z97 or X99 for video editing and game capture

Hi Guys,

I'm wanting to upgrade my current system so it will be able to handle video editing and game capture.
I plan on capturing at 2560x1440 downscaled to 1080p 60fps with OBS, whilst also capturing a facecam and audio.

My current rig is as follows:
i5 3570k
8gb ddr3 corsair vengance
GTX 980
Dell u3415w (3440x1440)

My question is do I go for a Z97 i7 4790k setup or a i7 5820k setup? Budget is fairly limited and as I'm from New Zealand prices for X99 are substantially more than the US.

For a Z97 build with an asus ROG maximus Hero it would be 800 NZD. However I would probably have to get another 8gb of DDR3 ram. so 900 NZD.

An X99 setup with a Z99-a and 5820k will cost 1241 for mobo/cpu/16gb ram.

Any help and input would be much appreciated!

This isn't going to be professional but it will be for a youtube channel I intend on starting up.

Get a capture card and 8GB more ram you are golden. 980 is plenty enough for rendering unless your videos are going to be 30min+

well if you realy plan to do allot of video rendering on a daily base, for your youtube channel.
Then i would recommend to go with the 5820K setup if you can afford realy.
The 4790K will basicly handle rendering fine, but a 5820K with 6 cores 12 threads and quad channel memory support, will be significantly better.

So if you can afford the 5820K then i would go for it, its the jack of all trades.

I don't think i'd be doing rendering on a daily basis, at this stage it's more of a hobby. I just want to make sure that i'd be able to capture quality footage and audio without running into any performance issues or bottlenecks. Capturing two video sources + audio + gameplay will be pretty demanding and I don't want to sacrifice too much quality.

I did look into a capture card but I think I may run into a problem as i'm recording from a dell U3415w. I have to force a 16:9 aspect ratio which puts black bars on the side of the monitor. I think a capture card would capture these black bars whereas using OBS It captures just the footage. I'm looking for someone locally that I could borrow a capture card to just test that with though as it would be the most cost effective route.

What MA said. 5820k is like turning on easy mode with a lot of things.

It won't capture the black borders.

I've heard blasphemy running an Nvidia card with Shadow Play has little to no impact without using a capture card. It does it for you. To those who actually do this stuff on a daily basis, have they tested without a capture card?

I've used it before to try it out. It didn't seam to have any impact on performance at 1080p. I haven't tried any other resolution though.

You can use OBS with the nvidia codec which is very similar in performance to using shadowplay. My main concern at the moment is being able to capture the gameplay (2560x1440 native downscaled to 1080p, 60fps), facecam (720p, 60fps) and audio at those settings. Id like for it to be as high quality as possible.

I'm not terribly concerned with cutting down the render times just as long as everything runs smoothly during capture and editing.

If it will run smooth with the 4790k then fantastic! If the 5820k is the only way i'd be able to run things smoothly at those settings then I may just have to save up a bit longer, it's only an extra 300 I guess. If people think that the 4790k would be absolutely fine but as it's only a 300 dollar difference and factoring in how long the system would last and it would be worth spending that bit extra then that's something i'd consider also.

Well if you want crazy amazing video capture card. There is a card Jason Pullara (LordKat) has been going insane for since using it at his work place. I'll track it down, and give a link for your interest.

Thanks @Screamapillar! Much appreciated. I would prefer if possible just to rely on a processor and graphics card simply because I know it works and I won't run into any issues with the bandwidth of the monitor -only mini display port/hdmi 2.0 supports 3440x1440@60hz although if I ran it through hdmi and 2560x1440@60hz that should be ok actually...

i still think that the 5820k would be the best bang for buck chip,
for your workloads.

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It might be the way to go. I've been playing around with OBS all of today (gg uni) and it's incredibly hard trying to get a good local recording at the moment. I've attempted to use both the x264 and nvidia codecs and neither are really producing the kind of quality I would like. the x264 results in pretty choppy and stuttery gameplay and the nvidia codec while very smooth results in this kind of bloom that doesn't look nice in fast paced sequences.

I'll be saving for a 5820k build myself, but staying away from Nvidia because you know. Proprietary bs.

A 5820k build would be super super nice. I managed to compromise with the settings, at 1920x1080 downscaled to 720p @60fps it's manageable. Keeping it native at 1080p is just too much for my i5 to handle. If people are curious reading this thread let me know and I can put up the settings i'm using.

It's more cost effective for me at the moment to go with the 4790k but as MisteryAngel (thanks for the help btw :) ) has pointed out, bang for buck in the long term 5820k is the better way to go.

For those interested I just put a post up with what i've found testing OBS today.
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/i5-3570k-performance-with-obs-game-capture/84717

Hey I found it. It is this! http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/892446-REG/Blackmagic_Design_bdlkhdextr4k_DeckLink_4K_Extreme.html

Well one of those cards anyway is what Lordkat wants to use on his streaming machine.

Keep current rig:

  • add another 8gb RAM
  • swap out the i5 for a xeon w/ht or an i7

Topic starter allready made the choice, and has gone with X99.