Stream PC or No Stream PC

[ASWprime]

I, like everyone else in the world, want to get into streaming. I don't want to do it professionally but it has always seemed like a fun thing to passively do. As of right now I have an 8700k in my main system (OC'ed to 5GHz) and I've streamed off of just that with a slight hit to performance. I have a side-system that is an old dell optiplex I use to host the odd minecraft server when my friends and I feel like playing which has an i7-3770 (4 cores, 8 threads.) Would would it be worth converting that PC into a stream PC? Is an aging quad-core enough for 1080p streaming? Thanks in advance.

[Jumballi]

2 minutes ago, ASWprime said:

I, like everyone else in the world, want to get into streaming. I don't want to do it professionally but it has always seemed like a fun thing to passively do. As of right now I have an 8700k in my main system (OC'ed to 5GHz) and I've streamed off of just that with a slight hit to performance. I have a side-system that is an old dell optiplex I use to host the odd minecraft server when my friends and I feel like playing which has an i7-3770 (4 cores, 8 threads.) Would would it be worth converting that PC into a stream PC? Is an aging quad-core enough for 1080p streaming? Thanks in advance.

if you're willing to invest the $$$ in both a turing gpu and capture card for the old pc, I'd still say no. 8700k should be more than fine for streaming and gaming with a few dropped frames if you adjust your settings accordingly. And with the new low end chips from both intel and amd you get a lot more support in streaming software a lot more performance as well, it's in your benefit to build a $300 pc with a last gen ryzen/i3 just for the newer instruction set.

 

or take all that money and get a 9900k or new rtx gpu for literally the same benefit.

[Mick Naughty]

Well I used a 4790k or 4770k to stream with. Im sure they aren't too far above a 3770 but I don't know how the non k stacks against a k variant. 

Much better this way as using my 8700k, I have zero head room to stream with it. Even using the gpu to encode, theres still more work for the cpu to do. Wasn't a pleasant experience.

 

Just depends on the level in which you think youll be. A casual like a majority or like the people you watch on youtube?

Just don't expect much from a lower end cpu regardless. It works but it could be better. Maybe using a cheap 1060 in it is an option.  

[ASWprime]

1 hour ago, Jumballi said:

if you're willing to invest the $$$ in both a turing gpu and capture card for the old pc, I'd still say no. 8700k should be more than fine for streaming and gaming with a few dropped frames if you adjust your settings accordingly. And with the new low end chips from both intel and amd you get a lot more support in streaming software a lot more performance as well, it's in your benefit to build a $300 pc with a last gen ryzen/i3 just for the newer instruction set.

 

or take all that money and get a 9900k or new rtx gpu for literally the same benefit.

Alright fair enough, the experience isn't bad on my PC now using just OBS so I'll probably just stick with that. Thanks!

[Otto_iii]

For a 6 core system, i would say you could definitely get some good use out of turning the old system into a dedicated streaming system.  If you are already using Nvidea's NVENC for encoding you likely won't see huge gains as the CPU shouldn't utilized too hard if it all, in general i wouldn't worry about it. But if you want higher quality out of x264 with Nvidea cards, or x265 for AMD cards, then the 2nd system could be very useful.  Its likely not needed, but personally as i really prefer max FPS, highest minimums in particular and play shooters and racing games primarily, if i streamed a lot i'd want to build a second system if i had the space/money to do so. 

What type of games do you stream? If its just adventure and fun more single player stuff i wouldn't worry about it, if its more competitive stuff, especially recent titles, like pubg, fortnite, apex, COD, BF etc, then i would want the 2nd system, with all those games bad 1% and 0.1% lows can really hamper competitiveness, or at least quality of life if competitiveness isn't a concern for you. 



Nice Carpenter Brut profile picture by the way, almost didn't notice but then something screamed synthwave at me. 

[ASWprime]

On 12/20/2019 at 7:23 PM, Otto_iii said:

For a 6 core system, i would say you could definitely get some good use out of turning the old system into a dedicated streaming system.  If you are already using Nvidea's NVENC for encoding you likely won't see huge gains as the CPU shouldn't utilized too hard if it all, in general i wouldn't worry about it. But if you want higher quality out of x264 with Nvidea cards, or x265 for AMD cards, then the 2nd system could be very useful.  Its likely not needed, but personally as i really prefer max FPS, highest minimums in particular and play shooters and racing games primarily, if i streamed a lot i'd want to build a second system if i had the space/money to do so. 

What type of games do you stream? If its just adventure and fun more single player stuff i wouldn't worry about it, if its more competitive stuff, especially recent titles, like pubg, fortnite, apex, COD, BF etc, then i would want the 2nd system, with all those games bad 1% and 0.1% lows can really hamper competitiveness, or at least quality of life if competitiveness isn't a concern for you. 



Nice Carpenter Brut profile picture by the way, almost didn't notice but then something screamed synthwave at me. 

Yeah max fps performance is my major concern. I'd gladly bump down graphics settings to the minimum in any competitive game to achieve a steady 144. In terms of games MW is definitely on the stream list and some CPU bound games like Civ and Cities Skylines are as well so that was why I was tossing around the idea of a second system. I think I'll try a few more streams using just my rig before I invest any further as was advised but I appreciate the second opinion. And thanks, everyone should give Carpenter Brut a listen.

[Otto_iii]

On 12/22/2019 at 10:51 PM, ASWprime said:

I'd gladly bump down graphics settings to the minimum in any competitive game to achieve a steady 144. 

Keep in mind both 100% GPU utilization as well as going in and out of Freesync or Gysnc range (if you use either) cause extra input latency (Check Battle(none)sense videos out, he has a few vids on these sort of things) so mild frame caps (say locking to 135fps with 144hz monitor) actually are helpful on majority of modern games that can utilize 100% gpu

Anyways good luck if you do build a system, it would be a bit of work and i suppose if for no other reason then you could likely sell the 3770 system for a bit of $ cost ya more, but atleast from what i have seen, nobody who builds a duel-pc streaming setup goes back to single system streaming if they can avoid it, its just too valuable in regards to QOL.