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Bootcamp Gamer Mac Pro Hardware / Streaming Question

post #1 of 4
12/6/11 at 11:14pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Mac Pro from 2007 which has, I have Windows 7 64 bit installed on Bootcamp.

I have a 50 / 30 Mb Connectivity, I have tested this on speedtest.net etc , Fios connectivity

2x Dual Quad 3gighz Intel Xeon,
NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT 512 MB

8 Gigs of ram 667 mhz

I am running on a normal hd nothing special.

My Computer when in Windows 7 Mode is rated.

Processor 7.2
Memory Ram 7.2
Graphics 6.8
Gaming Graphics 6.8
Primary Hard Disk 5.9


I am considering upgrading to a SSD drive from the normal standard Mac Hard Drives.

Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G SSD 120GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Solid State Drive

Which should help, Im also considering upgrading The Video Card.

The Video Card selection upgrades for macs is very limiting. But 512 Compared to 1GB is an upgrade. Below

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro 1GB


Right now Im unable to stream at high quality. It seems Xsplit bogs down my machine even when its 10 percent. My frames while playing HQ is 10-20 while in heavy action. As soon as I get out of congestion in Stormwind it goes up to 30-40 fps but a bit choppy. I also am still downloading the game content.


My settings are as follows For Twitch

XSplit Default
Quality 10
2000 kbps VBV Buffer 2000

44.100 Khz 16 Bit Stereo
64000

1280 x 720
25 fps
scale view port 10%

Any Suggestions will upgrading the Hard Drive / Video Card make a major difference.

Does Anyone use a BlackMagic Capture Card? Is it possible to record your stream through. I just discovered that might be another possible solution to making the most of my current system.

Im looking for some guidance if anyone can give me some help i'd apreciate it.
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post #2 of 4
12/7/11 at 6:47am
You'll need a specialized kit to get that hard drive to fit.

And you really don't want to buy a new graphics card until the next Mac Pro comes out.

Do you REALLY want to upgrade to a two and a half year old graphics card? The next Mac Pro, if it isn't EOL right now, will have the 7xxx series ATI cards. Wouldn't that be worth waiting for?
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #3 of 4
12/7/11 at 8:36am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

You'll need a specialized kit to get that hard drive to fit.

And you really don't want to buy a new graphics card until the next Mac Pro comes out.

Do you REALLY want to upgrade to a two and a half year old graphics card? The next Mac Pro, if it isn't EOL right now, will have the 7xxx series ATI cards. Wouldn't that be worth waiting for?


I need something for right now though so its my only option. Good to know about those cards, but there is no guarantee they will work in this mac. My only option is really to go for Quadro or the Ati Card.

My Graphics card is 4 1/2 years old. So Im sort of in a pickle for not spending the extra money initially on the current ATI or the old Quadro.


Since my Ram is DDR 2, Im considering just upgrading my Ram To 16 gigs.

Thanks for your response, But you don't think the 2 1/2 year old graphics card would increase my fps performance with settings turned up.

WHen does that other series come out? Since theres no guarantee on it even working its a pipe dream waiting for it. Possibly.

Thanks again
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post #4 of 4
12/7/11 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Endyoursearch View Post

I am considering upgrading to a SSD drive from the normal standard Mac Hard Drives.

Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G SSD 120GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Solid State Drive

Which should help, Im also considering upgrading The Video Card.

The Video Card selection upgrades for macs is very limiting. But 512 Compared to 1GB is an upgrade. Below

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro 1GB

Right now Im unable to stream at high quality. It seems Xsplit bogs down my machine even when its 10 percent. My frames while playing HQ is 10-20 while in heavy action. As soon as I get out of congestion in Stormwind it goes up to 30-40 fps but a bit choppy. I also am still downloading the game content.

To summarise, you are playing World of Warcraft on a 2007 Mac Pro that has the limited upgrade option to the 5770, currently using an 8800GT trying to stream your live gaming session to the twitch.tv website in 2Mbit/s 720p but experiencing dropped frames.

You have 8 processors so encoding 2Mbit 720p shouldn't cause too much of a problem and a 30Mbit upload bandwidth is pretty good (understatement).
When you are streaming video, it shouldn't even need to write to the drive, just to a RAM buffer (the 2Mbit VBV buffer you noted) so shouldn't interfere with your drive reads.
That does point to the GPU being the weak point.

You can try lowering the capture framerate to say 15FPS. It may not look as smooth but people probably won't notice. Try it to see what difference it makes. If you can run a demo scene or just as close to the same scene without xsplit open, with it streaming at 25fps and streaming at 15fps and note the game fps in each, that will let you see what kind of hit you are taking from the streaming.

An SSD certainly makes a difference for games like WoW so is a worthwhile upgrade and the Crucial M4, Corsair Force 3 or OWC Mercury Extreme would be good choices:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dt-y27eYk

If XSplit writes its buffer to the hard drive, an SSD will help a lot but you could probably get another drive and relocate its buffer location. I doubt it would use the drive for such a small buffer though.
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