I'm looking to respec my old pc to use just for encoding/streaming. Already have a gaming rig, AMD R9 6900x, 3090 gpu. 32g ram.

To respec my old rig for a dual stream would I just need to get a new CPU? I haven't looked at it but I know it's older. I have several 10xx GPUs and a 2080 super if needed. I usually just use my elgato hd60pro mk.2 for console gaming. I was getting over 240 fps when I was running warzone on my 2080S. But with games getting better resolution these days I'm thinking I wanna go dual. Thank you!

Well, what is the current CPU in the old system? It may be possible to simply use it as-is, especially if you're willing to use one of those spare GPUs for hardware encoding. (And, at any rate, upgrading just the CPU tends to be quire difficult due to motherboard compatibility.)

I can't understand what the difference would be between a pc stream with an rtx 3060/3060ti and an rtx 3070, the image limit of the streams is 1080p and 60 fps, why I should be concerned about having an rtx 3070 instead of a 3060 to stream?

Potentially, for three reasons: (1) because many people want to play at 1440p or even 4K on their machine, even if they are only uploading a stream at 720p or 1080p, (2) because if a person streams brand new AAA games, it may become harder over time for the 3060 to keep up with 1080p/60fps/max settings before the same happens to the 3070, and (3) because if a person uses hardware/GPU encoding for their uploads, then additional headroom on the GPU will be put to good use even if the games/programs themselves aren't receiving additional benefits.

is it possible to make a live 1440p with graphics in the medium/high and with only one pc on an rtx 3060 ti or rtx 3060 with a ryzen 5 5600x ?

It should certainly be possible to run games at 1440p with medium/high settings on a build with those specs, and it should certainly be possible to also stream them. But whether you can stream (i.e. upload) at 1440p is a tougher call. Twitch still maxes out at 1080p with 60 FPS, although YouTube does support 1440p and even 4K livestreams. Regardless, most people don't expect livestreams to come through above 1080p, especially for games, and viewers with low-speed internet plans may have to downscale the stream to get a smooth viewing experience anyway.

Ultimately, this is a long way toward simply saying that while that system may struggle to encode some AAA titles at 1440p with high settings, I doubt that would ever be a worthwhile obstacle to successful streaming with it.

Thank you, I have a question. if I set my game settings to 1440p but set the live setting to 1080p will it cause significant differences, or would the image to the audience be the same if I played with my settings at 1080p and live with 1080p?

It won't cause significant differences. Any downscaling from a higher resolution to 1080p should look at least as good as streaming 1080p gameplay at 1080p (and could theoretically even look slightly better, depending on the compression algorithms used by your streaming software and/or your host website).

a ryzen 7 3700x + a rtx 2070s is it possible to do 1080p60 lives with medium/high graphics? I didn't understand very well about the capture card, I intend to buy an HD60 S but I don't understand if I can use it using an amd gpu (r7 3700x). does the second streaming pc need expensive specs? and I don't understand how it works to have two pc streaming, streaming with two pc decreases internet usage when sending live?

With those specs, you might be able to manage 1080p60fps streams without using a second PC at all (just using hardware/GPU encoding in OBS with the 2070 Super). It would depend on what game(s) you're running, what in-game settings mix you end up using, and how fast your internet speed is.

Now, setting all that aside to just answer your direct questions: No, a second streaming PC doesn't need expensive specs, as evidenced by the quite-low-tier PC we show as an example in the two-PC-setup section of the article above. And no, it doesn't reduce internet usage to use two PCs; it just takes the stress of simultaneously playing a game and streaming off of the main PC (so that the resources of the main PC can be dedicated entirely to playing the game).

thanks for the answer, I'm new in this area. i did the test and my internet upload speed is 10 mbs, i believe it will go well. i had thought of trying a setup with rtx 3060 ti and ryzen 5 5600x but i think i will go with the first because is a good setup. i intend to do lives with settings on high or very high, and maybe try some games in 1440p but i believe it's already good.

I currently have no money to upgrade. I was planning on running a stream at 900p. I game at 1440p very smoothly. Would these specs enable this to happen:
Internet 1000down/50up
i7-6700k quad core 4ghz boost
ASRock fatality gaming k6
32 gigs G.Skill 2800 cas15
EVGA 2070 black gaming (non-super), 8gb GDDR6, 1650 boost clock
Corsair RMx 650w (2018 edition)
H115i RGB PRO
970 EVO 250GB m.2 SSD
850 EVO 1TB SSD
I know my CPU isn't the strongest from the 6th gen series, but I was hoping, with hardware encoding, this setup could work, for now.

I should also mention (this is my post btw) that the game I intend to play the most, for now, is COD.

Yes, we would expect that system to be sufficient for what you're describing. But, of course, the only way to know for sure is to boot up OBS or another streaming program and test it out.

hi can i game play on my laptop(i7 8750h,16gb 2666mhz ram, gtx1050m 4gb) and streaming pc can be i3 3220 4gb ram 320gb hdd gs8400?

Maybe, yes, but it would depend on your encoding settings (and your internet connection, of course). In particular, an i3-3220 is about 20% less powerful than the R3 3200G in the 'Dedicated Streaming' example build from our 'Two-PC Setup' section above.

Hi Daniel thanks for your reply (though I can't find my question and your reply here), it helps a lot!!!
Carolina

There is sometimes a long delay before Disqus publicly displays comments.

Hey there, I have the following Gaming PC and I am interested in a dual PC set up.

Gaming PC

CPU: i7-8700k

RAM: 32gb RAM 3200mhz

GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super

Motherboard: Asrock Z390 Extreme 4

Storage: 3tb Toshiba 7200rpm & Samsung 970 m.2 500gb

Capture Card: Elgato HD 60

Possible Streaming PC:

i5-9300H, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (3 GB GDDR5), 8GB SDRAM, 256GB SSD.

These specs are on a laptop since I wanted to save space. Do you think this is sufficient for 1080p 60 frames?

Thanks.

Yes, we would think that secondary PC would work for 1080p streaming, although the supported frame rates may depend on many factors (game choice, settings, encoding settings, connection speeds, online vs. offline play, etc). In particular, an i5-9300H would be very similar in performance (or slightly better than) the R3 2200G in the 'dedicated streaming' example build in the 'two PC set-up' section of the article above.

can i use internal capture card with my current gaming pc and connect it with my laptop for streaming by anyway?
because i want to stream with 4k and 60 fps and there is no external capture card support this resolution (4k/60fps) and if this situation is possible how can i know if my motherboard support this capture card (AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K - 4Kp60 HDR Capture Card) and its pcie x4 , my motherboard is (Asus maximum ix code)

I've also responded to your email, but I'll put the response here as well in case you check here first:

You can install a PCIe x4 device like that capture card into any of the open PCIe x16 slots on your motherboard; it should work without any issues (obviously only using 4 lanes). Whether your PC can handle 4K streaming, though, would come down to the power of its core components (especially its CPU and GPU).

Hey I was wondering if my build would be good for streaming Competitive Fortnite (Cpu intensive)

Ryzen 7 3700x 16GB RAM 1TB SSD and im not sure if I should go with the 2070 super or 2080.

As long as you're willing to use GPU/hardware encoding if the FPS isn't what you expected (due to CPU-intensiveness), then that should be a great build for Fortnite streaming. If you go with the 2070S, you would basically be building the 'hardcore streaming' example build from section one of the article above.

Thanks! Yea I changed my cpu to the ryzen 9 3900x and my gpu to a 2070 super

My settings will b
View distance: low
Shadows: off
Anti aliasing: off
Textures: low
Effects: Low
Post processing: Low

What resolution should I stream on so I can have solid 144 fps and like 120-110 fps when theres like 50 people in small zones

We do have a guide to building a PC for Fortnite, but it doesn't have example builds for competitive/minimum settings other than at 1080p.

Hi I was wondering if this set up is fine for streaming
Amd Ryzen 5 1400 quad core
16gb ram
evga nivedia 1060

Maybe, but it's impossible to say for certain without more details: What resolution and FPS would you want to play at? What resolution and FPS would you want to encode for streaming? What kind of games would you want to stream? Is it a GTX 1060 3GB or a GTX 1060 6GB? Would you be using CPU/software encoding or GPU/hardware encoding, and in which streaming software?

Hey Daniel, long time no see man!

Long story short, I've been thinking about updating my 2 PC setup to a single PC stream/gaming rig just for the fact that I'm not using the other PC as much for anything else and also to free up some room space since I'll be moving soon.

Current Streaming Build:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Eight-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Coolermaster MasterLiquid 240

Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VI HERO (WI-FI AC)

Memory: Patriot Viper Red 16GB (2x8GB) 2400MHz

Storage: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB | Western Digital WD4003FZEX-00Z4SA0 4TB

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Capture Card: AverMedia 4k 60fps HDR Enabled

Case: Corsair 570x RGB

Power Supply: Corsair RM650i

==//==

Current Gaming Build:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX FORMULA

Memory: Corsair Dominator 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz CMD32GX4M2C3200C16

Storage: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB | Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 500GB

Video Card: Asus ROG GeForce GTX 1080

Case: Corsair 570x RGB

Power Supply: Corsair Rm750x

==//==

All-in-one Streaming Gaming Build:

CPU: Intel Core i7-9800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Asus ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME EATX LGA2066 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (8 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

Storage #1: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

Storage #2: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB ROG Strix Gaming OC Video Card

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe 2 ATX Full Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair RMx 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

==//==

The 2 PC build is a pretty solid deal to stream and game, don't get me wrong, but it's just an extra step every time I have to make a minor change here or there and it can get exhausting. My whole concern from jumping back to a single rig, that can do both the gaming and streaming, is the FPS drops when it comes to starting the stream while playing on the computer at the same time.

I've streamed on a single PC before, it was enough to handle 60fps when I had a 60hz monitor, so to my eye sight it didn't do me any harm at all. Ever since I've been able to game on a computer + monitor that is capable of +144hz, it hurts when the screen tearing and the game stutters start to happen due to the hard impact it has on the processor with its performance when having to render the game and also work on the encoding at the same time, when I know the Graphic Card remains unaffected at all.

I'm trying to tread carefully here when choosing the right components for my next build, but with all my research I've been doing, by choosing a higher socket LGA 2066 that is not your standard LGA 1151 consumer grade level processor, I believe that the i7-9800X will do me good for the long run, along with the rest of the components (which I know is overkill for a high variety of games), but the main focus here is choosing the right processor because that's where 90% of the work will be done.

What are your thoughts, will the new project be a reliable deal when it comes to FPS stability? Should I get some more cores just to play it safe? I'm open to any suggestions and make this a healthy discussion.

While it would depend to some degree on the playing and streaming resolution, with an i7-9800X and an RTX 2080 Ti, it should be relatively trivial for the PC to do either software/CPU encoding or hardware/GPU encoding while playing without significantly impacting FPS. But I can't safely make any guarantees along these lines, as FPS stability depends on a huge number of factors (game settings, game optimization, activity and effects in-game, internet connection in online games, quirky CPU/GPU needs for certain games, etc). So it's not impossible that there could be dips in some situations, even when throwing a monstrously powerful PC at the situation. If you want to be beyond certain that it's not a core limitation issue, though, you could consider looking into the R9 3900X as an alternative.

Hi, I plan to use 2 PC low cost setup - 1) gaming PC with Intel i3 9100F + MSI B360M Pro-VH + 1660 Ti OC + 32 Gb 2666 Mhz Dual-Channel (16x2) Corsair Vengeance LPX + 500GB 7200 rpm HDD + 1Tb 7200 rpm HDD + Windows 10 and 2) streaming PC with AMD R3 2200G + Gigabyte B450M DS3H + 8GB Dual-channel DDR4-3000 + 512GB Intel M.2 NVMe SSD + 450W Chieftec (CPS-450S) + Thermaltake Core V21 + Windows 10. Which capture card will be enough for 1080p x 60fps streaming? AVerMedia Live Gamer HD or AVerMedia Live Gamer HD II ?

In theory, the Live Gamer HD should be sufficient, as it can do 1080p 60 FPS with pass-through (although it's limited to 1080p 30 FPS for non-pass-through capturing). For playing and streaming at different resolutions or frame rates, though, you would need to do a mirroring set-up without pass-through, and thus you would need the Liver Gamer HD 2.

I know nothing about "pass-through" and "non-pass-through" and I know even less about "mirroring set-up". The only thing I understood is that Liver Gamer HD 2 is better for me. By the way, my streaming PC is not bought yet. What could you recommend to change in it if I plan to stream games like PUBG, Fortnite etc.?

Honestly, I wouldn't really recommend any important changes to that dedicated streaming build, as it's already substantially similar to our example streaming PC in the two-PC set-up section of the article above.

Last (I hope) and very sudden question. How about turning my current gaming PC with i3 9100f into streaming one and buying more powerfull gaming PC?

That would probably get you better results, as the i3-9100F is over 15% more powerful than the R3 2200G (as a CPU). But depending on how you set things up exactly, it would probably end up being a bit more expensive to do it that way.

First of all I was afraid that only AMD CPU are good for streaming PC and Intel i3 is a very bad choice. But if I use i3-9100f for streaming which problems or limits should I be aware of?

So, the reason that AMD processors are often recommended for streaming builds is that they have excellent multi-core performance, which is important when a system will be running a game, streaming a game, and maybe also recording footage at the same time. But going with a two-PC set-up means skipping the need for a PC to do that kind of multi-tasking, so good single-core performance (like what that i3 has) is sufficient.

Hi, I plan to upgrade my CPU for planet zoo, it's a very CPU intensive game as the zoo grows everything starts to slow down and lag from time to time because there are many objects, guests and animals AI
(I don't plan to get x due to heat and power consumption)
Do you think 3600 or 2700 would be more suitable for both gaming and streaming?

The R5 3600 is more powerful than the R7 2700. So, unless the higher price and worse stock CPU Cooler are important factors to you, you should go with the 3600.

Hi. How necessary is it to have a GPU in a streaming rig? Could I get away with streaming at 720p60fps if I have just a 2200G in the streaming rig and use the integrated graphics?

Unless you're using it for GPU encoding, the only big role of the GPU in a streaming rig is running the game. So if you're streaming exclusively very-easy-to-run games and older titles that the iGPU can handle easily, then just a 2200G could be good enough for 720p30fps (although 720p60fps while playing and streaming is more questionable).

Or did you mean a dedicated streaming rig, that doesn't run any games? If so, then not only do we think an R3 2200G is a good choice for that---but that's actually the CPU featured in our example dedicated build in the 'Two-PC Setup' section above!

Thanks so much for replying. I was referring to the 2nd one - a rig that captures the gameplay on another PC and is just used for streaming. Somehow I missed that the Micro ATX build didn't have a GPU in it. Thanks for you help!

I'm trying to see if I could stream at 1080p 60fps best by either doing a two/one PC setup.

I currently have:
GPU: gtx 1080
CPU: 6700k
MB: msi z170a krait gaming
ram: 16gb 3200

With this setup, would it be possible by purchasing a secondary streaming PC, or would it be best to upgrade my GPU/CPU/MB? I was leaning towards a 2070 super, 3700x, msi 470 series MB if I was to do a single PC.

And if I secondary PC is best, should I run something similar to what was listed in the article or something better?

1080p/60FPS encoding and uploading is a big challenge, particularly for newer and/or less-well-optimized AAA titles. Presumably you are asking the question because you've attempted to run those settings on your current machine and have been unable to get desirable performance regardless of whether you use CPU or GPU encoding. If that's the case, then, in theory, either of the paths you've listed could be a route toward your goal, and it really comes down to your preferences.

If your top priority is just streaming smoothly (and you're entirely content with the actual gaming performance of your current system), then it could make sense to go with the secondary PC because that will be cheaper than your proposed upgrade. But if your top priority is having the most versatile and powerful PC, then upgrading your primary PC likely makes more sense because it will simply result in a beastly computer that can run games at a very high level of performance whether you are just gaming or gaming and streaming. (And if you go down that second route and still somehow don't get desirable performance, you could always cobble your current PC back together into a secondary system as a last resort, provided that it's not an upload rate issue).

Will my gaming build with cpu: Intel core i9-9900k
Gpu: 2080 ti founders edition
Motherboard: asus rog Maximus xi hero
Ram: trident x series f3-2133c9d-16gtx (2x8) 240-pin ddr3 2133
Storage: Samsung 86 avoid 2TB 2.5 inch SATA lll internal ssd
Psu: ROSEWILL gaming 80 plus gold 120p watt 80 PLUS Gold certified psu with silent 135mm fan and auto fan speed control 5 year warranty

I feel you may have not quite finished your question there. Will that gaming build do what? Stream a particular game? Handle CPU vs. GPU encoding? Be balanced?

For reference (in case this helps you answer your question without clarifying), that machine would fit roughly in between the 'Professional' and 'Ultimate' streaming example builds in the first section of the article above.

Hi, I'm planning to build a streaming pc.

My plan build:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz CL16 XMP 2.0
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 or 5700 XT
Storage: 480GB Western Digital WD Green 3D NAND 2.5" Internal SSD
PSU: 700W Cougar VTX 700 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply

Will this be good for streaming?. Also I want to know if the Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam is good with this set up for streaming?. Thank you.

A build with an R5 3600 and an RX 5700 would fall in between the 'Solid' and 'Hardcore' example streaming builds in the first section above, so we would indeed expect it be good for streaming. And that 720p 60 FPS (or 1080p 30 FPS) webcam should be a good match for it as well.