How much GPU power do I need?

CRNproducer · February 17, 2021

I am building a rig to live stream on a scissored shoestring budget. Will be using OBS with 3 cams, simple graphic overlays, and perhaps a chatbox. Thus far, I have cobbled together an i5 3rd gen CPU on an Asus P8-B75 M mobo, with 12GB Ram, and a 512GB SSD running LinuxMint XFCE OS. The plan is to run 2 cellphone cams (for close shots of host(s)), and a Logitech webcam (for studio wide shots), all in one scene. This rig would only be streaming the aforementioned cams, and not running/capturing any gaming.

During my research into building this rig, I had been advised to get an Nvidia card with the Turing architecture to be able to stream fluidly. As all know, that is easier said than done in this flippin Covid crazed market. I have run a couple of live 'tests' with the equipment I have available (2 cellphone cams) using the onboard video. My CPU usage pegged at about 20% (according to OBS).

My questions: How much further would the 3rd cam push it? Would I indeed need the 1650 Super (or newer) for the Turing architecture, or do you think something less, like a 9 or 1060 using Pascal would be sufficient?

Any thoughts/guidance on this would be helpful.

Stahlmann · February 17, 2021

Normally the GPU encoder only becomes important when have a CPU that can't handle gaming and streaming all at once. If you're not trying to game you might just be alright going with your CPU only. You can also just try how well it works when adding a 3rd cam. If you don't drop frames, you're good.