im just trying to pin down a actual relative idea.  Obviously buying a 3900x or even a 3700x and just streaming from one PC is more practical (you probably wouldnt even lose much if any frames on the 3900), but im still left wondering. 

[Sharp_3yE]

4 minutes ago, Otto_iii said:

Yeah, i suppose this is all true.  My general question, and im not getting the best specifics about this is how much CPU processing power does it really take for a capture computer, and how far off are current gen APUs, what would they be practically capable of. 

If i could continue with a theoretical, say you accidentally bought a 9700k awhile back and you are a huge "muh frames" type of person, and short for desk area so a ITX build is a must, what could a 3400g even offer so far as quality and frames as a capture computer etc?

I know its not the most sensible question, im just trying to pin down a actual relative idea.  Obviously buying a 3900x or even a 3700x and just streaming from one PC is more practical (you probably wouldnt even lose much if any frames on the 3900), but im still left wondering. 

Just to steam? I don't think it really needs to take much processing power to stream. The point of having a second computer is really just so that your games are not interrupted for the most part. I would think any modern desktop cpu would be fine. Though, I don't know what the optimal power would be but I don't think in a second pc that is just for streaming you need a lot of power. 

[Jurrunio]

34 minutes ago, Otto_iii said:

at what point do you actually require that sort of compute power for a capture computer?

For the encoding. I tried recording (streaming minus internet uploading) using my 2600k desktop as encoder (OBS, 1080p 60, h265, slow preset, 6000kbps) while my laptop plays games at 1080p 60. It's basically screaming "WTF are you doing" at 100% usage all the time while dropping frames.

[Sharp_3yE]

 

 

[Otto_iii]

1 hour ago, TheCMan said:

Just to steam? I don't think it really needs to take much processing power to stream. The point of having a second computer is really just so that your games are not interrupted for the most part. I would think any modern desktop cpu would be fine. Though, I don't know what the optimal power would be but I don't think in a second pc that is just for streaming you need a lot of power. 

 Okay thank you, that is closer to the point i was wondering about.  For what its worth i currently cannot afford any of this, but am absolutely one of those annoying "high refresh rate" type of people and both am hoping to plan some builds eventually and also currently have a bunch of friends who on/off stream and it looks fun, so anything to keep frame over 144hz, heck in a ideal world closer to 240hz would be bueno (i grew up on CRTs so the motion blur and input lag of even 75hz monitors has always felt awful to me, and im amazed anybody with a high spec system turns up resolution and detail runs anything lower then atleast 144hz tbh)
 

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

For the encoding. I tried recording (streaming minus internet uploading) using my 2600k desktop as encoder (OBS, 1080p 60, h265, slow preset, 6000kbps) while my laptop plays games at 1080p 60. It's basically screaming "WTF are you doing" at 100% usage all the time while dropping frames.

 Oh okay so it really can have some overhead, good to know

[Sharp_3yE]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

For the encoding. I tried recording (streaming minus internet uploading) using my 2600k desktop as encoder (OBS, 1080p 60, h265, slow preset, 6000kbps) while my laptop plays games at 1080p 60. It's basically screaming "WTF are you doing" at 100% usage all the time while dropping frames.

Ok, that's interesting. I really don't know what the optimal power is or what is fine. I guess it would really depend on how much you are pushing out. 720p, 4k. Yea, I don't know for sure. I bet you don't need a ton of power but I'm guessing certain apus work better then others def. 

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, Otto_iii said:

Yeah, i suppose this is all true.  My general question, and im not getting the best specifics about this is how much CPU processing power does it really take for a capture computer, and how far off are current gen APUs, what would they be practically capable of. 

If i could continue with a theoretical, say you accidentally bought a 9700k awhile back and you are a huge "muh frames" type of person, and short for desk area so a ITX build is a must, what could a 3400g even offer so far as quality and frames as a capture computer etc?

I know its not the most sensible question, im just trying to pin down a actual relative idea.  Obviously buying a 3900x or even a 3700x and just streaming from one PC is more practical (you probably wouldnt even lose much if any frames on the 3900), but im still left wondering. 

The ideal setup with two PC's is to have a high end GPU in your gaming PC, set to "clone", which means a 60fps cap (HDMI capture devices will not do >60fps), and then pipe the second output to another PC that has a PCIe HDMI capture card (not a USB3 one.)

 

However chances are if you are doing this, your gaming PC is more than capable of just streaming itself. Like the reason I'd do this, is mostly to use the streaming PC as a video switcher/compositor.