Game:

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (2014)

Duration: 0:29

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YES, Garden Warfare 1 still runs to this very day! Here I show off some PC gameplay showcasing the multiplayer and how good it looks in 2024! The console versions also work with a decently populated community.

Here I play Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare on PC (you can get it on Origin/EA app, sorry no steam!). This is some demo footage showcasing what my hardware can do. I also show off the video quality off my new capture card (Macrosilicon MS 2131 Chipset). Feel free to read my detailed description outlining my equipment and opinions.

i3 4130 (Pretty awful even for its time, definite bottleneck in my setup showing poor performance. Upgrading to an i7 would give massive improvements if I can find it for cheap)
RX 6600 (Quite impressive, running 2160p Max Settings)
16GB DDR3 idk what speed
Your typical hard drive

The game on PC looks much better than the Xbox One/PS4 versions, however it is not a surprise considering I'm using a much better GPU. The Series S/X or PS5 would do better in terms of performance, but the resolution/settings would remain unchanged. Unfortunately the old CPU ruins the frametimes, but I got this PC for free and added extra ram and a gpu (I was gonna upgrade my i5 10400 PC I also got free, but Dell has a proprietary CPU connection and I cannot find a way to get it working).

I'm using a $40 capture card which does 2048x1152@60 (currently using this mode), 2560x1440@30, or 3840x2160@18. Because of my bottleneck (and the fact I'm using a 4K TV), I choose to run most games at 4K and lower settings if VRAM is an issue. The capture card downscales to my chosen resolution, and I add some filters to make it pop.

Since I'm cloning the screen to the capture card with a second hdmi output, there is often screen tearing. I think the only solution is to use OBS on the main PC to clone output (uses extra encoding resources on main machine), or run the output to the splitter on capture card (but it needs to be powered, and I don't always want my 2nd pc running)

It's pretty decent for the price, however the specific one I have has an issue where the right audio channel doesn't work at all. To fix this issue, I used a headphone splitter and did line in to my other PC (unfortunately that means I do not have audio out to my headphones as this Dell PoS doesn't have much audio interfaces).

I'm not looking for criticism about my setup or gameplay and any hateful comments will be removed. Please be mature and comment on the related topic.

Here are my OBS/Capture Settings:

2048x1152@60FPS (Downscaled from 4K which is done from Capture Card), YUY2, Rec.709 Limited Color Range
Line in audio for stereo sound
RTMPS Live to YouTube (for better security/encoder options)
Manually set to 4K 60fps for better bitrate after stream is over, in case I want to edit it later and don't want to actively use HDD space while recording

Filters:
3 Band EQ: 1db high, 0.5 mid, 1db low (v-curved audio)
Gain is 1db, advanced audio is an extra 1db (quirky but it works, helps fix the quiet volume from source)

Sharpen 0.05 (makes it extra crispy without being too noisy, 1080p is outdated but looks alright with some sharpening) (can adjust depending on situation)

Color Correction:
Gamma 0.05
Contrast 0.03
Saturation 0.10

Streaming Output Settings:
H265 QuickSync Hardware Encoding (i5 10400)
VBR 25mbps-40mbps (internet can handle it fine, no extra lag as I have 150mbps up)
TU7 Fastest/Best Speed Encoding (Can't go any higher or it lags)
Main Profile
Keyframe Interval 5s
Latency normal
1 b frame

Recording Output:
Mostly same as streaming, however I use 25-45mbps in case I need more bitrate
0 b frames
1s keyframe
mkv container, opus audio codec @ 320kbps (much better than mp4 and aac)

Other Statistics