Optimizing SLI for use in streaming games

[FrothingLoins]

Greetings community!

I've recently upgraded from a single EVGA Gtx 760 to two in SLI for the purposes of better quality streaming to Twitch.tv but I'm noticing literally 0 improvement in frame-rates while streaming using OBS. I'd like to note that I have only tested streaming League of Legends using the new SLI setup.

On the old setup I was maintaining 60 solid fps without streaming but dropped to 30 while streaming. The new setup shows the same performance (I DO have league capped at 60 fps because my monitor's got a 60hz refresh rate).

I know the SLI is actually functional because I did some Unigine Valley benchmarks before and after. Before I posted 1600 in Valley, after I posted 2623.

What do?

 

[Quarkzquarkz]

2 Things:
1. Some programs are just simply not optimized for SLI, for web streaming I don't think they still are but I'm sure Nvidia has beta drivers that might.
2. Always update to your latest WHQL drivers for optimum performance. Good luck!

 

[enemy1g]

Streaming is more taxing on you CPU. The added GPU will help, but for the most part, only helps you.

 

[warezme]

A dedicated video card will only accelerate games or programs that are written to access the cards resources and are physically installed on your workstation , usually via the DirectX libraries. Streaming data is dependent on bandwidth and connection to the internet speeds. That is separate from the function of the video card. If a game was mostly loaded to your local computer and run on your local workstation and only communicated to a streaming server for team updates or user states, your card could accelerate the game that is running on your workstation but won't touch any streaming information. This is similar to steam. The games sit and on your workstation so they can use your full GPU resources.

 

[FrothingLoins]

A dedicated video card will only accelerate games or programs that are written to access the cards resources and are physically installed on your workstation , usually via the DirectX libraries. Streaming data is dependent on bandwidth and connection to the internet speeds. That is separate from the function of the video card. If a game was mostly loaded to your local computer and run on your local workstation and only communicated to a streaming server for team updates or user states, your card could accelerate the game that is running on your workstation but won't touch any streaming information. This is similar to steam. The games sit and on your workstation so they can use your full GPU resources.

That is an AWESOMELY detailed response but I think I failed to clearly convey my question. The actual stream itself is fine, it broadcasts what's going on in-game pretty much exactly how it looks on my screen. The issue I'm having is the performance drop I experience on my end as the streamer while streaming.

Example: I get 60+ fps in league of legends while not streaming on a lone video card . Upon starting my stream my FPS drops to 30 fps. This situation has not changed upon moving to SLI. I see SIGNIFICANT improvements from the SLI in my frame-rates while my streaming software is disabled and absolutely no improvement when the software is enabled.

From what I've gathered it sounds like streaming software is dependent on the CPU, not the GPU and my performance drops are entirely CPU related. Is that the case?

 

[photonboy]

Are you using NVidia's Shadowplay?
If not, try it. The performance hit is minor.

You MAY have a CPU bottleneck as mentioned. You can run Task Manager to see how much CPU processes the streaming software is using though you may have to have the game in Windowed mode.

1) Start TM with CTRL-ALT-DEL..
2) Make sure CPU usage is under 10% (preferably under 5%)
3) Start the game in WINDOWED mode
4) Start the streaming software
5) Monitor the CPU usage of the streaming software in TM-> "Processes"

 

[warezme]

A dedicated video card will only accelerate games or programs that are written to access the cards resources and are physically installed on your workstation , usually via the DirectX libraries. Streaming data is dependent on bandwidth and connection to the internet speeds. That is separate from the function of the video card. If a game was mostly loaded to your local computer and run on your local workstation and only communicated to a streaming server for team updates or user states, your card could accelerate the game that is running on your workstation but won't touch any streaming information. This is similar to steam. The games sit and on your workstation so they can use your full GPU resources.

Think of it this way, if your game runs fine non streaming and uses both cards but tanks when streaming, than the bottleneck is not your cards. Your cards are having to sit around and wait for something else to respond, (network, CPU) before they can render more frames.


That is an AWESOMELY detailed response but I think I failed to clearly convey my question. The actual stream itself is fine, it broadcasts what's going on in-game pretty much exactly how it looks on my screen. The issue I'm having is the performance drop I experience on my end as the streamer while streaming.

Example: I get 60+ fps in league of legends while not streaming on a lone video card . Upon starting my stream my FPS drops to 30 fps. This situation has not changed upon moving to SLI. I see SIGNIFICANT improvements from the SLI in my frame-rates while my streaming software is disabled and absolutely no improvement when the software is enabled.

From what I've gathered it sounds like streaming software is dependent on the CPU, not the GPU and my performance drops are entirely CPU related. Is that the case?

 

[FrothingLoins]

Are you using NVidia's Shadowplay?
If not, try it. The performance hit is minor.

You MAY have a CPU bottleneck as mentioned. You can run Task Manager to see how much CPU processes the streaming software is using though you may have to have the game in Windowed mode.

1) Start TM with CTRL-ALT-DEL..
2) Make sure CPU usage is under 10% (preferably under 5%)
3) Start the game in WINDOWED mode
4) Start the streaming software
5) Monitor the CPU usage of the streaming software in TM-> "Processes"

A dedicated video card will only accelerate games or programs that are written to access the cards resources and are physically installed on your workstation , usually via the DirectX libraries. Streaming data is dependent on bandwidth and connection to the internet speeds. That is separate from the function of the video card. If a game was mostly loaded to your local computer and run on your local workstation and only communicated to a streaming server for team updates or user states, your card could accelerate the game that is running on your workstation but won't touch any streaming information. This is similar to steam. The games sit and on your workstation so they can use your full GPU resources.

Think of it this way, if your game runs fine non streaming and uses both cards but tanks when streaming, than the bottleneck is not your cards. Your cards are having to sit around and wait for something else to respond, (network, CPU) before they can render more frames.


That is an AWESOMELY detailed response but I think I failed to clearly convey my question. The actual stream itself is fine, it broadcasts what's going on in-game pretty much exactly how it looks on my screen. The issue I'm having is the performance drop I experience on my end as the streamer while streaming.

Example: I get 60+ fps in league of legends while not streaming on a lone video card . Upon starting my stream my FPS drops to 30 fps. This situation has not changed upon moving to SLI. I see SIGNIFICANT improvements from the SLI in my frame-rates while my streaming software is disabled and absolutely no improvement when the software is enabled.

From what I've gathered it sounds like streaming software is dependent on the CPU, not the GPU and my performance drops are entirely CPU related. Is that the case?

Picking this as the solution for now as I'm at work and can't run the tests, but this will answer the question. If it's a CPU bottleneck running quad sli-ed 780 TIs smeared with cheetah blood wouldn't make the situation any better.