If yous are setting up your Twitch stream and keep experiencing lag or dropped frames on your stream then you lot may need to adapt your Bitrate in your streaming software. In this article we are going to break downwardly what your bitrate is and what you should fix your bit charge per unit to depending on your PC and cyberspace.

Let's jump in and become started.

What Is Your Bitrate On Twitch?

Your bitrate is essentially the amount of data you are sending to your streaming platform per second. This is the definition that Twitch provide:

"Your ingest bitrate is the amount of data you send to Twitch when you stream. A college bitrate takes up more of your available internet bandwidth. Increasing your bitrate can ameliorate your video quality, only but upwards to a sure point– our recommended bitrate settings have been tested to optimize video quality without wasting bandwidth."

How To Determine What Bitrate Yous Can Handle?

The Bitrate you can handle will depend on two principal factors.

  1. Your Cyberspace Speed
  2. Y'all PC Operation

A skillful PC and fast net are key to streaming at a high bit charge per unit. If y'all have a modern PC that can play Triple AAA titles, yous shouldn't have whatsoever bottle necks when it comes to increasing the bitrate. If y'all are on a upkeep build I would recommend streaming at 720p 30fps with a 3000 kbps and if that is nonetheless causing problems move down to 480p 30fps.

When it comes to your internet speed you lot will need a good upload speed to stream at a loftier bitrate. To check your internet speed you can use Speedtest.net. When you lot run a test

If your upload speed is over 10 Mbps and so you should be fine to run at 1080p 60fps with a 6000kbps bitrate. You lot can check the table below to see what internet speed you need for a certain bitrate.

When you are trying to make up one's mind what bitrate your net can handle you likewise need to have into account that online gaming is going to demand some bandwidth too. You should leave about a 3Mb buffer to dedicate to gaming.

This ways that if yous accept a 10Mbps upload speed your should dedicate anymore than 7Mbps to streaming.

Other Factors To Consider When Selecting A Bitrate

When you have determined your internet speed in that location are two other factors that will make up one's mind how much bandwidth you need to use.

Resolution

Your resolution is the quality you are streaming in. 720p is Hd and 1080p is Full HD. You lot volition also hear people talking about 4k however it's non actually pop to stream in 4k currently.

While you might call up that streaming in the highest resolution possible is the best idea, it might not be. Lots of people stream in 720p and their streams wait not bad. Usually this is more than enough even if you have great internet and a powerful pc. Streaming at a high resolution volition require more bandwidth for both y'all and your viewers. If y'all are not an affiliate or partner on Twitch they will non downscale your stream meaning that some viewers may not be able to sentry (more on this later).

FPS

The FPS you can stream in will also determine your bitrate. 30fps streaming will require a lower bitrate than 60fps.

FPS stands for frames per second. The more frames per second the smoother the stream will look. If you lot play fast paced beginning person shooters like Warzone streaming in a higher fps volition be better for viewers.

However if you are playing a slower paced RPG like Skyrim then streaming in 30FPS is just fine and will use less resources on your calculator.

Recommended Bitrate Tabular array

The resolution and FPS you want to stream at will determine the Bitrate that you demand to stream. For example, if you want to stream at 1080p 60FPS you will need a higher bitrate than streaming at 720p FPS.

Below is a table of recommended bitrates depending on the Resolution and frame charge per unit you lot want to stream in.

Resolution Frames Per Second Recommended Cyberspace Upload Speed Recommended Bitrate
1080p 60 fps 8+Mbps 5000 – 6000 kbps
720p 60 fps 6+Mbps 3500 – 5000 kbps
1080p 30 fps half-dozen+Mbps 3500 – 5000 kbps
720p xxx fps 4.5+Mbps 2500 – 4000 kbps
480p 60 fps iii.5+ Mbps 1500 kbps
Recommended Bit Rates For Streaming

Is PC Performance Afflicted By Bitrate

Yes, the college the bitrate that you stream at, the more strain will be put on your CPU. If you lot have a high end gaming/streaming PC streaming at a 6000 kbps should be completely fine every bit long equally your internet can handle it.

If you're on a lower end PC then a higher chip rate may cause performance problems in both your stream and your game. If yous are experiencing issues, it'due south meliorate to lower the resolution and bitrate to increase the performance of your stream. We put together a full commodity on the all-time settings for streaming on a depression end PC.

What Is The Maximum Bitrate You Tin can Stream At?

The maximum bitrate on Twitch is 6000kbps. This means that there is no do good to setting your bitrate whatsoever higher than 6000kbps in your streaming software.

The Instance For Not Maximising Your Bitrate

Even if yous have astonishing internet and a power house PC it doesn't necessarily mean that you lot should stream in 1080p 60fps and 6000kbps bitrate.

On Twitch if you lot are not a partner or affiliate, your viewers sometimes cannot change the quality that they watch the stream at. This means that people with poor quality internet volition not be able to watch your stream as their cyberspace cannot handle 1080p60fps.

We actually recommend streaming in 720p 30fps no matter how good your PC or cyberspace. This gives you a reasonably high quality stream while not maximising your viewers resources. This means more views for you. If someone comes to your stream and it is lagging they are just going to leave.

Where Do I Change My Bitrate In OBS Studio?

To change your bitrate in OBS Studio follow the steps beneath:

  1. Open OBS Studio and navigate to the settings page
  2. Go to the output section on the left manus side
  3. Nether the streaming section you will run across bitrate nigh half way downwards the screen
  4. Input your bitrate and click OK to salvage your settings

Wrapping Up

Now you know how to choose the best bitrate for your streaming setup. In conclusion having a smooth stream that doesn't lag is the goal. People will much rather picket that over a laggy 1080p stream. If yous want bang-up performance for you and your viewers, nosotros recommend streaming at 720p30fps and 4000kbps bitrate.

Read More From Become On Stream:

  • Best Stream Settings For A Low Finish PC
  • All-time Stream Setting For A High End PC
  • Will streaming bear on FPS in games?