what to upgrade for streaming games

[grandcan]

Hey guys, I just started gaming on my PC and I want to start streaming, but OBS is laggy as hell and I know its because of my hardware as when i built it its wasn't for gaming at all. My question is do I have to upgrade both GPU and GPU pr can i get away with just upgrading 1 of the 2.

I was considering buying a gtx 1070 GPU, but now i'm thinking i might have to also buy a new CPU as well.

Current setup
Windows 7
AMD Radeon HD 6670
AMD FX 6100 six core 3.30GHz
16 GB of RAM

 

[ao_ika_red]

You don't want to put GPU that powerful into that CPU. You'll lose GT730 worth of fps by doing so. Used Haswell-based system will fare much better than that.

 

[grandcan]

I dont really understand all of this so youll need to be blunt, what do I need to buy? are you saying my CPU needs to be upgraded?

 

[ao_ika_red]

Of course. Like I said earlier, if you want to save cost by re-using your DDR3 memory, you probably need to look for used H81 or Z97 board with core i7 4770/ 4770k/4790k CPU.

 

[SPBHM]

your CPU is slow, but you graphics card is more inadequate for current games, also it lacks accelerated video encoding;

if you get a Radeon 7900, Geforce GTX 680 (apart from really low end cards like the GT 1030) and newer you can use the GPU for video encoding with low performance impact (but quality is not as good as software/CPU encoding, still it's good enough more often than not I think).

 

[richaron]

I dont really understand all of this so youll need to be blunt, what do I need to buy? are you saying my CPU needs to be upgraded?

You've really got to provide more information. At the moment I could suggest a computer costing ~$10,000 which should cover what you need. But that's probably not what you're looking for.

What games? What quality streaming? Any specific streaming software? Any other uses? Budget?

Edit: maybe just answer questions from the sticky about asking advice and include your specific usage requirements.

It's easier if you either:
1) Have fixed budget, and get best possible system for this budget.
2) Have fixed specific performance, and adjust the budget for that performance.

If you don't know exactly what performance you need from the system, and you don't provide a budget, it's hard for people to give advice.

 

[grandcan]

You've really got to provide more information. At the moment I could suggest a computer costing ~$10,000 which should cover what you need. But that's probably not what you're looking for.

What games? What quality streaming? Any specific streaming software? Any other uses? Budget?

Edit: maybe just answer questions from the sticky about asking advice and include your specific usage requirements.

It's easier if you either:
1) Have fixed budget, and get best possible system for this budget.
2) Have fixed specific performance, and adjust the budget for that performance.

If you don't know exactly what performance you need from the system, and you don't provide a budget, it's hard for people to give advice.

Im okay with spending up to $700, My games now are fine, but if i turn on OBS to record or stream, everything goes to hell. its super laggy, unplayable. so im just asking what needs to be done to get rid of the lag. im not sure if i need to upgrade both the GPU and CPU or maybe only the GPU>?

 

[corkyg]

Also consider your Internet connection.

 

[Yuriman]

It will depend heavily on what games you're trying to play/stream. An FX-6100 is a very old, anemic processor which can struggle in some modern games on its own, nevermind trying to stream at the same time. Some GPUs can offload nearly all of the streaming load. There are reasons you might not want to do this, and limitations to it. It really depends on what games.

An i5 8400, B360 motherboard, 16GB DDR4 2666 and GTX 1060 6GB together come out to around $700 and are roughly what I'd go for if I were looking to rebuild right now. Prices are similar with a Ryzen 1600 build, which is also not a bad choice, though the i5 gets my vote. You might want a new power supply to go with it too; the one you're using is very likely at least 7 years old.

GPU and RAM prices are 50-100% higher right now than they were a year ago. I expect a lot of used GPUs will be flooding eBay soon, so you might be able to snag a 1060 or 1070 for considerably less than on Amazon.

 

[richaron]

Im okay with spending up to $700, My games now are fine, but if i turn on OBS to record or stream, everything goes to hell. its super laggy, unplayable. so im just asking what needs to be done to get rid of the lag. im not sure if i need to upgrade both the GPU and CPU or maybe only the GPU>?

OK cool that's a start. But still the only real information you've given is a budget.
Any specific games?
What do you mean your games run fine? (what resolution are you running now and what fps are you happy with?)
Do you want/need to run OBS?
What resolution, quality, and bitrate do you want to stream?

Depending on your answers the recommendations could vary from just a GPU upgrade to a new system in the thousands.

I suspect if you're happy with your current gaming performance and just want a low-mid quality basic stream for friends and family you might be fine with a GPU upgrade and use it for hardware encoding. And if you need to build a new system in the future you can simply transfer the GPU over.

But your CPU is pretty weak and if you want fancy-pants streaming using more advanced software this will need to be upgraded. And I think more cores would help here so I'd suggest at least a 6 core Ryzen, or "Ryzen 2" which should be coming out soon. As stated above RAM and GPU prices are stupid these days so that's not going to help either case... Although we are hoping GPU prices will dive soon.

 

[fastamdman]

If you want to stream without lag you are going to need to change your motherboard, cpu and gpu. If you go with used hardware you can do it for 700 dollars no problem. You will want to go with an i7 if possible, the 8700k is out of your budget, but the older 4790k or 4770k cpu's used would not be. The reason the 8700k and 7700k are out of your budget is because you would also have to upgrade ram.

Personally, if you can, I would save up a bit more and upgrade it all at once. You could grab the newer i5 8600k for 250. A z370 motherboard for 120 bucks. 16gb of ddr4 ram for 180 bucks. That puts you at 550 if you buy it all brand new. But, if you buy them used, you can save even more money. Sell the current hardware you have, purchase some used hardware that is current gen and then spend the rest on a video card.

If you have to have it RIGHT NOW, the best option would be to go with older used intel hardware like I mentioned above. You can find someone selling a z97 motherboard and a 4790k really cheap. You will be able to re-use your ram and then you can drop the rest of the money on a gtx 1080 which is a top of the line card.

But, like I said, if you can, save up a little more and do it the right way and upgrade to the newest generation of hardware all at once. It hurts the wallet, but it will also last you 5 or 6 years and you will be able to play everything at max details, even while streaming.