Twitch streaming, CPU upgrade?

[ristan99]

So I've decided to start streaming gameplay of various games to Twitch and I need a little advice. Before I go any further, my build:

 

i5 3570k @4.2GHz

Corsair H100i GTX 

Asus P8Z77-V PRO 

OCZ 650W PSU

Nvidia GTX 760 SSC 2GB

Corsair Carbide 500R

SanDisk PLUS 120GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 500 GB HDD

 

A few of these components will be changing in the next month, such as PSU and GPU (Sapphire R9 390x Nitro) and I'm wondering if upgrading my CPU will improve my max resolution and framerates for streaming. I know this depends heavily on data upload speeds of my ISP, but because Twitch recommends OBS users encode their video into x264 format a faster processor or one with hyperthreading might improve framerates.

 

So far I've only streamed at 720p 30 fps just to make sure it worked, but would like to at least bump the resolution up to 1080p.

 

I also noticed framerates dips in-game on Elder Scrolls Online from 55-60 to 35-45 while straming without changing the video quality. 

 

Let me know if upgrading the CPU will help. Thanks in advance!

[alexhelvetica]

What PSU do you already have (Make and model)? What are you plan on getting?

[Samfisher]

Are you maintaining 30fps at 1080p?  Personally, I prefer streaming at 720p@60fps for the smoother video, but 1080p at any FPS will definitely have noticeably sharper UI elements and text.  MMO's are generally CPU intensive, so streaming a MMO can definitely take a lot of power.  I've been contemplating getting a 3770k too, and my current 3570k seems to do fine so far and I'm not sure if it's worth spending on the i7 now.

 

If you can live with the dip in quality and increased upload bandwidth for you, and increased download bandwidth for your viewers then using VEC on your 390 can be a better solution and has almost no performance impact.  You can also try using QuickSync encode instead of x264.

[ristan99]

Just now, Comic_Sans_MS said:

What PSU do you already have (Make and model)? What are you plan on getting?

OCZ is about all I know about it. Got it 8 years ago in a build my brother in law made for me. Getting an EVGA G2 650W.

[tomoki]

I have the same CPU as you do and I used to stream. Over the years however, I noticed that the more heavily demanding games used more cpu power. I would suggest you change your cpu out for one with more cores just for the sake of streaming. 

 

My cpu was always near or at max capacity whenever I streamed. Some games I could stream 720p 60fps and others I had to reduce it down to 30-40fps. Internet bandwidth was never an issue for me when streaming. 

 

I was told (when i began streaming 3 years ago) that not many people watch 1080p streams because their home internet aren't as friendly when undergoing higher bandwidth usage. If I were you, I'd record at 1080p, downscale to 720p, max the quality and up the fps to 60. 

[Prysin]

do you have an old rig lying around?

if so, buying a capture card (USB or PCIe), and using a laptop or old computer to stream the footage whilst you play would be the ideal solution

[tomoki]

6 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

Are you maintaining 30fps at 1080p?  Personally, I prefer streaming at 720p@60fps for the smoother video, but 1080p at any FPS will definitely have noticeably sharper UI elements and text.  MMO's are generally CPU intensive, so streaming a MMO can definitely take a lot of power.  I've been contemplating getting a 3770k too, and my current 3570k seems to do fine so far and I'm not sure if it's worth spending on the i7 now.

 

If you can live with the dip in quality and increased upload bandwidth for you, and increased download bandwidth for your viewers then using VEC on your 390 can be a better solution and has almost no performance impact.  You can also try using QuickSync encode instead of x264.

Would you happen to know where to get a 3770k? I don't know of any place that sells it other than ....Ebay maybe. And yeah, similarly to your situation, I don't think spending on an i7 now is worth the investment. 

 

On a side note however, I wouldn't use QuickSync encode instead of x264. QuickSync encode gave me blurry quality on my stream. I used to use Dxtory, Lagarith lossless codec and OBS x264 together. 

[Samfisher]

1 minute ago, tomoki said:

Would you happen to know where to get a 3770k? I don't know of any place that sells it other than ....Ebay maybe. And yeah, similarly to your situation, I don't think spending on an i7 now is worth the investment. 

 

On a side note however, I wouldn't use QuickSync encode instead of x264. QuickSync encode gave me blurry quality on my stream. I used to use Dxtory, Lagarith lossless codec and OBS x264 together. 

QuickSync/VEC/NVENC will always give you worse quality than x264 at the same bitrate, that's why I suggested upping your upload bitrate to compensate.

 

I've got a few sellers on a local forum that are willing to let go of their 3770k.

 

Like @Prysin said, if you have an older PC lying around doing nothing, a capture card may be your cheapest and best solution.

[tomoki]

1 minute ago, Samfisher said:

QuickSync/VEC/NVENC will always give you worse quality than x264 at the same bitrate, that's why I suggested upping your upload bitrate to compensate.

 

I've got a few sellers on a local forum that are willing to let go of their 3770k.

 

Like @Prysin said, if you have an older PC lying around doing nothing, a capture card may be your cheapest and best solution.

Agreed. Capture card all the way. 

[ristan99]

1 hour ago, Prysin said:

do you have an old rig lying around?

if so, buying a capture card (USB or PCIe), and using a laptop or old computer to stream the footage whilst you play would be the ideal solution

The only thing I have is an old HP Pavilion with an i3 in it. I doubt that would be any better, but do you think it would?

[Prysin]

Just now, ristan99 said:

The only thing I have is an old HP Pavilion with an i3 in it. I doubt that would be any better, but do you think it would?

if it ONLY does the streaming, then it would probably cope with 1080p 30FPS using a USB3.0 based capture card. Make sure to disable anti virus or other applications that eat CPU power. However, i cannot promise you this. I know some of these capture cards have shit drivers and use A LOT of CPU power.... others do not, and i do not know enough of these cards to tell you which is good and which is not

 

[ristan99]

I plan on moving to a 4790k or 6700k some time in the next year or so (depending on what comes out in that time), was just looking for kind of a quick fix and wasn't sure if a better CPU would even make a difference but it sounds like it definitely would. 

 

I'm also building a PC for my wife soon using my old GTX 760 so I might beef up her CPU so I can use it to stream from mine, problem is getting a capture card to work between rooms. I know almost nothing about how to do that.

[FruitBasketSilex]

4 hours ago, Samfisher said:

using VEC on your 390 can be a better solution and has almost no performance impact.

Wut.

 

How do I do this?

[Samfisher]

15 minutes ago, FruitBasketSilex said:

Wut.

 

How do I do this?

OBS settings should have a VCE option if your GPU supports it.  Anything from the 7950 and up should.

[FruitBasketSilex]

23 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

OBS settings should have a VCE option if your GPU supports it.  Anything from the 7950 and up should.

I'll check it out.