Choosing a CPU for Game Capture & Streaming

[DejoMasters]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet: I'm looking to get a new CPU, for streaming both games running on my PC and those captured through a capture card. Now, I'm pretty sure that the problem is my CPU, but I could be wrong, as my graphics card isn't top tier either. First, what I'm working with.

 

I'm using a stock cooled AMD Athlon X4 860k, along with a Sapphire Radeon R7 260x series graphics card. The card isn't working too hard, I'm only using a single monitor at 1600x900 resolution. Now, I do a lot of video editing, capture, and streaming, and the quality has been consistently, well, bad, especially when capturing from current gen consoles (or from Minecraft). My instinct says it's a CPU problem, because game performance is fine and the CPU can hit 100% fairly quickly when I'm doing intensive tasks, causing a significant slow down. I know the CPU I bought isn't the best, so logically I think CPU problem. I tried overclocking and my PC didn't like it, so other methods must do.

 

So, upgrading is the solution, I guess. I have two processors in my sights. The AMD FX-6300, a six core processor sitting pretty at $90, and the AMD FX-8320, an eight core processor for $135. Both of these would require a new motherboard as well, but there isn't anything I know of that uses a FM2+ socket that offers a significant improvement over my current CPU. However, I have a concern. Both processors I mentioned have plenty of cores, good clock speeds and are well reviewed. But why are they so inexpensive? Is their price indicative of their quality? I mean, the 8320 is almost the same price as an i3, a dual core processor. Why is this? Are they just older processors? Will either of the processors I mentioned perform well for me? Is it actually a CPU issue at all, or does it all come back to the graphics card?

[techguru]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet: I'm looking to get a new CPU, for streaming both games running on my PC and those captured through a capture card. Now, I'm pretty sure that the problem is my CPU, but I could be wrong, as my graphics card isn't top tier either. First, what I'm working with.

 

I'm using a stock cooled AMD Athlon X4 860k, along with a Sapphire Radeon R7 260x series graphics card. The card isn't working too hard, I'm only using a single monitor at 1600x900 resolution. Now, I do a lot of video editing, capture, and streaming, and the quality has been consistently, well, bad, especially when capturing from current gen consoles (or from Minecraft). My instinct says it's a CPU problem, because game performance is fine and the CPU can hit 100% fairly quickly when I'm doing intensive tasks, causing a significant slow down. I know the CPU I bought isn't the best, so logically I think CPU problem. I tried overclocking and my PC didn't like it, so other methods must do.

 

So, upgrading is the solution, I guess. I have two processors in my sights. The AMD FX-6300, a six core processor sitting pretty at $90, and the AMD FX-8320, an eight core processor for $135. Both of these would require a new motherboard as well, but there isn't anything I know of that uses a FM2+ socket that offers a significant improvement over my current CPU. However, I have a concern. Both processors I mentioned have plenty of cores, good clock speeds and are well reviewed. But why are they so inexpensive? Is their price indicative of their quality? I mean, the 8320 is almost the same price as an i3, a dual core processor. Why is this? Are they just older processors? Will either of the processors I mentioned perform well for me? Is it actually a CPU issue at all, or does it all come back to the graphics card?

the capture card should be do the heavy lifting of the encoding

so maybe you got another problem

 

also if your gonna upgrade

you might as well go for a intel 4 core setup

[DejoMasters]

the capture card should be do the heavy lifting of the encoding

so maybe you got another problem

 

also if your gonna upgrade

you might as well go for a intel 4 core setup

The capture card is only an Elgato Game Capture HD, and I don't have the capital or any really motivation to jump on the Intel bandwagon.