Twitch's new beta combines the encoder in your Nvidia GPU with some nifty OBS integration to take the pain out of streaming

CES 2024 is finally here and the hardware announcements are beginning to roll in thick and fast. However, even if you're not in the market for some new tech, those of you of a streaming persuasion and an Nvidia GPU may have some reason to celebrate today, as the company announced a raft of streaming features and Twitch integrations to be rolled out in the new Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting beta as part of today's Nvidia special address.

As things currently stand Twitch prioritises server-side transcoding for top-performing channels, meaning that Twitch partners and some affiliates are able to stream at a wide range of different quality settings for their audience, while regular users are often limited in their transcoding options. 

That's set to change for streamers with an Nvidia GPU participating in the Twitch beta launching later this month. The Enhanced Broadcasting update will allow RTX and GTX card owners to use the high-quality NVENC hardware encoder to broadcast up to three resolutions simultaneously at up to 1080p, with higher-input bitrates, 4k resolutions and up to five concurrent streams set to become options over the next few months.

There'll also be some new codecs to experiment with, including the latest-generation AV1 for RTX 40-series owners, while those of you on older cards will be able to make use of good old H.264 and HEVC.

Enhanced Broadcasting also aims to make setting up a stream much less of a hassle via OBS integration, as the beta will enable features that can automatically configure OBS encoder settings with a server-side algorithm that Nvidia says will return the best possible configuration for OBS studio based on the streamers setup. Although how well this will actually work in practice remains to be seen. 

Still, anything that takes the headache out of streaming and recording high-resolution game capture sounds like good news to me, as someone who remembers the bad old days of fiddling with Fraps to get a crunchy 20 fps video file of my sick Unreal Tournament moves. Game capture has come a long way since then, and hopefully these new encoder options and software integrations will make the process easier for all.

Those of you that would like to take advantage of these new features will need to sign up for the beta at twitch.tv/broadcast, as Twitch is set to enrol participants on a first-come, first-served basis. So, you'll probably need to be pretty quick off the mark to get in. 

Still, as companies continue to roll out products like new microphones and stream-friendly webcams to cater for the seemingly ever-growing streaming market, it comes as no surprise that new encoding options and streamer-friendly integrations are evolving to hopefully make fiddly streaming shenanigans a thing of the past.  

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PC Gamer's CES 2024 coverage is being published in association with Asus Republic of Gamers.