CPU upgrade for streaming 720p/60 FPS

crusadehs

Junior Member
Mar 10, 2017
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0
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I use my PC for some AAA gaming + streaming and gaming Overwatch on the same PC. About 50/50 for purely gaming vs streaming.

Current Specs:

CPU Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card
Monitor Dell S2716DG 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor

I'm Currently considering 2 options:
Option 1: Sell my i5 4690k, buy a second hand i7 4790k for about $75 US or $100 Canadian more. Keep the rest of the components.
Option 2: Sell my CPU, Mobo and RAM and upgrade to brand new i7 6700k/7700k or Ryzen R7 1700 with 16GB DDR4 and new motherboard. Cost at least $150 US or $200 Canadian. Cost based on my estimate on the difference between buying new minus $ recoup'd from selling the old.

Currently streaming @720p 30 FPS in Overwatch fine after a lot of settings tweak, but I noticed the CPU usage has crept up since the game first came out.

I'm Still weighing my options/ waiting for deals. I'm not in a big rush to upgrade today.
Appreciate the feedbacks!
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
3,967
720
126
Currently streaming @720p 30 FPS in Overwatch fine after a lot of settings tweak, but I noticed the CPU usage has crept up since the game first came out.
  • What settings are you using?
1080p/30fps through the cpu alone is doable with g4560 in dota2 without influencing gaming FPS. (Youtube) And with like 20-30% of the cpu idling.
  • Which streaming program?
  • Are you seriously considering upgrading before overclocking?
  • What is your upload speed? Ever thought about the problem maybe being there?If you have plenty of upload speed try out OBS and use qsv or even shadowplay if you have crazy good internet.
  • Crazy notion, use afterburner to lock your fps to 120 so your cpu usage will drop like crazy.
 

crusadehs

Junior Member
Mar 10, 2017
14
0
11
Looks like I was able to do it with NVENC, low latency high performance in OBS studio. Quality isn't the best but it was smooth enough. I'll hold off on the upgrade unless I get a really good deal. My upload speed isn't the issue and in game settings are mostly low. Thanks for looking into it.

P.S CPU is clocked at 4.3Ghz, but I don't think that makes as much of a difference than having 4 extra threads for streaming.
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
3,967
720
126
P.S CPU is clocked at 4.3Ghz, but I don't think that makes as much of a difference than having 4 extra threads for streaming.
That's a misconception,sure 4 more cores gives you a lot more cpu power but as you can see from the video, 264 encoding even with the cpu for streaming qualities doesn't really need all that much cpu power as some would like you to believe.
Priorities in task manager make a much bigger difference that's why OBS has it in it's advanced settings put it to high and your recordings will always be smooth even if you loose a few frames in games.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,509
29,090
146
If streaming is a huge use case for you, then the best option would be a Ryzen 1700 or maybe wait to see how the 6/12 1600X performs when it is out ~late April for about $260.

Ryzen really shines when it comes to game streaming.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
If streaming is a huge use case for you, then the best option would be a Ryzen 1700 or maybe wait to see how the 6/12 1600X performs when it is out ~late April for about $260.

Ryzen really shines when it comes to game streaming.

I'd still really like to see some benchmarks on this. I brought it up in the Ryzen gaming thread in the CPU subforum, but most didn't really seem to care. The thing is... AMD brought it up as a viable use case, and I know that some streamers use dual PC setups to avoid taxing their gaming machine. So, it'd be interesting to see if it really does help.
 

crusadehs

Junior Member
Mar 10, 2017
14
0
11
If streaming is a huge use case for you, then the best option would be a Ryzen 1700 or maybe wait to see how the 6/12 1600X performs when it is out ~late April for about $260.

Ryzen really shines when it comes to game streaming.

That's why I gave some serious thought about the R7 1700. However, I'm in a mixed use case scenario (benefit from both extra core/ threads, and high IPC/ fast single cores for high refresh rate gaming).
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
3,967
720
126
Yeah, that works because he's playing DOTA 2 and using low encoding settings. 10Mbps at very fast isn't going to stress the CPU much. At those lower quality settings (to be fair, they could be lower), he might as well just use NVENC.
It's the OBS preset for twitch, it's the max twitch will allow,and it's a g4560 still having like 20% leeway for better quality encoding it's not a overclocked i5, not to mention o/c i7.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,509
29,090
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That's why I gave some serious thought about the R7 1700. However, I'm in a mixed use case scenario (benefit from both extra core/ threads, and high IPC/ fast single cores for high refresh rate gaming).

Since you're patient, I'd wait for the 1600X release then and see if Ryzen manages single core gains with only 6 cores, compared to what else is available. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference there, but it should OC much better.
 

crusadehs

Junior Member
Mar 10, 2017
14
0
11
Since you're patient, I'd wait for the 1600X release then and see if Ryzen manages single core gains with only 6 cores, compared to what else is available. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference there, but it should OC much better.

Yeah, I think I'll do that. In the mean time I'll see if I can get a killer deal on something to make me wanna upgrade.
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
3,967
720
126
but it should OC much better.
Doubtful,the i3-7350 has half the cores of the i7 and doesn't clock any better at all,if the arch is at it's limits then there's just no more headroom.
Also,any news on how aggressive amd's binning is? They might be keeping the top bins for the skus with the largest profit margin.
 

TeknoBug

Platinum Member
Oct 2, 2013
2,084
31
91
You want 6 or 8 core CPU for streaming so it doesn't starve CPU load on your games.
 

crusadehs

Junior Member
Mar 10, 2017
14
0
11
You want 6 or 8 core CPU for streaming so it doesn't starve CPU load on your games.

I agree that certain titles definitely would appreciate that (BF1 for example) since CPU encoding can easily max out 1 core. However, I was able to get the settings I want for the game I stream after some tweaking. Thanks for your help nonetheless.