Question / Help $5,000 PC Very Choppy

Ares89

New Member
Hey everyone,

So I'm utterly confused. I have the following specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K @5GHz
RAM: 32GB of G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3200Mhz (running at 3200 as per the XMP)
GPU: Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080ti (overclocked also)
SSD: 1TB NVMe M.2 Samsung 960 Pro
Mobo: Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower RGB Titanium 850W

Plus some other misc. hardware that isn't relevant. Point is, decent CPU, decent GPU and a decent amount of RAM.

Now my issue is that when I attempt to stream PUBG to Twitch, it is extremely choppy and laggy. Not in game, just within OBS itself and on stream. Destiny 2 runs like a dream, no issues at all, but PUBG runs terribly. What's even weirder, is that it only gets choppy when I have the window focused, let me explain.

So I have 3 monitors, I play PUBG windowed full-screen, when I move my mouse cursor out of the PUBG window and click on my desktop (or any other window) to let PUBG lose focus, it runs beautifully, 1080p60 no problem, but as soon as I click back in, it dives to like 15fps (according to OBS). I have a Twitch VOD to demonstrate: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/208280052

My CPU usage never goes over 46%, RAM, power etc. all no troubles. Nothing is overheating (GPU sometimes reaches 70c but for the most part is underneath that, CPU cores all never go above 62c). Changing my settings on PUBG to Very Low, Fullscreen didn't really make a difference, still getting stuttering and choppiness. Attempting to lower the OBS settings etc. didn't work either.

I really have no idea what to do, I've been researching for days and finally decided that I'll have to ask for help - yes I'm that guy that always tries to work it out himself but to no avail this time.

Ideal OBS Settings:
x264 / CBR 3500 / fast / 1080p60 / Lanczos

Tested Settings:
-- x264 / CBR 3500 combined with the different options below, multiple different ways and times --
Rescale output (checked and unchecked in Output tab), rescaled to 1280x720
CPU usage: fast, faster, veryfast, superfast, ultrafast
Output (scaled) Resolution (in Video tab) 1920x1080, 1280x720
Downscale filter: Bilinear, Bicubic, Lanczos
FPS: 60, 30

I tried using NVENC once, but the stream looked blurry as all hell and I figured it would be worth asking here first for some help as I'm fairly certain that my rig is powerful enough to run this game and stream at the same time, just something is going weird.

And yes, with a few of those combinations I was getting the "Encoder overloaded" error, although surprisingly not when I did that Twitch VOD above (which is PUBG on all Ultra settings and the ideal OBS settings above).

I've attached my log file from today, shows a test with downscale then 2 tests at the ideal settings (this log was created when creating the Twitch VOD above and the 2 previous VODs which are like 30 seconds long if that).

Please, can someone help me here? I'm at my wits end.
 

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Ares89

New Member
And you forgot to turn on ingame fps limit:
15:18:27.632: Output 'adv_stream': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 579 (46.2%)

Hey mate, thanks for the reply. I'm new to streaming and OBS so I may be confused here, but are you saying I should limit my in-game FPS to 60 because that's what OBS is streaming at? After testing with the settings above I didn't notice any quality issues at all on my stream. I also would prefer to keep my in-game FPS as close as possible to 120 - 144 so reduce input lag etc., especially in CSGO where I'd prefer even more. If there's no issue in the stream quality, is there any real reason to lower the in-game FPS?

Also, regarding the bitrate, as a simple member of Twitch (no association or partnership), aren't I limited to 3500? Or is that no longer a thing now? Would streaming at 720p60 at 3500 be better for most people as opposed to 1080p60 at 6000?

You also overpaid for your PC parts because that's less than 3k XD

We don't all live in 'Merica and use USD.
 

Ares89

New Member
Post a screenshot of gpu-z's first tab please.

Not sure why you need it, but no worries, it's attached.

Also as a side note, I've removed the OC on my GPU as it didn't make enough of a difference in performance to warrant the extra heat (not that it got any thermal issues or throttling). Figured I better play it safe with the expensive GPU. :)
 

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Harold

Active Member
I needed it because people have been known to install their video cards in the wrong pci-e slot, to the point that their x16 cards run in x4 or x1 modes sometimes.
 

Ares89

New Member
Oh righto!!

Apologies if I came across as aggressive or insolent in the above post, hard to convey tone through text (at least that's how I felt when reading my post back to me). Anyways, appreciate the help. But as mentioned above, the performance issue was resolved by turning Game Mode off (makes sense considering the whole point of game mode is to limit resources of all other applications when the game is focused).

At the moment I just have a more general bitrate question which I've been able to do some research on myself. I'll do some more testing basically to find out what's best for me.

Thanks for help gentleman, feel free to close the thread if needed.
 

gemm

New Member
Also, regarding the bitrate, as a simple member of Twitch (no association or partnership), aren't I limited to 3500? Or is that no longer a thing now? Would streaming at 720p60 at 3500 be better for most people as opposed to 1080p60 at 6000?

Nope, everyone can use 6k (or slightly over it before they shut you off) but you're not guaranteed quality options so you might be limiting your viewerbase a little (not sure a significant number of people can watch at 3.5 but not 6 though).

it's up to you to experiment with different resolutions, maybe pubg looks fine with x264 at 1080p but im not 100%. games with complex/realistic textures like that tend to artifact quite a bit
 

Ares89

New Member
Nope, everyone can use 6k (or slightly over it before they shut you off) but you're not guaranteed quality options so you might be limiting your viewerbase a little (not sure a significant number of people can watch at 3.5 but not 6 though).

it's up to you to experiment with different resolutions, maybe pubg looks fine with x264 at 1080p but im not 100%. games with complex/realistic textures like that tend to artifact quite a bit

Hey mate, thanks for the advice. I ended up testing it today, and to ensure I have good performance in PUBG I've decided to go with 720p60 at 3500 - 4000, also because I couldn't get quite a sharp enough image at 1080p60 at 6000, basically looked the same as 720p.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 
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