Upgrading tips for streaming

[Endri]

Budget (including currency): 1000$

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The finals,Streaming

Current specs: i7 12700k, 32gb ram 3600mhz,rtx 3070

So here is my issue.

My internet buddy asked me about some upgrades he wants to make on his pc. He wants to stream The finals. Currently doing it he is having fps drops on his stream and my suspicion is thats because the 3070 is maxing out and making it have encoding problems. Currently he is happy with the performance when he is gaming with the card but streaming is the issue. I have experience on the pc space but i dont really know much about streaming and the requirement it has.

My problems:

First, i am thinking of suggesting a rtx 4070 super or 4080.

Second, i dont know which is the best store to buy component on america cos i am from europe.

Third, should i just recommend an arc a380 to use for encoding so he can use the 3070 just for the game.

And last, what is the minimum specs you guys would recommend for a second pc to be used for streaming with a capture card.

[Why_Me]

2 minutes ago, Endri said:

Budget (including currency): 1000$

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The finals,Streaming

Current specs: i7 12700k, 32gb ram 3600mhz,rtx 3070

So here is my issue.

My internet buddy asked me about some upgrades he wants to make on his pc. He wants to stream The finals. Currently doing it he is having fps drops on his stream and my suspicion is thats because the 3070 is maxing out and making it have encoding problems. Currently he is happy with the performance when he is gaming with the card but streaming is the issue. I have experience on the pc space but i dont really know much about streaming and the requirement it has.

My problems:

First, i am thinking of suggesting a rtx 4070 super or 4080.

Second, i dont know which is the best store to buy component on america cos i am from europe.

Third, should i just recommend an arc a380 to use for encoding so he can use the 3070 just for the game.

And last, what is the minimum specs you guys would recommend for a second pc to be used for streaming with a capture card.

What country are you located and what is his resolution?

[venomtail]

He shouldn't be having FPS drops, plenty powerful PC for both streaming and playing Finals. Something misconfigured. A buddy of mine plays and streams the Finals on a 9th gen intel, with a 1080 at 1440p. Again, something's wrong.

 

Firstly have him check that he's using the proper NVENC parameters for streaming not something generic like H264/5 . Whole point of NVIDIA is that it does it much easier. Maybe some stupidly impossible bitrate parameters are set on OBS that just can't be done.

 

Your buddy also has a non F model CPU, meaning he could try using the build in Intel compiler for streaming to take the workload off the CPU and GPU.

[Endri]

Just now, Why_Me said:

What country are you located and what is his resolution?

I am from Albania and my friend is from Kentucky. His resolution is 1080p currently

[Why_Me]

2 minutes ago, Endri said:

I am from Albania and my friend is from Kentucky. His resolution is 1080p currently

RTX 4070 Super 12GB

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/broadcasting-guide/

[Endri]

2 minutes ago, venomtail said:

He shouldn't be having FPS drops, plenty powerful PC for both streaming and playing Finals. Something misconfigured. A buddy of mine plays and streams the Finals on a 9th gen intel, with a 1080 at 1440p. Again, something's wrong.

 

Firstly have him check that he's using the proper NVENC parameters for streaming not something generic like H264/5 . Whole point of NVIDIA is that it does it much easier. Maybe some stupidly impossible bitrate parameters are set on OBS that just can't be done. Make sure that it's not running off some 

 

Your buddy also has a non F model CPU, meaning he could try using the build in Intel compiler for streaming.

If possible do you have any guides for me to follow and keep in mind so i can remote into his pc and check it my self to configure it correctly

[Endri]

1 minute ago, Why_Me said:

RTX 4070 Super 12GB

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/broadcasting-guide/

Currently he has a 3070 but do you think is worth upgrading now since i suspect tariffs will hit and make stuff more expensive on your guys side

[venomtail]

4 minutes ago, Endri said:

If possible do you have any guides for me to follow and keep in mind so i can remote into his pc and check it my self to configure it correctly

I've only found generic links. But firstly absolutely try settings for the streams. I could even stream on my old 2700X 5600XT PC when the pandemic first hit and that's a weak streaming PC comparitively.

 

Some of the generic videos:

 

 

Remember this will be a lot of trial and error. I did spend ages testing configs, which one's remained pretty and had the lightest load.

[Endri]

Just now, venomtail said:

I've only found generic links. But firstly absolutely try settings for the streams. I could even stream on my old 2700X 5600XT PC when the pandemic first hit and that's a weak streaming PC comparitively.

 

Some of the generic videos:

 

 

Thanks for this. I will try this as soon as i can get in a call with him today

[venomtail]

1 minute ago, Endri said:

Thanks for this. I will try this as soon as i can get in a call with him today

Also just to catch potential strays, make sure he's not on windows laptop power mode nor running the game, OS and/or saving the stream on a HDD. HDD days are long gone.

[Why_Me]

10 minutes ago, Endri said:

Currently he has a 3070 but do you think is worth upgrading now since i suspect tariffs will hit and make stuff more expensive on your guys side

PCPartPicker Part List

Video Card: *MSI VENTUS 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  ($624.99 @ Walmart) 
Total: $624.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-02-03 06:42 EST-0500

[jaslion]

Yeah this sounds like wrong obs config as the nvenc encoding part is basically loose from the gpu compute for games.

 

Make sure nvenc is used, that NO cpu is used and that NO gpu is used except for the nvenc encoding part.