6600k Good enough for a dedicated streaming PC

[revibez]

I am looking at buying a new pc and wondering if my 6600k running at 4.5ghz would run a stream at 1080p 60fps fine as a dedicated streaming pc. Or if I should upgrade to a 6700k? Edit: This is for a DEDICATED streaming pc. Not a gaming/streaming pc. Sorry for not making that clear.
I will be buying a new PC and using this current one to record with an Elgato hd60 PRO hopefully at 1080p 60fps.

 

[Phaaze88]

It's fine for just gaming, but streaming as well?
Performance will be lackluster. A multithreaded cpu such as the 6700k is pretty much required to stream smoothly.

 

[zyh1987]

No, I have a6600k at 4.5

Gaming experience is not good when you game and stream at 1080p30

 

[photonboy]

IT. IS. COMPLICATED.

You can stream without significant CPU performance impact but it depends how you are doing it.

For starters, how is the video ENCODED? If it's for example using the NVidia (NVENC) or AMD hardware encoder on the graphics card rather than a brute-force (CPU intensive) software encoding method then there's minimal to no FPS impact on that alone.

*So experiment with encoding to hard drive to start with.

Assuming you do it that way then STREAMING is basically sending the video out the network rather than to the hard drive.

**How much you can UPLOAD in terms of bandwidth also depends on your ISP upload rate. So no point for example encoding 4K@60FPS if you can't upload beyond a quality 720p@30FPS stream.

Other:
PC?

Having said all that I would not even look at an i7-6700K with the newer Intel CPU's offering six-core variants. If you have a HIGH BUDGET then I'd consider going for an i7-8700K (6C/12T) or i5-8600K (6C/6T) so you future proof any CPU needs.

The i7-6700K is a 4-core CPU... the i7-8700K is a SIX-CORE CPU so there's more than 50% extra processing power available on the newer i7 vs that older one.

Summary:
a) MAY not need much extra CPU

b) Still recommend a good 6-core CPU like the i7-8700K

c) Give a BUDGET so we can use PCPARTPICKER (and state country)

*Graphics card prices are still way over-priced too so if you can hold off consider that... also GSYNC monitors are awesome but expensive (i.e. 27", 2560x1440, IPS, 144Hz, GSYNC is $700USD+).

 

[photonboy]

Example build only: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/P9fykd

1) any build should have the BUDGET first so parts can be carefully balanced
- for example, could drop down to an i5-8600K (six-core still) to save over $100CDN, or cheaper motherboard etc.
2) PSU chosen has an "ECO MODE" to turn fan off below 50% load (375W as it's 750W... my fan doesn't turn on ever with i7+GTX1080)
3) Noctua NH-D15S doesn't match color, but if you don't care (no Windowed case) it's a very good air cooler (I prefer air where possible)... even with the i7-8700K it does a great job.

4) Samsung 960 EVO is a great M.2 SSD... it's not too expensive but read/writes are great (up to 3200MBps reads/1500MBps writes). Most people see minimal real-world benefit anyway vs a good SATA SSD but it's not much extra to get this SSD

5) no graphics card chosen (again, currently overpriced)

*May want to hold off for graphics card (but possibly build main system now still) and see what NVidia launches later this year.

 

[jr9]

If you're streaming more threads helps a lot. If you already have a 6600k I wouldn't upgrade to a 6700k though unless you can get one for cheap. I'd either upgrade to a 7700k or rebuild completely. Normal I'd suggest Ryzen 7 but coming from a 6600k you wouldn't see great gaming performance increase. With a new machine you'd want an 8700k.

About 10% more CPU speed plus hyperthreading with this route:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($308.39 @ OutletPC)
Total: $308.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-11 21:58 EDT-0400


Full rebuild on Coffee Lake everything included. US prices. 20% faster CPU with 2 more cores and multithreading.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($157.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($259.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1186.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-11 21:56 EDT-0400

 

[revibez]

This is for a DEDICATED streaming pc. Not a gaming/streaming pc. Sorry for not making that clear.
I will be buying a new PC and using this current one to record with an Elgato hd60 PRO hopefully at 1080p 60fps. So the question still stand will the 6600k struggle to run a stream at 1080p60fps.

 

[Phaaze88]

This is for a DEDICATED streaming pc. Not a gaming/streaming pc. Sorry for not making that clear.
I will be buying a new PC and using this current one to record with an Elgato hd60 PRO hopefully at 1080p 60fps. So the question still stand will the 6600k struggle to run a stream at 1080p60fps.

No, it won't.
There are many gaming/streaming threads on here already - used to seeing those - just streaming ones, like yours aren't too common. Myself, and some of the others assumed the usual, I'm sure.