Is my CPU causing stream freezes?

[c0mplexx*]

So past I'd say 4 months I've been having a hard time playing streams at 1080p 1080p60 and above that although I should've easily played them (atleast in my opinion, my downspeeds rage between 40-45 Mbps). 

I've been told it might be my PC causing the issue so I decided to test it now with a 960p60 (it still buffers but not much)  PUBG (if this helps) stream and noticed that everytime the freeze buffered my CPU usage went to 80-97% of usage (typically at the 30-50% range) depending on how long the buffer was and my disk usage was getting in the 90%+ area as well  

Is it my PC after all?

- Did an internet speed test as well and my CPU usage was at 80%+ while calculating(I guess?) the speeds  

- My PC is also getting quite loud since I didn't really clean it for a long while, will probably clean it this weekend

 

Downspeeds: 40-45 Mbps

Upspeeds- ~3.2 Mbps

 

PC Specs:

CPU: i3-2120 

RAM: 4GB DDR3 (RAM usage was fine)

GPU: RX 470 4GB

 

Also pardon the way I built the sentences, I'm not really used to explaining and talking much I guess 

E: feel like i'm supposed to mention this I DO NOT STREAM, I only watch streams

[LienusLateTips]

You have a SSD? I'd try getting a SSD first, and then upgrading CPU and RAM if that doesn't work.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

Your CPU is very slow. Typically people will only start not experiencing issue streaming games while playing with a CPU thats a few times power powerful than the one you have now.

 

Also, for technical reasons ram usage isn't always meaningful like CPU usage is. If its oer 50-70% its holding you back.

 

Windows physically cannot use more than 50-70% ram in most cases, depending on specifics.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

Just now, JDE said:

You have a SSD? I'd try getting a SSD first, and then upgrading CPU and RAM if that doesn't work.

Definitely not the issue. Streaming doesn't even use the disk, its probably just windows updating in the background. Which doesnt help, but isnt't the big problem at hand. His cpu is way under powered for the workload.

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, TheNuzziNuzz said:

Your CPU is very slow. Typically people will only start not experiencing issue streaming games while playing with a CPU thats a few times power powerful than the one you have now.

 

Also, for technical reasons ram usage isn't always meaningful like CPU usage is. If its oer 50-70% its holding you back.

 

Windows physically cannot use more than 50-70% ram in most cases, depending on specifics.

If you couldn't tell he's playing the streams off somewhere like Twitch and not streaming it from his computer for the world to see

[LienusLateTips]

1 minute ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

Definitely not the issue. Streaming doesn't even use the disk, its probably just windows updating in the background. Which doesnt help, but isnt't the big problem at hand. His cpu is way under powered for the workload.

 

Just now, JDE said:

If you couldn't tell he's playing the streams off somewhere like Twitch and not streaming it from his computer for the world to see

 

[TheNuzziNuzz]

Just now, JDE said:

If you couldn't tell he's playing the streams off somewhere like Twitch and not streaming it from his computer for the world to see

OHHH Hahaha!

 

I was quite suprised.

 

Either way, that CPU is under powered, even for just gaming so its no surprise your having issues.

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, TheNuzziNuzz said:

OHHH Hahaha!

 

I was quite suprised.

 

Either way, that CPU is under powered, even for just gaming so its no surprise your having issues.

My laptop Core 2 Duo with a SSD and 4GB of RAM watches Twitch streams easily.

[c0mplexx*]

1 minute ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

Your CPU is very slow. Typically people will only start not experiencing issue streaming games while playing with a CPU thats a few times power powerful than the one you have now.

 

Also, for technical reasons ram usage isn't always meaningful like CPU usage is. If its oer 50-70% its holding you back.

 

Windows physically cannot use more than 50-70% ram in most cases, depending on specifics.

I know the CPU is bad but it ran perfectly till not so long ago (I think I have the PC for around 3 years now?), can it be the fact that it's basically aging and dying? I wanted to upgrade to R5 1600 and 16GB of RAM but both the stores that sell CPUs in my city are out of stock with the R5 1600 and RAM is way too expensive now so I'm kinda sitting in hopes it'll drop in price soon

[c0mplexx*]

5 minutes ago, JDE said:

You have a SSD? I'd try getting a SSD first, and then upgrading CPU and RAM if that doesn't work.

I don't think there's really anychance it's the HDD, had a worse one before I upgraded to the current one (2GB Seagate  ST2000DM006) and did fine (the issue actually started with the previous one)

[LienusLateTips]

5 minutes ago, c0mplexx* said:

I know the CPU is bad but it ran perfectly till not so long ago (I think I have the PC for around 3 years now?), can it be the fact that it's basically aging and dying? I wanted to upgrade to R5 1600 and 16GB of RAM but both the stores that sell CPUs in my city are out of stock with the R5 1600 and RAM is way too expensive now so I'm kinda sitting in hopes it'll drop in price soon

Performance degredation isn't a thing, it's either stock, or not working (unless the clocks are going down)

 

Try getting a SSD first, or upgrading to a i5 2400/i7 2600 (can be easily gotten from old Dells)

[c0mplexx*]

2 minutes ago, JDE said:

Performance degredation isn't a thing, it's either stock, or not working (unless the clocks are going down)

 

Try getting a SSD first, or upgrading to a i5 2400/i7 2600 (can be easily gotten from old Dells)

Might get an SSD first since I don't see a point in buying a cpu if i'm planning to upgrade to another one,  I'll need to change Windows' installation onto the SSD right?

[TheNuzziNuzz]

12 minutes ago, JDE said:

My laptop Core 2 Duo with a SSD and 4GB of RAM watches Twitch streams easily.

While gaming?

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, TheNuzziNuzz said:

While gaming?

At least for ultra light gaming, but I would expect a 4 year gap with competition and a desktop vs laptop CPU to give more.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

13 minutes ago, c0mplexx* said:

I know the CPU is bad but it ran perfectly till not so long ago (I think I have the PC for around 3 years now?), can it be the fact that it's basically aging and dying? I wanted to upgrade to R5 1600 and 16GB of RAM but both the stores that sell CPUs in my city are out of stock with the R5 1600 and RAM is way too expensive now so I'm kinda sitting in hopes it'll drop in price soon

It doesn't degrade over time. Only thing that could change is worse cooling contains, hardware runs hotter it will thermal throttle.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

1 minute ago, JDE said:

At least for ultra light gaming, but I would expect a 4 year gap with competition and a desktop vs laptop CPU to give more.

I don't understand what your saying.

 

He's doing more than just light gamming

[TheNuzziNuzz]

5 minutes ago, c0mplexx* said:

Might get an SSD first since I don't see a point in buying a cpu if i'm planning to upgrade to another one,  I'll need to change Windows' installation onto the SSD right?

I suggest a fresh install of windows. Expect to drop around $150 for SSD, weight the cost to benefits. Its really your choice though, depending on what you want.