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Will upgrading CPU help with steam link?

S

Salil

Member
Hello,
I have a very old CPU Intel Core Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz and ASUS P5Q Pro motherboard. Streaming on steam link to my bedroom tv is very slow with slow encoding always displayed when 'Display Performance Metrics' is set. I am playing strategy games like XCOM so my desktop computer as such satisfies all my needs when I play directly on it. I ran a performance log on my desktop while playing on steam link my cpu is at 100% usage while streaming and I am only getting 10 fps even at 720p resolution. I was wondering if overclocking my CPU to 4GHz will help. If not should I just go for a quad core processor 'Q9700 extreme edition' or 'Q9650' will it give me at least 30 fps or is my only option to upgrade to a brand new CPU and motherboard?
 
I believe you'd need to upgrade your system to something at least Sandy Bridge gen to get your desired results.
 
Salil said:
Hello,
I have a very old CPU Intel Core Duo E8500 @ 3.16 GHz and ASUS P5Q Pro motherboard. Streaming on steam link to my bedroom tv is very slow with slow encoding always displayed when 'Display Performance Metrics' is set. I am playing strategy games like XCOM so my desktop computer as such satisfies all my needs when I play directly on it. I ran a performance log on my desktop while playing on steam link my cpu is at 100% usage while streaming and I am only getting 10 fps even at 720p resolution. I was wondering if overclocking my CPU to 4GHz will help. If not should I just go for a quad core processor 'Q9700 extreme edition' or 'Q9650' will it give me at least 30 fps or is my only option to upgrade to a brand new CPU and motherboard?
Click to expand...

What is your GPU? Steam Link should be using the hardware encoder built in to any modern graphics card. CPU load should be minimal.
 
You can get by with a cheap video card that can do the decoding for your bedroom comp. I have an Athlon 5350 that I used some times to stream to and it does just fine handling 1080p at 60 fps. I'm kind of surprised you're getting such bad performance though, core2 at 3 GHz I would think could do at least 720p. Have you tried a really simple game to make sure it's not on the host side and also streaming at 720p to see if that is smooth?
 
Hitman928 said:
You can get by with a cheap video card that can do the decoding for your bedroom comp. I have an Athlon 5350 that I used some times to stream to and it does just fine handling 1080p at 60 fps. I'm kind of surprised you're getting such bad performance though, core2 at 3 GHz I would think could do at least 720p. Have you tried a really simple game to make sure it's not on the host side and also streaming at 720p to see if that is smooth?
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I would have thought the same. My GPU is a Nvidia 1050 Ti. Even with 720p I am getting only 10 fps.
 
Make sure hardware decoding is turned to on in your settings on the bedroom comp as well. Also, is this wireless or wired?
 
I had a similar situation and I opted for a Xeon X3230 quad core (Q6700 with more cache) and it's a big improvement over the dual core. I'm still using the machine to this day. Quad will for sure get you higher frame rates w/1050ti, but as others have said, newer platform would be even better.
 
Last edited:
It is most likely your CPU. On a modern system, the LAN is the bottleneck.

I stream wirelessly on my Host and Client PC's since my 802.11ac network is fast enough for 1080p60.

I would try to upgrade your CPU to a quad. It is a cheap upgrade.
 
The performance display metrics says that the encoder switches between 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' as I move between the splash screen to the 'New Game / Load Game' menu and then actually load the game. At the start of the game the encoder is 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and I am getting close to 30 fps and then it switches to 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' at some point of time and I get 4 fps. It never switches back and I get bad performance from there on. Anyway I can force steam to always use GPU encoding always?
 
Salil said:
The performance display metrics says that the encoder switches between 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' as I move between the splash screen to the 'New Game / Load Game' menu and then actually load the game. At the start of the game the encoder is 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and I am getting close to 30 fps and then it switches to 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' at some point of time and I get 4 fps. It never switches back and I get bad performance from there on. Anyway I can force steam to always use GPU encoding always?
Click to expand...

In settings -> In Home Streaming, you can edit Host and Client settings. I actually just disabled hardware encoding for comparability reasons.

If you have a relatively new Nvidia GPU, I would try Moonlight.
 
Salil said:
The performance display metrics says that the encoder switches between 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' as I move between the splash screen to the 'New Game / Load Game' menu and then actually load the game. At the start of the game the encoder is 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + NVENC H264' and I am getting close to 30 fps and then it switches to 'Desktop NVFBC NV12 + libx264(1 thread)' at some point of time and I get 4 fps. It never switches back and I get bad performance from there on. Anyway I can force steam to always use GPU encoding always?
Click to expand...

Isn't that showing that the encoder is having problems (i.e. your host computer). It looks like maybe your gaming computer isn't keeping up with the gaming load + encoding . . . or am I reading this wrong?
 
I overclocked my E8500 to 4Ghz but that didn't increase the frame rate by much. I now have 3 options:
1. Upgrade to a Xeon X5460 already modded to fit LGA775 Asus Pro PQ5 motherboard and overclock it to 3.8Ghz. Costs about $40 on aliexpress.
2. Upgrade to Q9650 and overclock to 4GHz. Costs about $70.
3. Buy a completely new motherboard and CPU. Don't know the cost(but probably around $250) and will require time to research.

I am leaning towards the modded X5460
 
Salil said:
I overclocked my E8500 to 4Ghz but that didn't increase the frame rate by much. I now have 3 options:
1. Upgrade to a Xeon X5460 already modded to fit LGA775 Asus Pro PQ5 motherboard and overclock it to 3.8Ghz. Costs about $40 on aliexpress.
2. Upgrade to Q9650 and overclock to 4GHz. Costs about $70.
3. Buy a completely new motherboard and CPU. Don't know the cost(but probably around $250) and will require time to research.

I am leaning towards the modded X5460
Click to expand...
That platform is so old, all sorts of things can be problematic. I would get an inexspensive AM4 board, (<100) and get the best CPU you can afford.

Edit: this is my favorite, yes I own one. $90 AR
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157800
 
Yep upgrading my CPU to an used Q9650 solved the problem. Now I am getting 40 fps while streaming with no messages of slow encoding etc. I haven't even overclocked my Q9650 as yet.
 
Salil said:
Yep upgrading my CPU to an used Q9650 solved the problem. Now I am getting 40 fps while streaming with no messages of slow encoding etc. I haven't even overclocked my Q9650 as yet.
Click to expand...

Nice one! Glad it worked out for you 😀
 
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