TR 2950x - x264 stream performance with OBS

I’m hoping someone here can illuminate me to what i may be doing wrong. That said, I have been using a 7960x to game and stream at high quality since the 7960x was released, and have had no problems with it. A friend recently wanted to get a system that could do it as well, and I recommended thread ripper since the Skylake X parts are just priced right out, and the value is much better on the AMD side, with no real big difference (or so I thought) between the two. But the thread ripper build is unable to hold a 60fps stream with cpu intensive titles, such as The Division 2 for example. The builds are:
Skylake X:
i9 7960x, stock
ASUS ROG Strix X299-E
4x 8GB G.SKILL 14-14-14-34 memory modules @ 3200Mhz
GTX 1080Ti
Latest bios version
ASUS MCE Disabled. (Never bothered to enabled it once I got cooling squared away)
Freesync AOC Agon 1440p monitor @144hz.

TR:
Asus Prime x399-A
TR2950x Stock
Identical components otherwise.
Latest Bios, Asus Enhancement set to level 3

By all accounts I can find, the TR should be able to do every bit as good on the encoding end of things. Settings in OBS Are:
Canvas Res: 2560x1440
Output Res: 1920x1080 60fps, Lanczos Downscaler
x264, CBR, 6136, Preset medium, Profile High, Tune none, options: level=4.2, keyframe int = 2
The Skylake X when playing the division 2 will hit 100% at times but never drop frames, the TR system never hits 100%, but drops frames on encoder like mad, only maintaining about 45FPS to the 7960x’s 60 solid.
Im out of ideas, and looks like i’ve just steered this guy in a bad direction somehow, which I dont understand. Anyone got any ideas?

Use Taskmanager, ProcessExplorer or ProcessLasso to assign OBS to Cores 16 to 31.

You very definetly made some sound recomendations. TR should be able to easily handle streaming and gaming. According to GNs review on the TR 1950X it should be able to handle Streaming to Twitch and YT simultaneously with ease.

Going to have to ask you more about your setup. (cooler,bios settings, obs settings & x264 options)

The 2950 can easily handle 1080P with OBS X264 on slower @8k bitrate. But there’s a catch! Windows OS wont do it, and you need to use OBS in linux and adjusted x264 options in OBS and in the BIOS you’ll need to tweak a few other settings. (memory interleaving,PBO to hover around 4.0GHZ and cpu temps below 65C or thermal throttling will happen and Encoder lag starts.

I personal stream on 1080P on slow on the small rad with a lot of time invested in the x264 options and other settings. I just need a bigger rad to use slower. But you need to figures what tune your looking to use and figure out how power do you want to use. My 2950 kept me nice and warm in the winter time using slower mode up here and that kept the cpu in the mid 50c, but now that the warm weather here I have to use slow due to hitting the 67c limit.

You could try increasing the thread count in x264 options. Most people though use Threadripper as the dedicated 2nd machine in a dual system setup.

The TR system is using the cooler master TR tower cooler (big one that says “Ryzen Threadripper” on it. Keeps it well below 65 on tdie, and the PBO does keep it around 4000… So we’re down to the windows scheduler yet again hosing TR? I did monkey with the thread count, nothing helped it.

OBS/ffmeg (in linux) defaults to 34 threads & 8 lookup threads with the 2950. So that’s more then enough for 1080P on slow, you’ll have to add in the thread count to 42 to 44 for slower! But again heat will be an issue esp for an air cooler. In windows I just couldn’t get OBS to use basic preset of slow without issues. Just remember these Asus motherboards have the IT8665E chipset for temp/fan controls and does not like to be polled too often or they lock up! And you’ll loose fan controls and frozen temp readings in windows, I use “glances” in linux to monitor everything without locking up that chip. I’d say if your TR4 cpu goes about 60c then you’ll soon hit the temp limits and then get encoder lag so beware.

Whats your memory interleaving settings? When set to auto on mine, OBS/Ffmpeg just fails with encoder lag errors but if I leave on set to channel and adjust the heap size then it will be just fine.

In the end Windows just chokes for my current needs that’s why I moved to linux, I still keep a windows drive attached but I rarely boot to it. Linux does suck if you have a capture card that doesn’t support linux, like Elgato/Avermedia comes to mind. So NDI works very well and solved that issue.

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NDI still needs DirectX resources on the capture system, so if you REALLY want to squeeze as many frames as possible, dual system is the only way to go (And CS:GO streamers swear by dual system)

Yes a dual system is must imho, most people use a tr4 already have a primary gaming PC. And depending on what your GPU is in your gaming PC, you may need a stronger GPU to handle OBS+ Gaming! OBS needs GPU resources to rendering all your scenes before sending it to the NDI plugin to push out over your network.

Again if Hardware capture companies offer their drivers for Linux then it would be the best for both worlds.

I did a video on a 1 1/2 system solution for DX11 based games using 2 GPUs. With an alternative configuration using a capture card rather than a game capture. This doesn’t work that well for DX9 though, and that’s what CS:GO uses.

So I’ve been monkeying around with this and have proven the CPU CAN do it, but there is some problem with the Windows scheduler messing it up. I have tried every memory config possible, and under no circumstances will Windows encode 1080p medium @ 60FPS when running a game that loads up the cpu (ala, Division 2). However I booted up Linux, installed ARK (only native game I have) and was able to catpure @ 60fps with no issues at all, with a synthetic reniced load (+18) @ around 50% (to make up the difference as ARK isnt very CPU heavy) and a nice 0 for OBS + ARK, runs at 60FPS zero dropped frames no problem. Not exactly a scientific method, but damnit man! Linux isnt an option for him, so he’s going to try and return the motherboard and CPU via amazon, and reevaluate the whole thing. The 1440p high refresh local play creates a challenge in a capture box, but the cost of a Ryzen 2700 with capture card that may be capable of that is less than JUST the 7960x CPU…

Were you gaming and using OBS on the same PC with the Division? That game takes a F-ton of cpu to play it alone, my TR4 was idling around 65-80% cpu usage just for the game.

So I decided to boot my 2950 into windows last night and create a OBS x264 settings that’s almost the same as my linux setup for 1080P on slow perset, that I can share with you if want. So heat and interleaving settings will need to be setup, as I use my 2950 as a encoding pc only so my settings may not work if your gaming on it as well.

Dafuq is it doing? Decoding and compiling in real time?
A 16c/32t CPU should not be used to 80% by any video game.