Windows Looking at an Elgato HD60 Pro for streaming

[JaxonAshton]

My current system (AMD-based CPU with GTX 1060 6 GB GPU) has much difficulty reliably streaming to Twitch when I play shooters/BR (Sandstorm, Squad, PUBG, etc), most noticeably with low in-game framerates. I'm a bit new to streaming and would like to do what I can to improve the reliability and quality of my stream without impacting FPS.

 

To solve this, I am considering adding an Elgato HD60 Pro to handle the H.264 encoding and lightening that load away from my GPU. The hope is that I can record or stream live to Twitch without impacting my in-game FPS and still provide a high-quality stream. I'm also planning some budget upgrades to my existing rig (of note, FX-8350 CPU and 1070 GPU) and I'm hoping these changes will help improve things on a tight budget.

 

Very much open to ideas from the community about the best way to handle this.

[w1cx]

Hey there Falc0n2k!

 

I don't know about your setup but if you have a free HDMI output from your computer, you could send your signal out to another computer. The elgato is basically an HDMI input via usb. Very great device that I used for streaming events on FB.

 

So if you have another computer on which you could send your signal and do your streaming, the elgato is perfect. If you don't, then it will be useless to have it. 

 

Another thing to keep in mind is to make sure your streaming computer is wired to the internet, wireless would be risky to not have a steady stream.

 

Also, which software did you use to stream?

[JaxonAshton]

Thanks for the reply @w1cx. Unfortuantely, I don't have another computer to stream to, but I have heard of folks doing a HDMI loopback using a HDMI cable connected from the output of the GPU to the input of the Elgato. Seems anecdotal though, since this doesn't appear to be a best practice.

 

My rig is definitely wired with Ethernet so no worries there. I think the performance bottleneck is my CPU at this point, which I will be upgrading shortly. The 1060 6 GB I have now seems solid enough to handle most anything I throw at it, and with some light research I've done via UserBenchmark, the FX-8350 seems to be a lot better than the FX-6100 I have now. (If you're wondering why I don't just upgrade to a TR or Core I-series processor, it's simple economics. For me to upgrade the proc would require a new mobo, which in turn requires new RAM, which is the most cost-prohibitive thing for me right now.

 

Using Streamlabs OBS for streaming and it's working pretty well. Love the interface and tight integration with the rest of Streamlabs content/overlays.

[GoongalaJones]

OBS is rather good for streaming, but it is as you have stated, it just seems to be your CPU bottle-necking. A friend of mine has the FX-8350, as well as an Elgato, so I'll ask him to run a test stream if he's up for it. Shall be relaying the output to you once available  

[Lenovo]

I use obs and I have a less reliable computer than yours, it's just a matter of configuration

[JaxonAshton]

11 minutes ago, GoongalaJones said:

OBS is rather good for streaming, but it is as you have stated, it just seems to be your CPU bottle-necking. A friend of mine has the FX-8350, as well as an Elgato, so I'll ask him to run a test stream if he's up for it. Shall be relaying the output to you once available  

Sweet! Thank you!!

 

 Please let me know how he makes out with 720p and 1080p streams (although I venture to say that 720 would fair better with the FX-series processors).

[JaxonAshton]

@Lenovo What settings do you use for streaming? I've played with this so much that I'm unsure of what I should be using settings-wise. Although I have learned that the auto-configurator is complete garbage and really only works on newer machines.

[Lenovo]

first I do not do a high quality streaming, because my computer is very old, I use the Enemy Territory resolution of 1024x768 to 75 Hz, I have an HDMI video card and HDMI monitor
xdsl 140MB / 20MB

in the settings, use profile details medium
and zero latency, 30 fps
monitor's HDMI audio enabled
all the details of the game at most, but with low resolution, trlinear disabled
use Twitch automatic server

[JaxonAshton]

Most of my games are UE4 titles (Squad, INS Sandstorm, etc), but I will try these options when I get home later today. I'd definitely like to get back to streaming something other than CS:GO again.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and I'll let you know how I make out, @Lenovo.