Streaming Setups

[TexasSkulls]

Hey all,

I've been considering giving streaming a shot, just as a hobby, and wanted to get a feel for my hardware setup choices. I was hoping to get some ideas for both single- and two-computer streaming, and what the optimal setups for both might look like. I've read Twitch: Broadcasting with Two Computers, but it seems like the capture card can be a major bottleneck. Is the setup described in the article the most optimal for two-computer streaming? If so, any thoughts on a really solid capture card? If it's not the most optimal two-computer setup, can you point me in the right direction?

Long story short, I was hoping to get some ideas on how to setup a stream in the most optimal and performance-minded way. Thanks in advance!

 

[Montoya]

With fancy cards like the 1070 and 1080 you can happily stream from a single pc until such time you decide to get fancy!

 

[TexasSkulls]

With fancy cards like the 1070 and 1080 you can happily stream from a single pc until such time you decide to get fancy!

Aren't two-computer streaming setups also supposed to address things like network performance* as well though? Or should I be ok on those fronts in most cases?

EDIT: Also CPU issues, not just networking.

 

[Montoya]

Aren't two-computer streaming setups also supposed to address things like network performance* as well though? Or should I be ok on those fronts in most cases?

EDIT: Also CPU issues, not just networking.

Yeah, the encoding part sucks some resources but any modern pc and GPU can handle anything you need.

 

[RedLir]

Hey all,

I've been considering giving streaming a shot, just as a hobby, and wanted to get a feel for my hardware setup choices. I was hoping to get some ideas for both single- and two-computer streaming, and what the optimal setups for both might look like. I've read Twitch: Broadcasting with Two Computers, but it seems like the capture card can be a major bottleneck. Is the setup described in the article the most optimal for two-computer streaming? If so, any thoughts on a really solid capture card? If it's not the most optimal two-computer setup, can you point me in the right direction?

Long story short, I was hoping to get some ideas on how to setup a stream in the most optimal and performance-minded way. Thanks in advance!

If you're just doing it for a hobby, you can easily get away with 1 PC depending on what you're using. I run a 5820 6 core ( 12 hyperthreaded) with an Nvidia 970, 32 GB of ram, and I stream SC fine on 1 PC.

I use OBS set to faster ( default is very fast), with a bit rate and buffer of 2000 to keep it reasonable on viewers as I'm not partnered. I keep the game at 1080p with the canvas and output scaled resolution at 1080p ( on the Video tab in settings). I then rescale output ( on the output tab in settings) to 720p.

There is a distinct difference between scaling on the video tab and the output tab. You only want to do it in one spot.

Video tab "Output (scaled) Resolution", will rescale using your GPU
Output tab "Rescale Output", will rescale using your CPU.

In my case I have WAY MORE CPU than GPU so I use the second option. If you have something like a 1080, well, maybe the first option would be better. The power is knowing you have 2 different options and it's not intuitive that only 1 should be used without some googling.

In general if you're going to stream on the same box, I would say go for a setup with more cores vs one that can overclock single cores faster I.e. I chose the 5820K ( 6 core) at the time over the 6700K ( 4 core )

Hope that helps.

 

[TexasSkulls]

If you're just doing it for a hobby, you can easily get away with 1 PC depending on what you're using. I run a 5820 6 core ( 12 hyperthreaded) with an Nvidia 970, 32 GB of ram, and I stream SC fine on 1 PC.

I use OBS set to faster ( default is very fast), with a bit rate and buffer of 2000 to keep it reasonable on viewers as I'm not partnered. I keep the game at 1080p with the canvas and output scaled resolution at 1080p ( on the Video tab in settings). I then rescale output ( on the output tab in settings) to 720p.

There is a distinct difference between scaling on the video tab and the output tab. You only want to do it in one spot.

Video tab "Output (scaled) Resolution", will rescale using your GPU
Output tab "Rescale Output", will rescale using your CPU.

In my case I have WAY MORE CPU than GPU so I use the second option. If you have something like a 1080, well, maybe the first option would be better. The power is knowing you have 2 different options and it's not intuitive that only 1 should be used without some googling.

In general if you're going to stream on the same box, I would say go for a setup with more cores vs one that can overclock single cores faster I.e. I chose the 5820K ( 6 core) at the time over the 6700K ( 4 core )

Hope that helps.

It does, thank you. In my case, I'm WAYYYY overpowered in the GPU department (dual Pascal Titan X) and underpowered CPU-wise (6700K). This is even more pronounced when I multi box, which I do quite often with other games. So I'm just really afraid my CPU won't handle streaming plus multi boxing very well.

I mention a dual-PC setup for streaming even if just for hobby purposes mostly because of the above, and because I have 2 980Ti's (replaced by the Titans), another 6700K, and a spare case all laying around. A streaming PC isn't all that much more (power supply, mobo, and a some memory).

I think I might take your advice, though, and give streaming a shot on a single PC. If it doesn't work out well, perhaps I'll give a dual-PC setup a shot.

 

[SiameseDwerg]

I stream now and then and only using a single pc. And it works fine, i have not tried a dual pc setup because i do not feel the need to. Maybe when you actually become a bigger streamer and get partnered a dual pc setup would be more efficient, specially with lots of CLR plugins running :)

Anyways my specs:

i7 4790k
970 GTX
16 GB RAM

Nothing overclocked and i am running obsstudio 64 bits. I have recently switched to a ultra wide monitor and i need to fiddle a bit more to get a nice image on stream when i am playing fullscreen. But i have no lag or anything i still run everything as high as possible with my current resolution. But yea streaming from a single pc works perfect :)

 

[NoTick]

In my mind: unless you're partnered with Twitch, the secondary streaming PC isn't really worth it. Your viewer is limited by what you're outputting anyways (it can't be adjusted to lower the quality). Encoding, as mentioned, can be pretty heavy - but if you're running practically any multi-thread quad core CPU (especially the i7) it's not as bad as you'd think. Also, you're typically going to be down-scaling your stream as well - otherwise the viewer will typically see a shuddering image.

If you were to do a secondary machine though - generally you see them as an i5 with a 950 nVidia GPU (or equivilent) with a "Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro" capture card. You'd run your primary PC through the capture card, and output to your main monitor.

 

[CosmicTrader]

Good luck. Have fun.