What computer do you need to stream?

The short version

OBS Studio runs on Windows 10 or 11 with a DirectX 10.1 graphics chip, on macOS 11 Big Sur or later with an Intel or Apple silicon processor, and on Linux with OpenGL 3.3 graphics, by its system requirements page; its download page says the current Mac version needs macOS 13 Ventura or later. OBS adds that a computer meeting this list isn’t guaranteed to stream or record well.

What decides it is the video encoder. OBS recommends a hardware encoder, built into most graphics chips (NVIDIA NVENC, AMD AMF, Intel Quick Sync, Apple silicon), because it takes the encoding off the processor. Twitch’s broadcasting guidelines give the most concrete bar: an NVIDIA RTX 20-series or GTX 1660 card or newer encodes about as well as x264 on its medium preset, and x264 presets above Faster need a processor with six or more cores. Then check the minimums your capture card or camera’s maker sets: the table below lists them. In OBS, Tools, Auto-Configuration Wizard suggests settings for the computer you have.

The encoder decides more than the processor

Without a hardware encoder, OBS encodes with x264 on the processor, which then has to run the game, OBS and the encoding at once. OBS’s notes on each hardware encoder:

OBS also warns that early hardware encoders give a softer picture at the same bitrate, so on an old card x264 can look better if the processor keeps up.

Gaming and streaming on one computer

The graphics card draws the game and also puts OBS’s scene together, so a game running flat out leaves OBS short. OBS’s own fixes, in the order it gives them:

• Run OBS as administrator: OBS can then ask Windows to keep some graphics capacity for it.
• Cap the game’s frame rate, or turn on V-Sync, so the card isn’t drawing frames nobody sees.
• Lower the game’s graphics settings if the game and OBS frame rates aren’t both steady.
• Turn off Windows’ background game recording (Game DVR), which records like OBS’s replay buffer and uses the same resources. OBS says Game Mode can stay on in recent versions of Windows 10.
• Lower OBS’s resolution or frame rate in Settings, Video, and keep scenes simple: browser sources and some filters are expensive.

If OBS still reports encoding overload or dropped frames, fix OBS dropped frames and encoder overload reads the counters with you. When one computer can’t do both, a dual-PC setup moves the stream to a second one.

What your capture card or camera asks of the computer

Some makers set their own minimum processor, graphics and memory, usually for their highest modes. These are the ones our records hold, as each maker states them:

Many also need a direct USB 3 port rather than a hub: USB bandwidth for cameras and capture explains why. The Stream Deck app now asks for Windows 11 (64-bit) or macOS 13: see Stream Deck software.

Questions

Do I need a separate graphics card? Not to run OBS: it needs a graphics chip that supports DirectX 10.1 on Windows, and Intel’s Quick Sync encoder sits in the graphics built into Intel processors. A separate card helps most when you stream games from the same computer.

Can I stream from a laptop? Yes. OBS recommends keeping it on the high-performance graphics chip if it has two. The laptop streaming setup covers ports and power.

Is a Mac good for streaming? On Apple silicon, OBS streams with Apple’s hardware encoder. On an Intel Mac, streaming uses x264 on the processor.

Is my internet fast enough? That is the upload, not the computer: the bandwidth calculator checks it against the platform’s numbers, and home network for streaming covers the cable and the router.