Setup a dual system PC with a workstation for streaming.
Setup a dual system PC with a workstation for streaming.
Hey everyone, just wanted to clarify a few things before I post. I'm posting late at night, so it might not be ideal timing. Also, if you think this is out of place, please move it instead of deleting it. Thanks for understanding.
I'm new to PC building and planning a dual-system setup: a gaming rig with an i9 9900ks and RTX 2080 Ti, and a workstation with a Ryzen 3990X Threadripper or similar, paired with either a Quadra or Titan GPU.
I'm curious if it's feasible to stream the workstation video to YouTube or Twitch using OBS or a capture card, leveraging the powerful CPU for that task. This would let me use my gaming PC to capture as many frames as possible.
I also want both systems to save files together and share the same peripherals—keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.—so I can switch between them easily with macros, treating them like a single machine.
Any advice or recommendations would be really helpful. Thanks a lot!
It's feasible though it might cause more trouble than it's worth. You can apply NVENC on your 2080ti to capture gameplay smoothly with minimal impact on performance and maintain decent streaming quality. While using the CPU x264 encoder on the TR system would yield higher quality, the difference won't be substantial because streaming constraints mainly depend on bitrate.
You're still relying on the system for work, so I figured using it for gaming could help you get some value out of it. I think it might be manageable and a good chance to learn something new. Switching between PCs should be easy, and streaming performance could improve a bit in tougher games.
You can utilize the NVIDIA NVENC with OBS (if you meant Shadowplay). The challenges of dual PC streaming include: 1) needing a capture card 2) audio splitting and synchronization might be problematic based on your setup 3) a capture card could cause problems if you enable FreeSync/G-Sync while using Window or Borderless mode (though a secondary monitor running at lower refresh rates can handle it). Using the Threadripper may improve video quality slightly, but it won't be significant due to platform limitations and bitrate restrictions. For instance, streaming 1080p60 on Twitch will likely degrade compared to Mixer. If you're interested, give it a try, but honestly it doesn’t seem worthwhile.