Am I wasting my time using my second rig as dedicated streaming computer?

I

I3eyond

Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
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Currently solely streaming from a machine with:

Win 10
i7-8750H
16GB RAM
GTX 1070

Not having any issues on 720/60 streams, however was thinking for more intensive games using my old rig could be helpful, whether through a capture card or NDI.

Specs of the potential second rig for the dedicated streamer are:

Win 7
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield
8GB G.SKILL DDR3 PC3 10600
SLI: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (Reference) (x2) >

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TLDR~ Would the secondary computer with the i5 be of use, or no?

Thanks,
-I3
 
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That CPU is too slow; you're likely better off using hardware-assisted encoding (via QuickSync or NVENC) if you're performance-conscious.
 
I3eyond said:
Currently solely streaming from a machine with:

Win 10
i7-8750H
16GB RAM
GTX 1070

Not having any issues on 720/60 streams, however was thinking for more intensive games using my old rig could be helpful, whether through a capture card or NDI.

Specs of the potential second rig for the dedicated streamer are:

Win 7
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield
8GB G.SKILL DDR3 PC3 10600
SLI: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (Reference) (x2) >

--------

TLDR~ Would the secondary computer with the i5 be of use, or no?

Thanks,
-I3
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Last I checked, most game streaming is extremely CPU intensive for video processing. Unfortunately, that i5-750 is a dinosaur that can barely keep up with even a six-year-old dual-core i3 CPU, let alone your current main rig.
 
Shucks, thanks for the replies. I figured the i5 from back in the day wouldn't be sufficient.
 
E4g1e said:
Last I checked, most game streaming is extremely CPU intensive for video processing. Unfortunately, that i5-750 is a dinosaur that can barely keep up with even a six-year-old dual-core i3 CPU, let alone your current main rig.
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And I forgot to mention that that particular i5 has absolutely no integrated Intel HD Graphics on the CPU at all whatsoever, and the Intel QuickSync hardware decoding and encoding feature did not make its debut until Sandy Bridge was introduced two years after your particular Lynnfield-generation CPU. Thus, the decoding of the video streams will fall back onto the CPU, in the absence of QuickSync.

And by the way, if your current laptop still can't smoothly decode any streaming content higher than 720p/60, it's more likely because that CPU has been throttling back on its clock speed due to potential overheating. Relatively speaking, laptops have poorer cooling performance than big desktop towers.
 
Oh well, where I'm currently streaming I can only do 720/60, so it'll be okay for now, as the stream is smooth as butter. 1080/60 may look just as good, haven't really tested it, since I can't stream higher than 720/60.

Thanks for the input.

Best,
-I3
 
I3eyond said:
Oh well, where I'm currently streaming I can only do 720/60, so it'll be okay for now, as the stream is smooth as butter. 1080/60 may look just as good, haven't really tested it, since I can't stream higher than 720/60.
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If that's the case, and your CPU is more than capable, then blame your Internet connection. A lot of people with modern systems are still using 3 Mbps or slower DSL internet, which effectively kills your usable streaming resolution.

And even if you use a dedicated streaming server, you will still be limited to 720/60 due to your Internet connection.
 
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your stream will definitely be better via the 8750h doing gaming + streaming rather than that old i5 handing the stream.
 
I had a modem with the Intel Puma 6 chipset. Just replaced it today. Curious if it fixes the issue. Never knew about the Puma 6 chipset issue.
 
Also keep in mind, encoding is more than just resolution and framerate, there is also bitrate and quality settings to take into account. For a 1080p60 stream you are *definitely* going to want to send 6 Mbps to twitch, and lots of streamers actually send 900p instead of 1080p because it looks better at the relatively low bitrate of 6 Mbps. Additionally, they like to run their encoder settings at x264 medium if possible. On a laptop, like your 8750H, that almost certainly won't fly so you'll want to use x264 fast or fastest, or utilize NVENC on your GPU rather than the software x264 settings.
 
sinisterDei said:
Also keep in mind, encoding is more than just resolution and framerate, there is also bitrate and quality settings to take into account. For a 1080p60 stream you are *definitely* going to want to send 6 Mbps to twitch, and lots of streamers actually send 900p instead of 1080p because it looks better at the relatively low bitrate of 6 Mbps. Additionally, they like to run their encoder settings at x264 medium if possible. On a laptop, like your 8750H, that almost certainly won't fly so you'll want to use x264 fast or fastest, or utilize NVENC on your GPU rather than the software x264 settings.
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Currently using x264. Streaming to Facebook, any differences between it and Twitch you all know of?
 

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So I tried a 1080/60 stream and got all kinds of CPU related issues from the laptop; the stream on the live end look terrible my audience reported. Really looking at trying this through NDI. If I did, which encoding method would I want to use? Could I use NVEC w/ my 660Ti's in SLI, or is that irrelevant?
 
I3eyond said:
So I tried a 1080/60 stream and got all kinds of CPU related issues from the laptop; the stream on the live end look terrible my audience reported. Really looking at trying this through NDI. If I did, which encoding method would I want to use? Could I use NVEC w/ my 660Ti's in SLI, or is that irrelevant?
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That is completely irrelevant. The GPU has absolutely no effect whatsoever with streaming performance or quality. If your 8750H has all kinds of CPU-related issues, your old i5-750 would be even worse no matter which GPU you're using. Simply put, neither of the two CPUs currently in your possession is powerful enough to handle 1080p/60 streaming (at least from whichever site you're streaming from). In this case, you need a newer system with a more powerful; this limits your choice to larger desktop tower builds.

And no, your laptop with the 8750H cannot accept even a single desktop GPU at all. Most laptops including yours have non-upgradable GPUs (that is, GPUs that are permanently fixed onto their motherboards).
 
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