Minimum CPU for streaming

[spencerstephens]

I want to stream Overwatch, but my frames drop an annoying amount in game while live. I did some research and learned that my CPU was too weak for the quality of stream I was transcoding. I would like to stream at 720p 30fps minimum. I'll be using 2000kbps for now until I get quality options from twitch (requires being a partner). What CPU would get me there for cheapest? Also, I saw somewhere that I might upgrade RAM/Hardrive. Is this important? 

 

[nick name]

10 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

I want to stream Overwatch, but my frames drop an annoying amount in game while live. I did some research and learned that my CPU was too weak for the quality of stream I was transcoding. I would like to stream at 720p 30fps minimum. I'll be using 2000kbps for now until I get quality options from twitch (requires being a partner). What CPU would get me there for cheapest? Also, I saw somewhere that I might upgrade RAM/Hardrive. Is this important? 

 

What are your PC specs currently?

 

You can have cheap and you can have quality. Those two rarely intersect. You'll have to let us know what your priorities are if you want some solid recommendations. Also, it seems like you're looking to stream with Twitch as a partner so if you do wanna put out better quality down the road then I would encourage you to spend more now as opposed to upgrading later. That is if it fits your budget.

 

And a lot of people will tell you to get an 8700K for its 6 cores, but if you wanna save some money buy a Ryzen 2600 and get its six cores. Though 6 cores will mean you will have to do some optimizations in OBS. So if you can spend the money maybe a 2700X.

 

Another option that might work is putting another video card in your system and off-loading the encoding duties onto that. And I don't think you would need anything terribly expensive either. Or maybe getting a Ryzen 2400G and using the APU to do the encode instead of the CPU or your video card, though I am not sure that is possible.

[Streetguru]

13 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

 

Just use your GPU to stream

[spencerstephens]

2 minutes ago, nick name said:

What are your PC specs currently?

 

You can have cheap and you can have quality. Those two rarely intersect. You'll have to let us know what your priorities are if you want some solid recommendations. Also, it seems like you're looking to stream with Twitch as a partner so if you do wanna put out better quality down the road then I would encourage you to spend more now as opposed to upgrading later. That is if it fits your budget.

 

And a lot of people will tell you to get an 8700K for its 6 cores, but if you wanna save some money buy a Ryzen 2600 and get its six cores. Though 6 cores will mean you will have to do some optimizations in OBS. So if you can spend the money maybe a 2700X.

 

Another option that might work is putting another video card in your system and off-loading the encoding duties onto that. And I don't think you would need anything terribly expensive either.

I only know the graphics card (gtx 970). Sorry I can't give more, but I don't remember and am not sure how to check other than opening my pc. Budget is fairly flexible as this is a birthday present from my parents. <$400. Would it be a bad idea to buy a used CPU?

[spencerstephens]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Just use your GPU to stream

That would cause even more frame drop from my understanding. The drop in game is due to cpu offloading stream work becaused its maxed. Obviously my gpu isnt beefy enough to handle the partial load, so I dont expect it ti handle a full load.

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

That would cause even more frame drop from my understanding. The drop in game is due to cpu offloading stream work becaused its maxed. Obviously my gpu isnt beefy enough to handle the partial load, so I dont expect it ti handle a full load.

Probably not a major hit to performance, either use Shadowplay to stream, or go into OBS and change from CPU X264 to NVENC

Assuming you're running the game on low settings 1080p.

[Crunchy Dragon]

3 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

I only know the graphics card (gtx 970). Sorry I can't give more, but I don't remember and am not sure how to check other than opening my pc. Budget is fairly flexible as this is a birthday present from my parents. <$400. Would it be a bad idea to buy a used CPU?

Assuming you're on Windows:

Open File Explorer. Scroll down on the left to "This PC". Click on that. In the upper left hand corner of the window, click on "Properties".

 

Buying a used CPU can go be bad or good, but $400 can get you Ryzen 5 and a motherboard(this is assuming you don't need DDR4 memory).

[geo3]

4 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

I only know the graphics card (gtx 970). Sorry I can't give more, but I don't remember and am not sure how to check other than opening my pc. Budget is fairly flexible as this is a birthday present from my parents. <$400. Would it be a bad idea to buy a used CPU?

download cpuz, it will tell you everything you need to know. 

https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, geo3 said:

download cpuz, it will tell you everything you need to know. 

https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

It's faster to just do it through whatever OS the OP is running. Every operating system to my knowledge(short of mobile) has a way to find system specifications without needing 3rd party tools.

[geo3]

2 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

It's faster to just do it through whatever OS the OP is running. Every operating system to my knowledge(short of mobile) has a way to find system specifications without needing 3rd party tools.

The second half of that is true at least.

[spencerstephens]

4 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Assuming you're on Windows:

Open File Explorer. Scroll down on the left to "This PC". Click on that. In the upper left hand corner of the window, click on "Properties".

 

Buying a used CPU can go be bad or good, but $400 can get you Ryzen 5 and a motherboard(this is assuming you don't need DDR4 memory).

Thanks, ive got an i5-2500k at 3.3hz, gtx970, and 8g of what i assume is ddr4 ram

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, geo3 said:

The second half of that is true at least.

I've always found it faster to not have to download an extra tool to tell me something the operating system can.

[Streetguru]

8 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

I only know the graphics card (gtx 970). Sorry I can't give more, but I don't remember and am not sure how to check other than opening my pc. Budget is fairly flexible as this is a birthday present from my parents. <$400. Would it be a bad idea to buy a used CPU?

You can almost get an R7 1700 for that much with 16GB,
 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZkLmJV
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZkLmJV/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3GHz 8-Core Processor  ($219.90 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($69.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($154.99 @ Newegg Business)
Total: $444.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-12 22:38 EDT-0400

[nick name]

1 minute ago, spencerstephens said:

Thanks, ive got an i5-2500k at 3.3hz, gtx970, and 8g of what i assume is ddr4 ram

No you're running DDR3 in a system like that. Who built the computer? I am asking to know what type of case you will be building in because that will dictate the type of motherboard you can use.

[Emberstone]

24 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

I'll be using 2000kbps for now until I get quality options from twitch (requires being a partner).

You can stream at up to 6000 kbps without being a partner. I stream Devil Daggers and my viewers don't have a problem.

[Crunchy Dragon]

4 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

Thanks, ive got an i5-2500k at 3.3hz, gtx970, and 8g of what i assume is ddr4 ram

Nope, you've got DDR3 memory.

 

Every Intel system pre-Skylake(6th generation) ran DDR3.

My advice would be to save up some more cash, and go Ryzen 5 or 7 with a B350 motherboard and 16Gb of DDR4. If you can get used memory for a good price, that would be ideal.

[imreloadin]

7 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Assuming you're on Windows:

Open File Explorer. Scroll down on the left to "This PC". Click on that. In the upper left hand corner of the window, click on "Properties".

 

Buying a used CPU can go be bad or good, but $400 can get you Ryzen 5 and a motherboard(this is assuming you don't need DDR4 memory).

The Windows shortcut for pulling up the System Properties window is the Windows key + Pause/Break which is usually located above the number pad on your keyboard. It's loads quicker than fumbling through File Explorer.

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, imreloadin said:

The Windows shortcut for pulling up the System Properties window is the Windows key + Pause/Break which is usually located above the number pad on your keyboard. It's loads quicker than fumbling through File Explorer.

Oh, thanks for bringing that to my attention.

 

I had always done it either on Windows 7 or through File Explorer.

[nick name]

3 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

The Windows shortcut for pulling up the System Properties window is the Windows key + Pause/Break which is usually located above the number pad on your keyboard. It's loads quicker than fumbling through File Explorer.

It was killing me that I couldn't remember that. You just saved me some Googling. Many thanks.

[spencerstephens]

6 minutes ago, nick name said:

No you're running DDR3 in a system like that. Who built the computer? I am asking to know what type of case you will be building in because that will dictate the type of motherboard you can use.

Not sure, I bought it off of a random college kid on craigslist

[nick name]

Sweet you're a craigslist veteran. Start seeing what you can find for sale in your area to get a better idea of what approach you want to take. With the new Ryzen 2 chips you might find some good deals on first gen Ryzen chips or systems. 

 

What does your PC case look like? Does it have a manufacturer name on the front? We are assuming you will be using an ATX motherboard but if your case is small then it may be a small form factor that you need.

[spencerstephens]

4 minutes ago, nick name said:

Sweet you're a craigslist veteran. Start seeing what you can find for sale in your area to get a better idea of what approach you want to take. With the new Ryzen 2 chips you might find some good deals on first gen Ryzen chips or systems. 

 

What does your PC case look like? Does it have a manufacturer name on the front? We are assuming you will be using an ATX motherboard but if your case is small then it may be a small form factor that you need.

ZaReason's Valta X79 found it

[vawa.id]

Two DOTA 2 streamer I know (Terestanley and Fanon Dota) use AMD Ryzen 3 1200 and Intel i3-8100, both use 8 Gb or ram and GTX 1050. They use OBS for streaming. Both of them stream in 720p60 (Youtube Gaming).

 

Hope this might help.

[nick name]

3 minutes ago, spencerstephens said:

ZaReason's Valta X79 found it

Is this it?

 

 

[spencerstephens]

7 minutes ago, nick name said:

Is this it?

 

 

yes