Question / Help Elgato HD60 Pro stuttering/dropping frames

Some1CP

New Member
So, I've always wanted to get a capture card for a long time now to record gameplay from my gaming consoles and decided to get the HD60 Pro as it has a higher bitrate and is an internal card.
I set it up and first I noticed there was some sort of audio delay that would build up with time. This issue got fixed by setting the audio sampling rate to 48khz on all devices.
Then I start to stream some gameplay to test if everything is working fine. After a few minutes I started to notice I would get random slowdowns on the preview window of OBS, like it felt the FPS would drop to around 40 on the elgato. The same would happen on the Elgato Game Capture HD software. Occasionally, the slowdowns would be accompanied by a slight audio crack.
I tried changing the YUV color space, lowering the bitrate and a few other stuff, but it didn't seem to make any difference. What I noticed is that while it happens on the preview, the footage recorded with elgato's software seems to be ok, while on the other hand OBS records the footage with the slowdowns. I might upload some footage here for comparison. I'd use mpc-hc to measure the actual frame rate but it can't open the capture card for some reason.

Basically:
OBS Preview -> Stutters
OBS Recording -> Stutters
OBS Streaming -> Stutters (have to confirm, but I noticed FPS drops on the streamed video and OBS didn't show any dropped frames in the stats window)
Elgato Game Capture HD "Instant Game View" -> Stutters
Elgato Game Capture HD Flashback content -> Smooth (I'm not sure if it stutters but it's still smoother than the other ones)
Elgsto Game Capture HD Recordings -> Smooth
HDMI Passthrough -> Smooth

The passthrough port works fine 100% of the time though, providing smooth 60fps gameplay at all times. I'm playing Super Mario Maker, which is a game that runs at 60fps at all times and FPS drops on the Elgato are noticeable and can make you die in the game very easily. While playing Super Smash Bros. for example, which is another game that runs at a locked 60 FPS, it feels like when your FPS drops in a PC game. The slowdown happens every 20-40 seconds and lasts for 5-10 seconds.

Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this issue? Is my card faulty? Is it my computer? I tried installing Windows 7 and another version of Windows 10, both showed the same issue. I also tried another PCI slot but the same thing happens.

Edit: I'll be posting the OBS log later when I get access to my computer.
 
Last edited:

kalhamm3r

New Member
Having this problem with a standard HD60 RIGHT NOW.... it's so infuriating. Everything is great for an undetermined amount of time, and then it drops frames to 30 or less.......until I restart OBS. This is driving me insane, anyone with any assistance please help.
 

Thommo

New Member
If anyone is still having issues I came across a video looking for solutions. It mentioned in the description of the video putting the FPS in multiples of 60. I changed my recording FPS to 120 even though my Elgato can only record in 60fps and it fixed all of the stuttering. Might be worth giving it a try.
 
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