Upgrade dilemma

Grumpypants

My rig has been able to handle gaming without any issue, 2k Ultra 60fps etc. But anytime i look at performance graphs while playing the CPU is always topping out but it never spills over into impacting the gameplay for me.

Recently I tried streaming and gaming at yhe same time, and here my CPU is hitting its limit and is noticable as the stream becomes unwatchable. Game is still fine.

Currently I've and i52500k with a 1070gtx. I've never actually overclocked it. Ive a Asus ROG motherboard so i think it has a built in OC feature. Just never needed it so never investigated too much.

Debate now is if an i7 will give me the boost to handle the extra encoding? I dont need a boost in gaming fps etc.

It's an old 1155 motherboard so i can get an old i7 3770. Looking on adverts i can grab a 3770s for 100 or 3770k for 150. This avoids changing the motherboard.

Or bite the bullet and upgrade to something newer (board & chip). This seems like overkill as i could be spending that money on the kids

Advice?

TerrorFirmer

A 3770 is a huge upgrade, a 3770K a major one as you can put a hefty overclock on it. At this point I would avoid the 's' model, you can get the i7-3770 for €110 off Ebay.

Putting streaming aside (and yes the i7 will be hugely beneficial), in very CPU heavy titles (like Battlefield 1 and upcoming BF: V) an overclocked i7-3770K will be literally 100% faster than a 2500K due to the extra threads.

Overclocking the 2500K will help but it's still a big bottleneck overall.

Especially at stock speeds, an i5-2500 is broadly a very bad bottleneck to a GTX1070, though playing at 2k probably negates it somewhat in most games....but there are still a few games right now, and will be a lot more going forward, where the 2500 will be a crippling bottleneck.

If budget and value for money is your concern, I would probably opt for a 3770 non-K at €100. If you can stretch, get the K and OC it.

Grumpypants

Perfect just what i was looking for. So the 3770 or 3770k are the best bets but don't bother with the 3770s?

_DMac_

Sorry I just seen your thread there. I might be getting rid of my i7-3770 in the next few days if you are looking to upgrade to one.

Grumpypants

What kind of money are you thinking of? I literally just put an offer on Adverts for a 3770k at 150.

_DMac_

Ah no worries. Was gonna say 100 for the 3770. Shur if the other one falls thru let me know. Otherwise happy over clocking

gazzamc

You never mentioned at what resolution you were streaming or any of the settings you're using.. Obs/xsplit?

You say the games performance isn't being hurt by the streaming but that doesn't seem right.. You should dip slightly even on a beefy system. Perhaps your bit rate is too high for your connection?

Some more info is needed from the streaming side.. Or you'll have the same issue with new hardware.

Just for example:

I stream pubg at 720p/ 4000kbps, using a fast preset in obs.. My fps drops to 90 but can dip lower depending on where I'm located /action in the background. Normally I run at 144fps.

System:
I7 8700k /980ti

Of course I'm not playing at 1440p but 1080, so in order to get more performance you could drop resolution.. But I assume you have a 1440p monitor so that would be a waste of the investment.

Streaming on one pc is taxing on it.. Short and simple drop the stream setting s a bit and make sure your connection can handle it.. If its twitch you're streaming to a lower bit rate/res might help you.

Sorry for the wall of text, just trying to prevent you wasting cash that might not fix the issue.

Grumpypants

No worries I appreciate any input as I'm only trying to figure all the streaming tech.

The connection is pretty solid 1gb down/ 100mb up fibre to the house, and I'm wired right into the router.

I was streaming my Switch through the PC and everything streamed perfectly fine. Think I had it at 1080p 6000kbps using a Hauppauge card. I've also streamed it via OBS with similarly solid streams.

Then I played a PC game and the stream wasn't just dropping frame rate it was stuttering really bad, it would play for 1 second then load for 1 etc. When I looked at the task manager CPU was at 100%. When I lowered it to bitrate to 2500, closed chrome so just had the game and obs. I could get the CPU down to around 95%. But the stream looked pretty blurry.

Game performance prob took a hit but I didn't really notice it but it didn't freeze up. The stream seemed to take the brunt of it.

The processor just can't really handle doing the two heavy tasks.

gazzamc

Grumpypants wrote: »

No worries I appreciate any input as I'm only trying to figure all the streaming tech.

The connection is pretty solid 1gb down/ 100mb up fibre to the house, and I'm wired right into the router.

I was streaming my Switch through the PC and everything streamed perfectly fine. Think I had it at 1080p 6000kbps using a Hauppauge card. I've also streamed it via OBS with similarly solid streams.

Then I played a PC game and the stream wasn't just dropping frame rate it was stuttering really bad, it would play for 1 second then load for 1 etc. When I looked at the task manager CPU was at 100%. When I lowered it to bitrate to 2500, closed chrome so just had the game and obs. I could get the CPU down to around 95%. But the stream looked pretty blurry.

Game performance prob took a hit but I didn't really notice it but it didn't freeze up. The stream seemed to take the brunt of it.

The processor just can't really handle doing the two heavy tasks.

Your first mistake was streaming 1080p.. Even partnered streamers don't stream at that resolution. Twitch doesn't even allow the necessary bitrate to get a decent picture, especially for action/movement packed games..

I'd say switch the resolution to 720 or 900p.. This will bring the cpu down a bit.. There should be an option in the output tab with downscale in obs settings. Its good you have a great upload speed you may have to compensate some of the processing power for just raw biterate.. 3500 to 4000kbps should be good enough for the above resolutions. But bare in mind unless you're a partner/affiliated you won't get quality options so viewers with crap connections will buffer a lot.

The new hardware will help but unless you get a dedicated streaming pc you won't be able to push 1080p and game on the same system.. It worked fine with the capture card because it was essentially a streaming only setup (game was offloaded to the switch).

Just another tip for obs, if you right-click the preview window and turn it off you can gain some extra performance, unless you use it for alerts

Hope this helps

Edit:

If you hover over the dropped frames in obs you can see why it's dropping. Should say encoder issues or something to that note for lack of cpu.

Grumpypants

I73770k installed. Ran a quick test on Doom. 2k Ultra settings 125 fps min, and everything is green. CPU running at about 50%.

Grumpypants

I7 Seems to have sorted my bottle neck. Played Frostpunk in 2k, streamed it via OBS in 1080p @5500 bitrate to Twitch, Youtube and mixer and watched all three streams in 1080p all at the same time just to push it.

CPU 67%

gazzamc

Good to see you got it working to your liking.

yoshiktk

Could You tell the amount of ram You have?
I'm in similar situation, from few months can't decide what to do with my I5.