Live streaming is quite resource-intensive and can—and does—impact gaming performance, so many streamers often consider broadcasting their games live using a dual-PC setup . However, the setup for this technique can be quite complicated, so in this article, we’ll tell you what you need and how to set it up to stream using one PC for broadcasting and another for gaming.
The most popular game streaming platforms are undoubtedly Twitch and YouTube, but regardless of the platform you use, live streaming has a significant impact on your PC’s performance, as you must encode video for streaming at the same time as the game you’re playing is rendering. For this reason, a dual -PC streaming setup is quite common, so you can stream on one while the other handles its full gaming performance.
What do you need for dual PC streaming?
To start, you’ll need two separate PCs: one gaming PC to run your games at a good performance, and another that may be a bit more modest, but must have a good processor for video encoding as a primary element.
- PC gaming for playing.
- PC for broadcast.
- Video capture device (can be internal or external).
- An extra HDMI cable.
How to set up hardware for streaming with two PCs
Setting up a dual-PC streaming setup consists of two parts: hardware and software. The first thing you’ll need to do is prepare the hardware, connecting everything where it belongs, before proceeding with the software setup. The idea is for the broadcast PC to be able to capture the audio and video from the gaming PC, and to make your life as easy as possible, if you have multiple monitors, you’ll also need to take this into account when calculating how many cables you’ll need.
- Connect the video capture device to the broadcast PC via USB (or, if it is internal, it must be connected to that PC).
- Connect an HDMI cable to the HDMI output on your gaming PC, and the other end to the input (INPUT) on the capture card.
- It’s not necessary to connect the capture card’s HDMI output to a PC, but if you want to do so to have a visual of what’s being captured, you can connect another monitor there.
There really aren’t any major requirements or configurations other than this…anything else you want to add (microphone, camera, etc.) is up to you.
Software configuration
The rest of the setup is done at the software level on both PCs. First, you need to make sure your gaming PC is sending video and audio to the broadcast PC while still being able to hear and see what’s happening on the PC (obviously, otherwise you might have something wrong with the connection. But check the display output. When connecting the capture card to the HDMI port on the graphics card, you may need to configure “display mirroring” in Windows settings. On your gaming PC, you don’t need to do anything else except play; all the rest of the setup must be done on the broadcast PC.
This configuration will depend on what software you use, the most popular being Open Broadcaster Software because it is very complete and also free.
In your streaming software, you simply need to make sure you create a scene with the audio and video source set to the HDMI input of the capture card connected via USB to the streaming PC. This will allow you to output the video and audio that the capture card is receiving from your gaming PC. From here, you’ll need to configure the rest of the usual settings in this software, such as adding your microphone (ideally connected to the streaming PC), webcam (the same applies), scenes, and so on.
Now you just have to do some testing, you can use all kinds of computers, for example if you are going to do a live speaking, without games or heavy programs, you could even use a laptop with its webcam and built-in microphone, and you wouldn’t need anything else, however, if you are going to do very powerful streams itboth computers likely needo be good, although as a broadcast PC something much more basic may be useful, since we would mainly be giving the effort of the game to the other.
Can I stream with two PCs without a capture card?
Using a video capture card is the quickest and easiest way to capture an image from a PC or console and stream it to Twitch or YouTube, or even record videos. However, it’s not strictly necessary if you want to share the image displayed on one computer with another.
To complete this process, all you need is to install the free OBS app on both computers. Additionally, on the main computer, the one running the game you want to stream, you must install the OBS NDI plugin, a free plugin that you can download from the following link.
Next, we open OBS and go to the Tools > NDI Output Settings menu and set a name that allows us to identify this PC on the equipment we are going to use for streaming .
Next, we create the scene on this computer, and that’s it. Now, we head to the PC we’ll be using for streaming. On this PC, we also need to create a scene.
Instead of creating a Screenshot scene, we need to select the NDI Source option and then select the name of the source we have set on the PC where the game or application we are going to share is running.
The NDI source includes both video and audio, so there’s no need to add additional sound sources. Once we’ve correctly configured the NDI source, the image should be displayed on the PC, and all that’s left to do is click the Start Streaming button.
How worthwhile is streaming with a dual PC?
If you’re thinking about having a dual-player setup to stream while gaming, then you probably have an extremely important question: whether it’s worth using a dual-player PC for this purpose. Truly, these types of setups offer many advantages when it comes to both gaming and streaming , so there are many cases in which we can opt for this option. But we’re going to explain what it offers and whether or not it’s worth building a computer of this type.
First of all, one of the most important things to consider is the price, since we’re ultimately building two completely different computers. This means that if we buy one from scratch instead of using the one we already have, the price will be higher. On top of this, we have to add the compatibility issues that can arise, but most can be resolved by following various tutorials, like the one we’ve explained in this article.
These two are the two key disadvantages you might encounter, as the rest are all positive points, as it offers us the possibility of offering better streaming quality without reducing the performance of our games. But there’s also a key advantage in the field of live streaming: if we have any problems with the PC we’re using to play, we can easily shut it down or restart it while we continue streaming.
To sum it up, it’s worth streaming with two computers as long as you can afford it and want to offer the highest possible quality, but it’s not necessarily necessary.
Advantages and disadvantages of streaming with a dual PC
The recommended option for streaming our favorite games on Twitch or YouTube is to use a dual PC. The main advantage is that if we have a problem with the PC and are forced to restart it, the stream will not be interrupted at any time, resulting in the potential loss of viewers who are watching us at the time, which is so hard to retain.
Furthermore, the streaming PC, which is responsible for transmitting the signal, doesn’t require a dedicated graphics card, so all you need is a simple computer used for office tasks. If you want to stream with a single PC, you not only need a good graphics card, but also a state-of-the-art processor if you don’t want to suffer from FPS losses or performance drops.
Using a single PC for streaming requires a fairly complex configuration to balance the performance of both the game and the application we use to send the signal to the Internet, since we must adjust the bitrate just enough to prevent the signal from appearing pixelated, but without affecting the quality.
In addition, we must correctly configure all audio inputs and outputs, something that is difficult for many users, especially if they lack computer skills. As for whether it’s better to use a video capture device or transmit the signal from one PC to another over the local network using NDI, as we’ve shown above, it doesn’t matter, since the quality obtained is the same.
Can I stream with just one PC?
The main reason for using two computers for streaming is that if the PC crashes or we have to reboot for any reason, we won’t be forced to interrupt the stream, which can mean losing the users we’ve worked so hard to attract. However, not everyone can afford to buy two computers for streaming, as it involves double the cost, especially in terms of the processor and graphics card needed for a quality stream.
Although it’s not common, many streamers use a single computer to both play and stream on Twitch. This way, a single PC with two connected displays can handle both streaming and gaming.
In order to do this and ensure that the game’s performance isn’t seriously affected, we must make a significant investment in both the 6- or 8-core processor and the graphics card. We can no longer settle for the same processor that’s only capable of running the game, as it also has to handle the additional workload of streaming.
While it’s true that it doesn’t handle much of a workload, it can sometimes pose a performance issue in terms of FPS, especially when streaming first- or third-person shooter games.
If your budget only allows for one gaming PC and it’s not capable of streaming, you can use any old laptop or computer you have at home as a second PC, as long as it has at least 4 cores, but instead of using a resource-intensive video capture, you can stream the signal over the network using OBS’s NDI feature as described above.
