Question / Help Battlefield 4 Choppy Performance

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Gartokk

New Member
Hi guys!

I started playing the Battlefield 4 beta last night and experienced very choppy gameplay (i.e. freezes, regular large FPS dips) whenever OBS was streaming or recording. Whenever I'm not streaming, the game runs at a super-smooth 80-100 FPS on ultra settings.

i7 3770k @ 4.1GHz
8GB RAM DDR3 PC12800 CAS 9
Asus P8Z77-V
EVGA GTX 660 ti Superclocked (tried 320.49, 327.23 and 331.40 beta driver versions)
Avermedia Livegamer HD

I realise that streaming is resource intensive and I also appreciate that I'm working with a relatively unoptimised beta product. However, the HUGE difference in performance startled me a little plus I'm streaming this through a capture card which alleviates a lot of the strain and I don't have this problem with other games on my current rig (Witcher 2 dips a few FPS when streaming, but nothing like this). I checked the CPU in Task Manager when playing and streaming, it was hovering around 75-85% (is this too high?) all my temps look fine as far as I can see.

Does anyone have any clues on where I can start troubleshooting this one? Should I be working on the game itself or is there anything OBS can do to help me out? Here are the things I've tried so far:

Lowering streaming resolution/FPS - No difference, in fact it seems that streaming quality doesn't impact it at all, it's just pressing that 'Start Streaming' button that causes the issue.
Lowering ingame settings - A very small performance increase from ultra to low but still unplayable.
High/Normal/Idle Process Priority Classes - No difference at all.
ultrafast/veryfast/slow x264 CPU Presets - No difference.
Custom x264 Encoder Settings disabled - No difference.

Tried different servers (around 35ms ping), reloaded game, OBS and PC several times.

Many thanks and please let me know if you need any additional information! :)

Another user with a similar issue here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7743&p=43499&hilit=battlefield#p43499
 
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Gartokk

New Member
Yeah, I would have posted it in the OP but I'm away from the PC I was streaming on for a while, will try to post as soon as I can.

Thanks for the reply. :)
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
i doubt it that you get 80-100 fps on ultra with a 660 whatsoever try window capture instead of game capture if you are using game capture since you didnt post a log we dont know also yesterday was the first day of the beta so its most likely a problem with game hooks in bf4
 
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Gartokk

New Member
As mentioned I'm just device capturing from the livegamer HD card, and yes I get 80 FPS at ultra, it's beautiful when not streaming. :(

most likely a problem with game hooks in bf4
Click to expand...
Not sure what this means so will look it up.

Thanks for the response!
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
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vaesauce

Member
your links aren't working Alpinlol :3

None the less, I almost want to say... that much FPS on a 660ti almost sounds bogus to me on Ultra settings.

ANYWAY! When you start OBS, what does your FPS sit at afterward? Like your FPS without OBS and with it.
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
vaesauce said:
your links aren't working Alpinlol :3

None the less, I almost want to say... that much FPS on a 660ti almost sounds bogus to me on Ultra settings.

ANYWAY! When you start OBS, what does your FPS sit at afterward? Like your FPS without OBS and with it.
Click to expand...



working fine for me tho :(
 
V

vaesauce

Member
alpinlol said:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Battlefield-4-PC-238749/Tests/Battlefield-4-Beta-Test-Grafikkarten-Benchmarks-1090869/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=socialPCGH&utm_campaign=computecsocial&utm_content=Battlefield-4-PC-238749TestsBattlefield-4-Beta-Test-Grafikkarten-Benchmarks-1090869

try this ... its german but if you scroll down you'll find the picture
Click to expand...

Yup! Works.

Proves our point that a 660ti with Ultra settings... O_O definitely not pulling those FPS. Especially if you're playing Online and particles constantly flying everywhere and players/vehicles constantly respawning and etc.

Hell, I've got a 7970ghz and on BF3 I struggle with Ultra settings and streaming o_O
 
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alpinlol

Active Member
well my 770 is doing actually pretty fine with the latest drivers ... but i tried literally all bf4 settings so far and to be honest for an actual competitive player low settings are the best in bf4 picture quality doesnt decrease that much but i get red of all the useless sun reflections all pretty much all the useless shit i dont give a fuck about :/ but yeah as i said highly doubt that hes having 80-100 fps on ultra with an 660ti maybe on 1280x720 or even lower without AA
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
Chances are this is the first game that actually uses all the cores on a CPU, leaving nothing left over for encoding. Just a guess on my part though. Most games are still nearly single threaded which means cores are sitting around doing nearly nothing, which is convenient when you want to play a game and encode on the same CPU. Finally a game fully utilizes a CPU and people will get all, "Hey this worked in other games, wtf?"
 
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Gartokk

New Member
Not sure why the original FPS is important, if it really is I guess I could find a way of getting that information (I just use EVGA Precision OSD to measure FPS, does this have a log recorder?) The important thing is the huge performance loss when streaming. Settings don't really matter either, on low I still get the same performance when streaming.

ANYWAY! When you start OBS, what does your FPS sit at afterward? Like your FPS without OBS and with it.
Click to expand...

Do you mean actual streaming or just loading the program. Loading the program makes no difference. But when I click 'Start Streaming' it instantly hits the game. Let's say I just simply stand still in the game and look at the floor or the sky. 80+ FPS not streaming -> 20/30 when streaming and this regularly dips into single figures with the constant freezes. When you begin moving around this obviously gets even worse.

Chances are this is the first game that actually uses all the cores on a CPU, leaving nothing left over for encoding.
Click to expand...

This was my first thought too and I may have to use my second PC to stream it.
 
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vaesauce

Member
The reason why the original FPS is important is because I want to know how much your FPS is dipping from originally actually playing in game to playing with OBS running.

None the less, I'll just wait until you post a log. If the log looks perfectly fine then it's just a BF4 beta issue.
 
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