What should I expect with my specs?

[Jonte89]

Hey guys!
I've been searching threads and checked around a bit but I really don't know what to expect with my specs. I've got a new graphic card coming and I want to start streaming.

My specs are:
I7 950 3.06 GHz
12 GB DDR3 RAM; 1333 MHz
Radeon HD5870 1GB (Upgrade coming soon: Radeon HD 6970 2G
5400 RPM harddrive (where I store my games and xsplit)

100/10 mbit connection which in reality gives me;
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1517636805.png (+ ~50mbit extra down since I did the test wireless on my laptop using a crappy router)

I want to stream well...pc gaming, involving most genres and xbox360 (don't know if I dare to stream sony material )

What do you guys think would be the highest possible res for me to stream? I also wish to save some connection for online gaming.

Thanks in advance!

[x4ryuusei]

I bet with those specs you could technically cast at 1080p if you wanted. You have a lot of room for your casting settings, don't worry. The main thing you'll have to worry about is how intensive your PC games are. Console casting = simple for you.

Don't worry about your connection struggling while casting. You're only going to be using about 3500-4000kbps to cast, and that leaves so much bandwidth for you. Most people I know recommend using 3000kbps or so to cast 720p.

[Jonte89]

Hai x4ryuusei, thanks for the quick answer!
hmm yeah I tried streaming both l4d2 and counter strike source the other day with l4d2 on highest and counterstrike on lowest. It gave me appr. the same fps and the problem is it wasn't running smooth for me. It ran more smooth on the stream than it did for me playing it when I watched the recap (as I never watch the stream myself when playing)

Could it be that my graphic card is too low on memory? I tried assigning cores to each program and I've tried several different bitrates and resolutions. It was almost no difference in running 1280x720 and the lowest resolution (320xSomething).

Also, as I wrote I've ordered a new graphic card (the one I listed) Atm I have a Radeon HD5870 1GB but if it isn't the graphic card I might as well send it back. I thought my I7 would suffice for any of the games out atm when streaming

*Edit, I've tried both xsplit,FME and scfh.

[x4ryuusei]

I doubt it's your CPU that's struggling, have you kept track of the CPU usage during those gaming sessions? I guess if you only lag during casting then it could be the stress it's taking but L4D2 should not stress an i7 whatsoever. It could pretty much be your video card. Try backing down your cast settings to 1280x720 and run it on H.264. Also just keep the game settings on medium to high and see what happens. Update your video card drivers too. If it still lags real badly then we'll try something else. Oh, revert your core assignments to default for now. Keep in mind that watching your stream also consumes CPU, don't watch it unless you have real-time transcoding on your channel. Watching 720p+ streams is no joke .

EDIT: This is a bit confusing considering that your PC is pretty high spec-wise. However, that hard drive is a tad bit slow and I would highly recommend upgrading to at LEAST a 7200RPM drive asap.

[Jonte89]

A quick update: I tried lowering my gaming resolution to 1280x960 (and still kept the same settings in the stream output) and I lowered everything except triple buffering and multicore rendering. It was more smooth now than before. I still had to use the "windowed no border" mode in order to stream the game itself. I'll install steam and l4d2 on my small ssd instead and use the first settings I tried and the lower resolution etc. We'll see what happens.

EDIT 2 So I tried using my ssd but it changed nothing... I also tried some different performance monitoring programs. Every program claimed my cpu was doing only little above half of its max, my harddrive was doing good, RAM no problem. The GPU was doing 84-89% of it's max. I couldn't get any info of how the memory was doing and now my CCC won't work so I'm on my way reinstalling the graphic drivers etc. Next thing will be to check how the graphic memory are handling the streaming.

EDIT 2,5 AMD system monitor gave me some odd numbers;
L4D2 when streaming/ Not streaming:
cpu 31-37% / 29-31%
GPU 81-87% / 99%
Memory Usage 25% / 23%

Counter strike source:
cpu 31-42% / 20-27%
gpu: 71-74% / 39-48%
memory usage: 20% / 16%

Battlefield Bad company 2 (I used FMLE for this program since I couldn't get it to work in xsplit)
cpu 95-98% / 40-42%
Gpu 73-85% / 99%
Memory usage 25% / 21%


Everything is on highest quality except css which I always play with lowest settings. When I'm not streaming everything is as smooth as it can get. It's also strange it claims I never use more than ~3069 MB ram (25%). I'm on a 64-bit system (win 7) and everything looks fine when I check the computer basic informations tab.

[x4ryuusei]

Your GPU is struggling the most, and I guess that's what's giving you the problems. I was right to doubt that the games were stressing the CPU that badly however. You could try buying a new video card at your local BestBuy and return it after testing.

I still recommend lowering the stream's output to 720p though.

[Jonte89]

Yeah I'll do that, after I get my new GPU I'll tell you how it went and update my specs for people who got the same problem as me

Thx for your help, I appreciate it!


Edit: I made another baffling discovery. I had the fps set to 30 which game me ~30-50 fps ingame. If I set the limit to 60 (in xsplit) I get ~70-80 fps ingame. I still only gain ~2-5 fps if I turn everything down to lowest graphic though.

Edit2: I tried setting the fps to 100 (custom) and it runs almooost as smooth as it does without xsplit running. Problem is that the stream is lagging instead.

Edit3: I've got everything working now, I'm streaming in a custom 960x540 with 100 fps, bitrate 3000, quality 10. The problem is I have to play in real windowed mode with a resolution of 1280x768 which means I play in a small window. Some games like counter strike source has to be played in 1024x768 for it to be smooth while I play bc2 on 1280x768 and medium-high quality for the "same smoothness". I am very disappoint at the moment... very disappoint.