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computerwiz57  
#1 Posted : Saturday, July 6, 2019 11:52:56 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Hello All,

This is my first post on the vMix forums, so please forgive me if this request should be posted elsewhere. After having reviewed the forums for some time, I decided it was time to ask for the assistance of others for our own use case.

I am tasked with live streaming and recording services for my church. We have been using vMix for the last 7 years or so running at 480p29.97 SD into a Blackmagic Intensity Pro PCIe capture card. We recently got a new camcorder (Canon Vixia HF R800 which does 1080p60 HDMI output) and upgraded our capture card to the Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4K PCIe model. After doing a trial setup with streaming through Adobe Flash Media Encoder, recording to MP4, and fullscreen output to our HDMI splitter which feeds two monitors (all set at 1080p29.97), our CPU has hit the limit. Additionally, the GPU is showing it is overloaded in vMix as well. I ran the master framerate in vMix at 59.94p and 29.97p and 29.97 allowed the input to render smoother.

Current PC Specs Are:
Motherboard: Asus M5A97
CPU: AMD FX-4100 Quad Core
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 520 1GB
RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3-1600MHz
Western Digital 1 TB 7200 HDD
PSU: Thermaltake 430W ATX
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

I know these are quite outdated as we built the PC in 2012. We are now looking to put together a system capable of streaming, recording, and displaying output to our in-building monitors with a single 1080p60 input and a few other inputs (text, title, video clip, NDI desktop capture), so a basic single input HD setup. Being a smaller church, our budget is always tight, so we'd like to balance performance and budget, but would like to have a smooth and reliable system with few to no hiccups. I looked at the reference systems and maybe something similar to the Emerald build would work? Would like to stay under $1,000 for sure if possible!

Thanks,

Ryan
Peter1000  
#2 Posted : Saturday, July 6, 2019 4:22:06 PM(UTC)
Peter1000

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Your bottleneck is your GT520. We updated our Core i7 3930K 3.2 GHz Six-Core PC , also from 2012 and GT520, with a new PNY Quadro P2000 GPU (430$) and a 1TB SSD (140$)
Now we are able to process one 4K/50P Live Input (makes 3 virtual HD images) , 1 HD/25i Live Input and record 4 x Multicorder H264, 50Mb. PC load is around 30-40%
With HD only, it should be under 30%.
If your PC is still to slow, you will find a used 5 year old I7 Gamer PC at your local PC shop or ebay for under 400$
In any case, go for a Nvidia Quadro P card, not for a GTX. SInce the Nvidia Pascal GPU, they have unlimited encoders, so you can use the GPU hardware encoders for multiple streams and records.

Best,
P.
computerwiz57  
#3 Posted : Monday, July 8, 2019 2:51:27 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply. I went back to our SD setup this morning in order to keep things running smoothly. I kept an eye on the CPU load during the peak workload this morning and with streaming, recording, and fullscreen output the CPU was around 75% on all four cores. If I were to upgrade the GPU, do you think the CPU usage would decrease? I wouldn't be opposed to a CPU upgrade as other tasks can take awhile outside of vMix. I have noticed that Adobe FMLE uses more CPU than vMix does. Our stream is multi bit rate. One at 500 kbps and one at 200 kbps. The streaming and MP4 recording were all at 480p29.97 using the old Blackmagic card. I'm just afraid to spend $400 and the problem might not go away whereas I could put $200 into a CPU and $200 into a card, but I'm certainly no expert here!

Thanks,

Ryan
Peter1000  
#4 Posted : Monday, July 8, 2019 3:40:52 AM(UTC)
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your cpu is far far slower than ours. but i would take the risk and would first go for the quadro p2000.
and if this is not enough, check for a used newer I7 mainboard on ebay.

remember, if you buy cheap, you buy twice.
guztavo  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, July 9, 2019 1:28:41 PM(UTC)
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If you upgrade the graphics card the system can stream using GPU instead of CPU. Same with recording. I work with a 2013 setup, and the graphics card AND the SSD Unit changed my world. Best regards.
computerwiz57  
#6 Posted : Monday, July 15, 2019 8:21:57 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Ok,

I've gotten permission from my Pastor to go ahead with the Quadro GPU. Will install and test, then let you know how it goes! By the way, when you installed your SSD, was that for the OS as well, or solely for recordings? I considered adding a 250 GB SSD via SATA for a recording drive.

Thanks!
SportsNetUSA.net  
#7 Posted : Tuesday, July 16, 2019 2:49:46 PM(UTC)
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Quote:
Motherboard: Asus M5A97
CPU: AMD FX-4100 Quad Core


The ASUS M5A97 can handle a bit more than an FX-4100. An 8 core FX-8350 would have benchmarks that double the FX-4100, and are $65 at Newegg.
computerwiz57  
#8 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2019 3:32:28 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Well I have installed the new Quadro P2000 and it has improved performance, but not as much as I had hoped. I can now live stream at 720p and 480p, along with MPEG-2 recording at 1080p29.97 and 1 fullscreen output, but I still am seeing the "CPU Overload" warning. My CPU will jump into the mid 80% range, but usually settles around 76% or so. I have enabled the Hardware Encoder options on both streams and the recording, but the card still does not seem to take most of the load off the CPU. I should also mention that the input source is 1080 at 59.94p, and when I set the master framerate to this, the CPU just couldn't keep up. So I dropped the master frame rate to 29.97p (the input card is a Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4K, so it only accepts what the source is putting out, in this case 59.94p and I can't modify that). With the current setup, I can stream and record, but I feel that the moment I do anything else, I'll have an issue (such as open a web browser or add another input source). Do you think it's worth upgrading to the FX 8000 series CPU? If so, will this cause a Windows activation issue? Maybe I'm just missing something in my settings hopefully! I'll try to post my GPUz information and vMix status screenshots as we try it out this Sunday. Thanks for the advice!

-Ryan
Peter1000  
#9 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2019 4:48:12 PM(UTC)
Peter1000

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Your results are not bad for your CPU.

Maybe your camera can output 720p? this is approx. the same bandwith as 1080i, half of 1080p and you stream 720p anyway.
If you cannot change your source to interlaced, you have to improve the CPU.
With an upgraded FX-8350 CPU you are comming closer to the old I7 CPU we use. I think this is worth a try.
And did you also changed your Harddrive to SSD? at the moment you are far away from the mentioned "under 1000$" budget.
still enough to change to a i7 mainboard and change the ssd.

computerwiz57  
#10 Posted : Saturday, July 20, 2019 2:56:28 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Hi Peter,

Unfortunately, the camera is fixed at 1080p60. Using a Canon Vixia HF R800 which does not allow for the HDMI output to be managed other than On or Off. Actually that and the Blackmagic Pro capture card are also factored into our expenses, so we're over $900 already spent. Also still using a mechanical 7200 RPM 1 TB HDD. The reason I hesitate to just swap it out with a SSD is because I don't want to have to move Windows 7, and of course the added cost. I've already been told our budget can't handle much more, so I may have to wait awhile. I have considered purchasing a 250 GB SSD just for video recording as I'm willing to donate that myself given the inexpensive cost. We can't afford to get a new motherboard, processor, and most likely a larger PSU at the moment, so we're kind of "stuck between a rock and a hard place" so to speak. I'm going to try and manage with the new GPU, which is making a difference. Before, we couldn't even capture at 1080p without the CPU bottle-necking, much less trying to stream and record!

I'm curious as to where SportsNetUSA found the FX-8350 for $65 as Newegg wants $125 for a new in box processor.

Thanks all for your help as I stumble through this process!

-Ryan
SportsNetUSA.net  
#11 Posted : Saturday, July 20, 2019 3:19:15 AM(UTC)
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Well, they had one listed at that price when I did a search, but that deal has ended.

On Amazon there are boxed ones for $89.99, CPU only for $66.50, but no fan included (same for CPU only on eBay)

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=amd+f...4&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6

CPU Benchmarks (from PassMark)

AMD FX-4100 4071

AMD FX-8350 8951

I had a 8350 in my editing computer, but went up to an FX-9590. I use both AMD and Intel processors with vMix.

computerwiz57  
#12 Posted : Saturday, July 20, 2019 3:26:48 AM(UTC)
computerwiz57

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Well that stinks. Thanks for the link though. I'll keep an eye out for future deals. Still not sure whether or not it will be necessary to upgrade just yet.
Peter1000  
#13 Posted : Monday, July 22, 2019 1:43:27 AM(UTC)
Peter1000

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