Streaming console game play on Twitch

Tech Talk
1

I am wanting to start streaming. And had a question I needed answered. So if anybody has a solid answer I would really appreciate it.

I will be streaming console game play. I know the PS4 and Xbox One have the feature to stream straight off of them. But there is limited features and I would really like to have the streaming handled off the console. The Switch doesn’t have the built in function to stream from the console, so I have to do this for it anyway.

Which is leading me to have to build a PC for this project of mine.
I don’t care about PC gaming at all. It doesn’t interest. So I don’t need to build the craziest system I can. The question is though, how much power do I really need?

I will be using a capture card like the Algato HD60 I believe it is. Or something similar at least. I will be wanting to stream at max 1080p 60fps. For now. If it takes off I will build a stronger PC and upgrade whatever needs to be upgraded on the capture card and console side of things too.

Do I need to build a PC that will run the games at console level max graphics in 1080p 60fps, or does the PC not have to be that powerful since its only really being a pass through for the console and capture card? Or is the same situation as an emulator, where you need a PC a lot more powerful than the console you emulate, just to get it to work?

I have an old Quad Core 2.2gig system with 8gigs of RAM. The GFX card is way old, I will be putting something else in it soon. Nothing modern since the system is one big bottle neck anyway. But can the CPU and RAM, with a GFX card maybe 5 years old handle the job?

I don’t want to buy a whole new PC, this is one I have laying around. But if it comes to it that it is required I will just have to bite the bullet and probably get a newer laptop to dedicate to the task.

So if there is any advice or you guys have had experience doing this with an older PC, please let me know.

2

Encoding to Twitch is just a matter of CPU… If you want to have a good/best quality steam you might consider a 6-core (or more) CPU like AMD Ryzen 1600 or 8th gen Intel i5. GPU Encoding is good but it has lots of issues regarding pixelation and rapid movements showing lots of artifacts. This Hardware configs also include USB 3.0 which may help your capture bandwidth.

OBS can be a good option as it’s free of charge to use it, but i’ve never used ElGato before (i don’t even know if your capture card is internal/external).

tl;dr cpu encoding with a 6-core processor is better than gpu encoding for quality reasons.

3

The AMD Ryzen CPU is more recommended if you ever want to game and Stream on the same PC. I wouldn’t try to stream on the same Intel iCore series CPU that also happen to be streaming.
But off a console, its not as much of a deal.

But yeah Torta is right, Streaming is more CPU intensive than GPU.

4

Thank you for the responses guys.

If I don’t need GPU grunt I will just pick up a second hand laptop then. I can get an i5 easy enough for cheap. And I can use it for the chat screen as well.