Friend has an Athlon II X4 - watches Twitch. Save power, iincrease performance?

[VirtualLarry]

Now that I made the change from a pair of OCed Q9300 CPUs and 110W GPUs (HD4850), to lower-powered G3258 rigs with 7950 cards (which have pretty decent idle power levels, thankfully) - I was contemplating if I could help my friend upgrade to something that is lower-powered, but still as fast.

He primarily uses his PC to watch 1080P twitch streams, sometimes more than one at once. We added an NV GT610 (? Maybe GT620), in an attempt to speed up his twitch streams, after he started complaining about "lag".

What current rig would be faster / smoother at watching Twitch streams, yet be more power-efficient?

I also gave him a new PC some time ago, an FM2 A6-5400K, I think it was. He doesn't use it for anything.

He doesn't game at all on his PC, he's a "console peasant".

 

[richierich1212]

How fast is his internet?

 

[VirtualLarry]

How fast is his internet?

I think Comcast increased his speed to 150Mbit/sec. He was using a 10/100 router. I hooked him up with a Trendnet AC1200 Gigabit router that I had in stock, don't know if he has installed it yet.

I've tried to talk him into a G3258 combo, he wasn't interested because it wasn't a quad-core. Even though it's faster than his CPU, and would allow him to easily bump up to 8 or 16GB of RAM. (Currently, his mobo is AM2+, with 2x2GB DDR2.)

I've tried to talk him into various mini-PCs, but he seems to like an ATX tower.

PS. He has basically no money.

 

[JimmiG]

Seems strange than an Athlon II X4 wouldn't handle video streams at 1080p. Maybe he just needs a re-install or more RAM or something...

 

[richierich1212]

Did you actually try to have him show you this lag in person? I know it's messed up to say this but there are messed up people out there. Your "friend" probably wants a free upgrade from you.

If he's a console peasant he can upgrade to a PS4. I know you can watch Twitch streams on that console.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Either an i3-4160/4170 or an A8-7650k would be just ducky. You might not want to pay that much, but both have enhanced playback/streaming stuff blah blah blah, expect to OC the 7650k a little to get it really rolling. You should be able to get some extra speed @ stock volts without using anything but the stock HSF.

 

[Flash831]

What current rig would be faster / smoother at watching Twitch streams, yet be more power-efficient?

I also gave him a new PC some time ago, an FM2 A6-5400K, I think it was. He doesn't use it for anything.

If he got a A6-5400K machine laying around (because it is dual core?), the most easy upgrade would perhaps be a A10-6700. Quad core and power efficient.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seems strange than an Athlon II X4 wouldn't handle video streams at 1080p. Maybe he just needs a re-install or more RAM or something...

No, it handles two Twitch 1080P streams OK, sort of. (Well, minus whatever "lag" my friend seems to feel.) He could stand to get some more RAM though. I've had him check his "Commit Charge", and sometimes, it's over 4096MB. Meaning, he's using swap. He does have a 120GB M500 SSD though, so it's not that bad, or shouldn't be. (I've got a HTPC with only 2MB of RAM, that often exceeds physical RAM size in Commit Charge, and it doesn't get super-laggy.)

Your "friend" probably wants a free upgrade from you.

Maybe. Tis happened before.

Either an i3-4160/4170 or an A8-7650k would be just ducky.

If he got a A6-5400K machine laying around (because it is dual core?), the most easy upgrade would perhaps be a A10-6700. Quad core and power efficient.

Well, part of the issue is, the mobo I gave him with the A6-5400K, was an A85X. Meaning, it is a full-ATX, but only an FM2 board, not FM2+. So Kaveri / Godaveri is out.

So, Trinity or Richland. Both of which are pretty-much drying up at Newegg. Although, they still do have the A10-5800K, sometimes on sale for $79.99.

I myself also have an unused A85X board, that's in need of an APU to put in it, and it needs a Trinity, or I need to borrow my friend's A6-5400K to flash the BIOS so it will accept a Richland.

Edit: I guess I was trying to help my friend save on his electric bill too. If the Athlon II X4 640 has a 95-100W TDP, and doesn't have power-gating when idle, that's a lot of watts to be burning when idle. Bonus if the newer solution would have a better GPU or IGP, so we could pull out the GT610.

A Skylake i3 might not be totally out of the question, especially if they launch cheaper DDR3-using lower-chipset mobos (around $60 or less).

 

[MajinCry]

Well, Windows 7 uses a butt-load of RAM with nothing installed (after updates), so I wouldn't be surprised if it's his RAM slogging his system up.

For reference, I've got an antiquated Thinkpad Edge with an i3 330m, which is equivalent to a 1.8GHz or so Core 2 Duo. What holds it back when playing 1080p video, is the trash intel HD 2000.

Have you tried slamming in a better GPU, just to see what happens?

 

[Erenhardt]

Also, this:

If he uses Chrome try FF. It is probably a RAM issue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If he uses Chrome try FF. It is probably a RAM issue.

He does use FF. Also, Flash Player, after it has been running for a while, tends to suck up available RAM too.

 

[SPBHM]

those "low power" 95W 8 core FX should be good for this?

a lot of twitch streams are 60FPS and very demanding, I can easily use 50% or more CPU usage on my 2.8GHz "C2Q" by just watching a single 720P 60FPS one (with a 1280x1024 screen), and it drops a few frames... GPU decode acceleration doesn't work with my 4670 (when it works with the right combination of software it's worse, dropping more frames and such, it can't handle the 60FPS streams)

also Chrome and IE are clearly better than FF for this.

if he wants to save some money... just use the quality settings, switching to high or medium is still "OK" and much easier on the hardware and internet.

 

[NTMBK]

Check he installed the new router. Check what NIC he has in his machine, and if he is using wifi check what the signal strength is like. Check the router is configured correctly. Try reinstalling Windows, in case he's got some sort of cruft in his installation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

those "low power" 95W 8 core FX should be good for this?

a lot of twitch streams are 60FPS and very demanding, I can easily use 50% or more CPU usage on my 2.8GHz "C2Q" by just watching a single 720P 60FPS one (with a 1280x1024 screen), and it drops a few frames... GPU decode acceleration doesn't work with my 4670 (when it works with the right combination of software it's worse, dropping more frames and such, it can't handle the 60FPS streams)

also Chrome and IE are clearly better than FF for this.

if he wants to save some money... just use the quality settings, switching to high or medium is still "OK" and much easier on the hardware and internet.

Interesting, thanks. I don't think that he wants to drop the quality down. He watches at "Source" or "1080P" (60?). Even with the GT610, I think that it drops some frames some times too.

Edit: I've toyed with the idea of selling him one of my Thuban 1045T 95W hex-cores. I have a couple of those, not currently being used.
I've also toyed with the idea of getting him an FX-8310 or whatever is cheapest at TD, sometimes they're on sale, and I also bought an open-box Biostar TA970 AM3+ mobo that he could use, and then just add some DDR3. Even if he doesn't upgrade the CPU, I wanted to hook him up with that board (assuming it works, haven't tested it), and then he could move to (more) DDR3, from DDR2.

Check he installed the new router. Check what NIC he has in his machine, and if he is using wifi check what the signal strength is like. Check the router is configured correctly. Try reinstalling Windows, in case he's got some sort of cruft in his installation.

He's not using WiFi, and even with his old 10/100 router, he gets 90Mbit/sec on his speedtests.

I did tell him he was due for a re-format.

 

[john5220]

The Athlon II X4 with a dedicated GPU works fine for streaming 1080p

But for some reason you must use google chrome

 

[Schmide]

Everyone gets lag in twitch during peak shows.

The proper way is keep 3 browsers up.

Firefox/Palemoon (64) - Browsing Reading Stuff (Tons of Tabs)
Chrome - Programming / Script Stuff / WebGL
Explorer - Streaming / Videos

On high end systems any one of these could do everything. On a low end system it's best not to make them juggle too much.

 

[escrow4]

A Skylake i3 in a mATX (or smaller case) would be the default option. i3s are it for standard porn er internet boxes with no fancy encoding requirements. I wouldn't use old AMD crap it runs hot and is obsolete.

 

[Bryf50]

I found IE to be by far the most efficient browser for watching flash and html5 video. Firefox is downright awful and doesn't seem to use any hardware acceleration, Chrome is somewhere in between, and IE never peaks above 10% cpu usage when watching a 1080p video on my laptop.

 

[soccerballtux]

Also, this:

If he uses Chrome try FF. It is probably a RAM issue.

bahahahaha

 

[soccerballtux]

Everyone gets lag in twitch during peak shows.

The proper way is keep 3 browsers up.

Firefox/Palemoon (64) - Browsing Reading Stuff (Tons of Tabs)
Chrome - Programming / Script Stuff / WebGL
Explorer - Streaming / Videos

On high end systems any one of these could do everything. On a low end system it's best not to make them juggle too much.

this is really great thread

 

[Soulkeeper]

Yeah, sounds like a standard case of software bloat mixed with clutter.
As every new version of browsers (most any software) progressively get more "features"
I've recently noticed lags/pauses on page scrolling in FF as it's started to push it more the last few versions.

adware/spyware, popups, "helper" applets/daemons, etc. If he's a windows user he no doubt has tons of these and likely not enough time/energy to limit them. The swapping issue is never good even with an ssd.
IMO, either have him go thru his system and clean everything up, or throw something like an i5 + 16GB of mem at the problem to stave it off for awhile.

 

[VirtualLarry]

adware/spyware, popups, "helper" applets/daemons, etc. If he's a windows user he no doubt has tons of these and likely not enough time/energy to limit them. The swapping issue is never good even with an ssd.
IMO, either have him go thru his system and clean everything up, or throw something like an i5 + 16GB of mem at the problem to stave it off for awhile.

He's fairly paranoid about installing programs, and clicking on random links, though not always up on patching immediately either.

I don't believe that he has "visible" malware on his system, pop-up browser ads, etc.

Though he did some errors about "clickjacking" from NoScript when attempting to login to Twitch, and he said he accidentally clicked on a link in chat that wanted to download an .exe; he said he cancelled the download.

I think an i5 is out of the budget entirely. I don't even have an i5 for my rigs. I could see getting him a G3258 combo, though. Or possibly a SKL i3, IF the cheaper-chipset, DDR3 mobos come out. That, or the price of 16GB of DDR4 drops to price-parity with DDR3 (~$80 as of this post).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is Twitch.tv going to expand to 4K streaming anytime soon, and/or switching to H.265?

If they do, his existing X4 640 and GT610 will be obsolete overnight. Have to either get a GTX950, or a SKL rig.

Edit: Maybe a $100 mini-ITX Braswell 3700 board might be an option.

 

[soccerballtux]

shoot, I wish I had the bandwidth to stream twitch, let alone 4k

 

[escrow4]

Is Twitch.tv going to expand to 4K streaming anytime soon, and/or switching to H.265?

If they do, his existing X4 640 and GT610 will be obsolete overnight. Have to either get a GTX950, or a SKL rig.

Edit: Maybe a $100 mini-ITX Braswell 3700 board might be an option.

Youtube has already rejigged its site for 4K or 1080/60p. Plus you have 4K video trailers to test pure offline playback. For H.265 only Skylake can natively decode it - but only Main Profile, not High Profile. That will get the CPU cores shifting.