Our main PC for livestreaming is:

• Intel i9-9900 cpu
  
• RTX 2080 gpu
  
• 32gb ram
  
• 2 x m.2 flash storage (1gb for system/programs + 1gb for productions / recordings only)
  

When running vMix and recording (in full resolution/fps) + streaming (1080p 25fps 3.5 mbit) with just one (!) camera in either 1080p 5ofps or UHD 25 fps, we get warnings about overload in the bottom status text.

We built this PC specifically to be able to do 4-5 channel multi cam (1080p) productions using both replay and/or iso/multicord but it seems to be way out of reach in our case.

How come vMix is maxing out such a powerful PC with this basic task and ........ is there anything we can do to make the PC blast through more without maxing out, like:

1. Adding more fans/cooling?
   
2. Changing file types for recording?
   
3. Adding more ram?
   
4. Changing the vMix preferences?
   

Going to keep an eye on this, I plan to upgrade my pc with the same specs. My current one maxes out after about an hr (GPU ok, just the CPU warning).

The devil is in the details. While those specs look nice enough superficially, exactly how the system is assembled matters. Which mother motherboard? What PCIe slots are various devices located in? RAM specs? Exact storage specs.

I've done 1080p60 production on a much lesser system. It was on the edge, but it worked.

I very much doubt that adding a lot more RAM would accomplish much.

There are warnings and there are Warnings. Which do you get?

For example GPU at 100% is quite different from CPU overload.

Best way to get accurate assistance is to post a screen shot of the area of concern.

- Tom

Something else is wrong, my HP with i5 3470, 8 GB of RAM, Quadro 600, Decklink Studio 2 for input. Recording in 1080p25 25Mbit mpg on hdd 1T (not ssd) and streaming H264 1080p25 6Mbit, processor current keeps at about 50%.

Sorry for the late reply !

Here's a combination of answers to all the above:

PC motherboard: MSI MEG Z390 ACE Bundkort - Intel Z390 - Intel LGA1151 socket - DDR4 RAM - ATX - 2 x PCI-Express x16, Dual DDR4-2666 - 4 x DIMM slots, 6 x SATA-600 / 3 x M.2 NVMe (2242 / 2260 / 2280), USB 3.1 Type A & C, KillerNIC E2500 Gigabit LAN, Intel 9560 Wireless 802.11ac / Bluetooth 5, Realtek ALC1220 HD Audio (8-kanaler), supports SLI / CrossFireX

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake S CPU - 8 core 3.6 GHz - Intel LGA1151 - Processor (CPU), 3.6 GHz (5 GHz Turbo), Unlocked (can be overclocked), 8 core (Octa Core), 16 threads, 16 MB cache, supports Dual Channel DDR4-2666 RAM, 16 PCI Express Lanes, LGA1151 Socket, built in Intel Graphics UHD 630 - 1200 MHz, 95 watt TDP - Coffee Lake S

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 C16 WH QC - 32GB: 4 x 8 GB (Quad Channel), DIMM 288-pin, DDR4, 3200 MHz / PC4-25600, CL15-15-15-36, 1.35 V, not buffered, no-parity - Corsair Vengeance LPX series

GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 AORUS Xtreme - 8GB GDDR6 RAM - Overclocked (Core clock 1545 MHz / Boost clock 1890 MHz), 2944 CUDA cores, 8 GB GDDR6 (Memory clock 14 GHz) - 256-bit, PCI Express 3.0 x16, 3 x HDMI 2.0b / 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 / 1 x USB Type C tilslutninger, supports NVIDIA G-Sync, 2 x 8-pins power - Gigabyte WindForce 3X low noise cooler

Storage: 2 x Samsung 970 EVO SSD M.2 2280 - 1TB - SSD (Solid state drive), 1 TB, internal, Speed: 3400 MBps (read) / 2500 MBps (write), IOPS: 500000 (read) / 450000 (write), 1GB LPDDR4 cache, M.2 2280 (80mm), M.2 2280 (80mm), PCI-Express 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.2 (Non-Volatile Memory Express), 256-bit AES kryptering, TCG Opal Encryption - Samsung Phoenix Controller

As mentioned, the storage is split as A ) system & programs and B ) recording from vMix which is also setup as my Dropbox folder, så recordings are synced to other computers for editing afterwards.

@shaneiwarp: I'm using the "high input" and "high output", yes.

@mjgraves: RTX 2080 gpu is in PCI slot 1 (PCI_e1 3.0 x 16) as suggested by MSI and BlackMagic Quad 2 capture card is in slot 6 (PCI_e6 3.0 x4).

@sinc747: I get the "CPU overload" warning

@ThommiTechnik: The write speed of the m.2's are (as you can see more in details above) 2.500 mbps write speed which should be able to record 2500/6000 = 4 streams in your example. I think you would have to build a pretty crazy raid 0 solution to match that and I get the bottleneck / "CPU warnings" even when NOT doing multi-recording - perhaps also see the reply from @rajko, as he's even doing only hdd (not ssd, not raid) without the same limitations as well as the setup, @Peter1000 is describing with a 6 year old i7 setup ... and mine is a superfast PC, way beyond the performance of those two. QUESTION: would a storage-related issue (ie. specific drive / unit too slow) be shown as CPU overload?

Is there somehow for me to compare the benchmarks of this setup to other SIMILAR setups, to see if mine is under-performing - I have this feeling of battling an "invisible ghost" as I'm not even sure where the bottleneck is compared to what I should actually expect in terms of performance?

please read my post to the end, i compared a new intel 10900x system with the older one at the end of my post.
there is also the difference between Mbps and MB/s explaned...... Google for „ 8mbps in MB/s“
as DMWKR stated, your blackmagic card needs a 8 LANES!
even when you put it in a mechanical 8x slot, the slot can have only 4 lanes or share these lanes.
your extra 24 lanes of your z390 mainboard are shared with all SATA ports, M.2 Slots, USB controllers and your PCIE Slots.

switch off all unused SATA ports in the bios
move your BM card to a closer slot to the GPU
remove the second M.2 CARD.
remove both, second M.2 card and BM card, is our vMix system still to slow to load a lot of videos, titles,callers and a stream, then something is wrong with your mainboard/cpu

that is the reason, the vMix refenece system use a x299 mainboard an a X CPU.

The BM card and your GPU should now use 8 lanes each, per MSI manual. Please follow Peter's advice, these should be the next steps.

I've been testing out different things today and had quite and "aha-moment".

We've been setting up the recording part using FFMPEG and I tried MP4 instead.

When doing the exact same thing (4k 50fps project, recording in 4k 50fps) the FFMPEG completely maxes out the PC where as a similar recording in MP4 reaches 5-10% of CPU.

This seems quite odd to me, as the vMix guide talks about MP4 as more CPU "heavy".......?

I do have hardware encoding enabled in mp4 recording option but I don't see any way to enable it in the FFMPEG tab?