Best budget cpu for gaming/streaming?

[TeknoBug]

Yeah 4 cores isn't adequate enough for streaming, as mentioned, just get an i7 7700 or 7700K that handles streaming just fine. No need to spend extra money on a new motherboard (and possibly another Windows key), etc for a Ryzen since you're already on a motherboard with an easy CPU dropin upgrade.

 

[Gikaseixas]

I would just get a i7 7700, SSD and call it a day
if that doesn't work, then sell the entire system and invest on a proper streaming/gaming setup like Ryzen 2600 or i5 8400

 

[ZGR]

OP, I still suggest trying OBS before spending any money.

Nvidia's streaming software lacks the ability to fine tune your settings which makes for an incredibly inefficient stream.

Feel free to PM me for instructions on setting up OBS.

 

[aigomorla]

OP has a i5 7400...

The most sensable upgrade is a i7-7700 because all the other recommendations would cost more and have less performance.
The OP going R5 1600 over just swaping the cpu to a 7700 is to me sort of stupid and wasteful.

You can buy a 7700 cpu for about 250 dollars.

You would need to buy a R5 cpu + B350 board + DDR4... and DDR4 alone would kill you and your budget due to how expensive DDR4 is right now.

So OP, just replace the chip to a 7700 and see how it goes.
The i7-7700 is a 3.6ghz base to turbo 4.2ghz processor, comapred to your i5 7400 which is a 3.0ghz base 3.5ghz turbo...

That means the 7700 running at base is = to your 7400 turbo, and u have 4 hyperthreaded cores on top, and the ability to turbo even more to 4.2ghz.

So again, the smartest move is a cpu swap to a 7700.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Aigo, this isn't a custom rig, this is an HP pre-built. You would be lucky if the i7-7700 runs in that box. (Check BIOS/docs for support?)

 

[daveybrat]

Alright, so after some digging i finally found the real documentation for your motherboard. It can actually handle an i7-7700 maximum.

So i guess the cheapest and best route for you is to simply upgrade the processor!

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05355651

 

[ao_ika_red]

Want to post the same thing, but ninja'd by davey.

 

[aigomorla]

Aigo, this isn't a custom rig, this is an HP pre-built. You would be lucky if the i7-7700 runs in that box. (Check BIOS/docs for support?)

yeah i saw but i am pretty sure HP's support cpu swaps. Ive done a couple including a laptop in the past, before they were soldered on.

Alright, so after some digging i finally found the real documentation for your motherboard. It can actually handle an i7-7700 maximum.

So i guess the cheapest and best route for you is to simply upgrade the processor!

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05355651

yup, which is why i honestly prefer HP over Dell when possible...

 

[Whitz]

yeah i saw but i am pretty sure HP's support cpu swaps. Ive done a couple including a laptop in the past, before they were soldered on.



yup, which is why i honestly prefer HP over Dell when possible...

So the best option for me to do in this situation is to upgrade to an i7-7700 and get a better PSU?

 

[aigomorla]

tbh, i dont think you should change your PSU.

The one thing about HP's that i do not like is sometimes they use there own PSU, especially the micro ATX psu your pavillion has. You may run into problems with mounting or even wire placements might not be the same.

I assume this is the machine you are using:

The good thing is that the i5-7400 and i7-7700 are both 65W TDP cpu's.
Meaning since ur not overclocking anything, the difference in power draw may be minimal to allow you to get away with not changing that psu.

 

[ZGR]

So the best option for me to do in this situation is to upgrade to an i7-7700 and get a better PSU?

You should be fine with a 300w PSU, as long as you do not overclock. For example, If I run my specs at stock clocks, I use around 250w at load. Once I overclock the CPU and GPU, I am near 400w at load.

I would get a better PSU so you can upgrade your GPU down the road, but you are still stuck with a quad core i7 at the end of the day.

Getting the i7 and using better stream software will greatly improve your experience.

Edit: I wouldn't be too worried about buying a used i7-7700 either.

 

[Whitz]

You should be fine with a 300w PSU, as long as you do not overclock. For example, If I run my specs at stock clocks, I use around 250w at load. Once I overclock the CPU and GPU, I am near 400w at load.

I would get a better PSU so you can upgrade your GPU down the road, but you are still stuck with a quad core i7 at the end of the day.

Getting the i7 and using better stream software will greatly improve your experience.

Edit: I wouldn't be too worried about buying a used i7-7700 either.

So what actually matters when streaming? I read it was number of cores? Like I said I’m a newbie to this stuff lol.

 

[ZGR]

So what actually matters when streaming? I read it was number of cores? Like I said I’m a newbie to this stuff lol.

Number of cores really helps, but your upload speed is the biggest factor.

You need to fine tune your bitrate with your framerate and resolution in OBS to get the maximum performance. NVENC encoding helps a bit too, but most work is still done on the CPU.
If you stream using Nvidia's overlay, you cannot fine tune your stream settings which means you will have a very inefficient stream. Even powerful setups struggle with Nvidia's software as it lacks a lot of features.

I would start by testing your upload speed, and convert that into kbps. Then you can assign a decent bitrate that is below that number. Depending on the bitrate, you can do 1280x720@30fps (2mbps minimum) and 1280x720@60 or 1920x1080@30 (5mbps minimum).

The more optimized your setup, the less CPU load you will have.

 

[Whitz]

Number of cores really helps, but your upload speed is the biggest factor.

You need to fine tune your bitrate with your framerate and resolution in OBS to get the maximum performance. NVENC encoding helps a bit too, but most work is still done on the CPU.
If you stream using Nvidia's overlay, you cannot fine tune your stream settings which means you will have a very inefficient stream. Even powerful setups struggle with Nvidia's software as it lacks a lot of features.

I would start by testing your upload speed, and convert that into kbps. Then you can assign a decent bitrate that is below that number. Depending on the bitrate, you can do 1280x720@30fps (2mbps minimum) and 1280x720@60 or 1920x1080@30 (5mbps minimum).

The more optimized your setup, the less CPU load you will have.

Ok I see. My current upload speed is around 13 Mbps.

 

[ItsAlive]

If it were my choice I'd go with this as it leaves you with an upgrade path to Ryzen +/2 and upgraded PSU.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113435&ignorebbr=1 - Ryzen 1600 CPU
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157762&ignorebbr=1 - Asrock B350 MB
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...37&cm_re=micro_atx_psu-_-17-104-132-_-Product FSP SFX 450w PSU

Total - $338

i7 7700 = $305

You might be able to find the parts cheaper on Ebay if you are patient enough.

 

[ZGR]

Ok I see. My current upload speed is around 13 Mbps.

Using OBS, you can easily do 1080p60 at around 5k bitrate. This means you will be CPU limited, even with the i7-7700.

I would try to see what 720p60at 2500-3000 kbps bitrate would do for you before thinking of spending any cash.

If you do enjoy streaming I recommend going to Ryzen or Intel's 8000 series and get a hex core as a base minimum. You have the upload speed to do 1080p60 which means your CPU will be holding you back if you stay at a quad core.

 

[TheELF]

Number of cores really helps, but your upload speed is the biggest factor.

You need to fine tune your bitrate with your framerate and resolution in OBS to get the maximum performance. NVENC encoding helps a bit too, but most work is still done on the CPU.

No it's not,proof here... just put the streaming exe to real time as I already said and you get decent streaming with close to zero CPU impact,1050Ti doing 1440p/60 on a g4560? No problem!
Quality is determined by the upload speed and 13Mbit will look alright.

 

[tential]

No it's not,proof here... just put the streaming exe to real time as I already said and you get decent streaming with close to zero CPU impact,1050Ti doing 1440p/60 on a g4560? No problem!
Quality is determined by the upload speed and 13Mbit will look alright.

You really think he's getting a consistent 13 Mbps upload....
That's the main bottleneck. Ever since switching off gigabit internet, I feel the upload pain. It's joke, especially if yours is an "up to" plan which most people are on, so it's not guaranteed you get that speed all the time.

Not to say that what you're suggesting isn't correct, he can make a LOT out of the bandwidth, but still, you definitely want to upgrade your connection when possible or shop around, threaten to leave, etc.

I'd start with threaten to leave actually now, and try to get an upgrade to the next tier level of service or you'll leave for the competitor or whatever. And of course make sure you're on the best deal/service/provider right now.

Yes, using that quicksync feature (or whatever they call it now) is also huge. Get to keep using your amazing high tier CPU without a CPU impact. Things like this keep me loving intel.
In general, though,
this is why you buy an i7 and never buy an i5.... ever.... ever ever ever!

I'm an i7 fan in case you hadn't heard....

 

[IRobot23]

Can't you use iGPU? i7 7700 might be good for streaming, if u want decent quality at low bitrate i7 7700 is no go.

Probably you run SC ram. You need dc.

People here always talk about budget, saving money... depends on what you want.

If you just wana stream at playable framerates, or you want decent quality and so on and if you will use this for long time then...

Can you be more specific about your PC? Ram speed? dc or sc?

 

[frozentundra123456]

If it were my choice I'd go with this as it leaves you with an upgrade path to Ryzen +/2 and upgraded PSU.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113435&ignorebbr=1 - Ryzen 1600 CPU
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157762&ignorebbr=1 - Asrock B350 MB
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...37&cm_re=micro_atx_psu-_-17-104-132-_-Product FSP SFX 450w PSU

Total - $338

i7 7700 = $305

You might be able to find the parts cheaper on Ebay if you are patient enough.

How about a Window's license? Since the current PC is an OEM unit, he probably cannot carry over the license. I do agree though, unless he can find a used one at a good price, the 7700 is overpriced now, compared to the i5 8400 or Ryzen.

 

[ZGR]

Can't you use iGPU? i7 7700 might be good for streaming, if u want decent quality at low bitrate i7 7700 is no go.

Probably you run SC ram. You need dc.

People here always talk about budget, saving money... depends on what you want.

If you just wana stream at playable framerates, or you want decent quality and so on and if you will use this for long time then...

Can you be more specific about your PC? Ram speed? dc or sc?

His GTX 1060 is fine for streaming. What do you define as a decent quality stream?

 

[IRobot23]

His GTX 1060 is fine for streaming. What do you define as a decent quality stream?

Decent quality?

Well you guys are saying that i7 7700 is enough for streaming, as far as I know that is on basically ultra/super/very fast preset (OBS). It may have problems at very fast preset (not by ingame fps), but stream.

I guess he is going to stream more than just few games, and maybe 6C/12T is much better deal. I would advice him to stream on his GPU even with i7, but for now just try to survive with i5 and wait for DDR4 to fall a bit more. Then getting Ryzen 2 (6C/12) + 16Gb DDR4 3200MT/s for 150$ might be a great deal with AM4 even for future. Anyway R5 1600 can stream games MT (CPU intensive) like BF easily, can i7 7700 do the same?

 

[namx01]

OP has a i5 7400...

The most sensable upgrade is a i7-7700 because all the other recommendations would cost more and have less performance.
The OP going R5 1600 over just swaping the cpu to a 7700 is to me sort of stupid and wasteful.

You can buy a 7700 cpu for about 250 dollars.

You would need to buy a R5 cpu + B350 board + DDR4... and DDR4 alone would kill you and your budget due to how expensive DDR4 is right now.

So OP, just replace the chip to a 7700 and see how it goes.
The i7-7700 is a 3.6ghz base to turbo 4.2ghz processor, comapred to your i5 7400 which is a 3.0ghz base 3.5ghz turbo...

That means the 7700 running at base is = to your 7400 turbo, and u have 4 hyperthreaded cores on top, and the ability to turbo even more to 4.2ghz.

So again, the smartest move is a cpu swap to a 7700.

I got a used one myself a couple months back for $215 shipping included.

 

[IRobot23]

For that kind of money you can get much more.

Like I said OP needs to tell us DRAM setup. Then we can talk further.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Probably you run SC ram. You need dc.

No, those HP "Power Gaming" PCs, ship with 2x4GB. At least mine did.