Capture Card worth it?

[TheDude]

Hey guys, 

 

Got a question for you. Currently I am streaming, recording, and gaming on a single pc (see specs below). When doing all of this, my frames in game drop quite a bit, which is expected. I know having a dedicated streaming pc would help this, but building a second PC isn't something I want to be spending money on. Would buying a capture card to put in my current pc help increase frames much? Thanks. 

 

CPU: 5900X

GPU: 3080 

Ram: 32Gb 

[TylerD321]

No, but you could look into tweaking your streaming settings to have the least effect on your gameplay experience.

[abcdefghivjklmnop]

14 minutes ago, TheDude said:

Hey guys, 

 

Got a question for you. Currently I am streaming, recording, and gaming on a single pc (see specs below). When doing all of this, my frames in game drop quite a bit, which is expected. I know having a dedicated streaming pc would help this, but building a second PC isn't something I want to be spending money on. Would buying a capture card to put in my current pc help increase frames much? Thanks. 

 

CPU: 5900X

GPU: 3080 

Ram: 32Gb 

just use nvenc in obs or anything that supports it and lets you stream,record and etc, it will slightly affect your performance but not as much as software encoding/cpu. better off experimenting, than buying an extra few bucks for something you might not use later on

[OddOod]

Agree with the above, capture is only really good for non-PC streaming and weird, fun niche cases

[TheDude]

2 hours ago, abcdefghivjklmnop said:

just use nvenc in obs or anything that supports it and lets you stream,record and etc, it will slightly affect your performance but not as much as software encoding/cpu. better off experimenting, than buying an extra few bucks for something you might not use later on

I've been using the nvenc encoder and I go from 170-180 frames to 120 ish range when streaming and recording. I also notice gameplay doesnt feel as smooth and some stuttering when I streaming and recording compared to just gaming. Not the end of the world but figured I see if there was a cheaper way to help frames and smoothness while streaming and recording. Thanks for the input! 

[abcdefghivjklmnop]

1 minute ago, TheDude said:

I've been using the nvenc encoder and I go from 170-180 frames to 120 ish range when streaming and recording. I also notice gameplay doesnt feel as smooth and some stuttering when I streaming and recording compared to just gaming. Not the end of the world but figured I see if there was a cheaper way to help frames and smoothness while streaming and recording. Thanks for the input! 

what version nvenc are you using? 60fps down for nvenc seems way too much, what resolution do you stream on? do you record also at the same time? download the footage after you streamed it instead of doing both as that sucks up too much power, if your on twitch and partnered then you can, otherwise your gonna have to use a diff software to download it afterwards, twitch is annoying that way, if on youtube im not sure. Update your geforce experience and see if that helps, also for stuttering, adjust the actual bit rate of the video/recording, instead of streaming at 2k at low bitrate, stream at 1080p high, mess around with obs, find the sweet spot, thats the fun of trial and error, at the end you'll get rewarded, nobody will care of the diff between 2k and 1080p at streaming as most people still sit at 720/1080p. same as with videos, very niche as of now, even with the tech advances and cheaper costs.

[TheDude]

22 hours ago, abcdefghivjklmnop said:

what version nvenc are you using? 60fps down for nvenc seems way too much, what resolution do you stream on? do you record also at the same time? download the footage after you streamed it instead of doing both as that sucks up too much power, if your on twitch and partnered then you can, otherwise your gonna have to use a diff software to download it afterwards, twitch is annoying that way, if on youtube im not sure. Update your geforce experience and see if that helps, also for stuttering, adjust the actual bit rate of the video/recording, instead of streaming at 2k at low bitrate, stream at 1080p high, mess around with obs, find the sweet spot, thats the fun of trial and error, at the end you'll get rewarded, nobody will care of the diff between 2k and 1080p at streaming as most people still sit at 720/1080p. same as with videos, very niche as of now, even with the tech advances and cheaper costs.

I am using the latest version of nvenc. I am not partnered with Twitch so I stream and record at the same time. I stream/record at 1080p 60 fps. 

Streaming bitrate is 6,000 

For recording I use CQP for rate control and the CQ level is 14 

[NinJake]

There is an official OBS discord channel. I don't have the link available at this moment but if you look into that, there are dedicated support channels and plenty of people who wouldn't mind helping you dig into the nitty gritty of each of the settings to optimize your stream. Feel free to wander over there sometime!

[TheDude]

4 minutes ago, NinJake said:

There is an official OBS discord channel. I don't have the link available at this moment but if you look into that, there are dedicated support channels and plenty of people who wouldn't mind helping you dig into the nitty gritty of each of the settings to optimize your stream. Feel free to wander over there sometime!

Never knew that existed, but that makes sense. Thanks for the input, I'll check it out!