On August 22 2012 07:40 Superiorwolf wrote:
Thanks for the tips MisterFred, definitely thinking about upgrading maybe a few parts of the computer. What do you think is my bottleneck at the moment, my GPU? I might stop by the Computer Resource thread in a bit to ask for advice.

No, for SC2, especially when streaming, it's virtually always the CPU that limits you. I mean, a 4850 isn't strong, but graphics card is pretty irrelevant to SC2, especially if you don't routinely play on ultra settings. If the FPS you're getting is fine in the early game, graphics isn't your problem.

SC2 is a very weird game in that it relies heavily on CPU power in resource-intensive situations, doesn't care about graphics card much, and can only utilize 2 cores. The CPU use comes from unit AI calculations, especially pathing, which is why you get FPS slowdowns during big fights late game, especially with large zergling armies rather than, say, all broodlord-corruptor armies. Now an i5-2400 is no slouch, so I'm guessing your non-streaming performance is fine, no problems, when playing 1v1.

The problem comes with streaming. Streaming also requires a lot of CPU power (and zero GPU power, counter-intuitively, the GPU just powers the game). And streaming spreads that CPU requirement across all your processor's cores/threads. This is why streaming affects your SC2 performance. The two cores that are already working as hard as they can to run SC2 divert a bit of their processing power to running the stream. How much processing power? Well, it's the difference between playing 1v1 without streaming and with

.

So the answer is basically to move from an i5-2400 (a pretty good but not overclockable quad-core processor) to an i7-3770k (a good quad-core processor that's overclockable and has hyperthreading). Hyperthreading in the simplest and least accurate terms is a simulation of extra cores that will help with multi-threaded things like streaming. Though not with SC2 performance itself. The overclocking is the big deal - it increases the CPU power of the two cores doing their best to run SC2. You're still not going to get 60 fps in really big fights - no modern CPU can do that - but you will get some sort of improvement, mostly from the overclocking benefit. The hypertheading will allow higher quality settings for your stream if you want to try to hit 1080p without impacting SC2 performance too much.

Plus you'll need a motherboard that can overclock your i7-3770k. You might have one already, but probably not. Plus an after-market heatsink.

(Intel) i7-3770k = ~$330
new motherboard (intel branded version would be Intel BOXDZ77SL50K or any of their 3 other more expensive z77 boards - possibly only the more expensive boards I didn't list are 'extreme' versions) = $120
new heatsink = $30-50 (CoolerMaster Evo 212+ or HR-02 Macho)

+ Show Spoiler +

There is another option, that's really only financially viable if the Intel sponsorship can get you cheap hardware, and that's the super-high end platform, which would involve a more expensive CPU & motherboard. I really include these only if your Intel sponsorship only applies to their 'Extreme' branded products in terms of getting hardware, as the prices don't make any sense for you. Apologies if you're rolling your eyes right now thinking "I wish!" Oddly, they're not going to have a ton better performance than the i7-3770k (none for SC2 itself, better somewhat for streaming, though the above CPU is already sufficient for high quality streaming). These have six cores, 12 threads, as opposed to the i7-3770k's 4 cores, 8 threads.

i7-3930k = $570
i7-3960x = $1030 (same performance as above, lol)
new motherboard (Intel branded version would be Intel BOXDX79TO or any of their 2 more expensive x79 boards) = $210
new heatsink = ~$50 (HR-02 Macho)

P.S. From a viewer's perspective (that only watches in 360p or 480p), your stream is just fine. So upgrades would likely only benefit yourself, not your viewers, and the benefit to yourself would probably be bringing your streaming SC2 fps up to same level or maybe a bit higher as you get when not streaming now. So I wouldn't really recommend upgrading on cost grounds, unless EG will help you out in some way.

P.P.S. Nice gungnam dance. Now I have to forget that before I go to bed

. ...Ok you did a lot better near the end.

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

September 04 2012 05:17 GMT

#203

Hi http://twitch.tv/superiorwolf

hooktits

United States972 Posts

September 04 2012 15:02 GMT

#204

Please stream more today Mr.Wolf. I love your stream and i very much so enjoy your commentary. I never knew that by scouting the gasses at the natural in zvp helps to determine if P is going to all-in that was very helpful tid bit to learn. Keep up the good work son Superiorwolf fighting yo!