Intel HD Graphics 610 enough for Big picture and stream client ?

[yakeru]

Hi all,

I am currently using an old laptop with HD graphics 3000 in my living room as streaming client, it works perfectly and decodes at 60 fps and little delay if I don't use big picture, but if I enable big picture, steam complains that there is not enough memory to run it at 1080p, and streaming performances suffers a lot, I can't get more than 30 fps.

So I started building a machine to replace the old laptop, and was planning to use a Pentium G4560 with HD Graphics 610 but even though it's more powerful, I started wondering what was causing the performance issue... is it pure GPU processing power, or lack of dedicated VRAM ?

In other words, is it worth it to replace my HD3000 i7 laptop with a HD610 G4560 ?
Will Steam be able to run big picture without problems at 1080p and decode my streams at 60 fps ? Will a G4620 with HD Graphics 630 help if the G4560 is not good enough ? Or is a GPU with dedicated VRAM mandatory to run big picture smoothly + decode stream at 60 fps?

Thanks for your help

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The real issue has been how poor Intel HD 2000/3000/4000 are in general. Especially on the Mobile side. As HD3000 you're talking about a Laptop from around 2011-2012 or so.

Intel HD 500/600 series GPUs however are much much better, and those even can run most games fine even. So yea shouldn't be an issue to stream from gaming PC to that newer system.

Stick to G4560 since it is best in class and bang for buck; nothing above that CPU is really worth it unless u are willing to bump up to an i5 class of CPU.

I'd look at going towards:
> B250M Motherboard
> SSD and stick Win10 64bit on it
> and get 2x8GB DDR4-2400
and you should be fine.
You can always add a cheap GPU later (like GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti) if needed.

[yakeru]

Thanks Bad_Motha :-)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Are you doing a small Cube PC for the Living Room?
Or just a regular cheap MicroATX tower type of Case?

[yakeru]

It will be used almost exclusively as a steam stream client in my living-room, and to run the least demanding games locally. Occasional media center as well ...

Here is the config I planned :

G4560 with noctua NH-L9i
MSI B250 Mini ITX mobo
1x8Gb DDR4 2400
recycled HDD from the laptop (500 Gb 7200 tpm)
300W SFX Silverstone PSU (or maybe the Integra PSU often included as a kit ... not sure)
Fractal design node 202 case

If I want to build something more serious one day, and run more games locally instead of streaming them, as you said, I can add a GPU, a second RAM stick and an i5.

[King_BR0K]

What are you streaming from?

[yakeru]

My main machine is a Eurocom Sky MX5 R2 : GTX 1070, i7 6820HK, SSD and 16 Gb of RAM

[King_BR0K]

Nice

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You dont need the expensive on a better cooler for those Pentium or i3; the stock one will do just fine.

Laptop HDD will be super slow though.

If you are going SFX PSU then go with like a Gold 450W; that way it can actually handle addon GPU should u need to go that route at some point.

[yakeru]

Interesting ! I chose that cooler for it's noise level more than it's performances. You don't think it's useful to change the cooler, even for the noise ?

The Laptop HDD is slow, true, but for now it will be enough, after all, it's the one I'm using right now and it does the job. Plus, to decode a stream, I don't need to access mass storage. But yeah, if I upgrade that machine one day, to run more games locally, I will definitely switch for a SSD.

As for the PSU I arrived at the same conclusion, I think I'll go with the PSU in the kit with the node 202, it's a 450 W. Not gold ... but still good quality from what people say.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

This is good cost effective cooler to use on a locked CPU such as that.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Lbhj4D/cryorig-cpu-cooler-c7

[yakeru]

Ha yes ! Of course I heard about this one, the noctua and C7 are often compared, many people like the later for it's higher TDP rating and price. I actually switched between these two many times in my cart, but ended up deciding for the Noctua because according to various reviews, it is less audible.

But ... reviews were not made on the same CPU, and it is true that the Noctua will be closer to it's limit than the C7 with that CPU, so which one is more silent, the Noctua at 83% of it's max recomanded TDP or C7 at 54% ? :-D

I will search a little bit more ! Thanks for making me reconsider :-)

p.s. : Ok it didn't take long to find other reviews from people saying that the C7 is barely audible on a G4560, even with load, so C7 it is !

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Noctua is a great brand, hands down.
But way overpriced for something like NH-L9i