Encoder overload & low fps

[Valkorian99]

My specs:
-i5 11th Gen
-nvidia rtx 3050
-ram: 32 GB
-Cdrive/Ddrive: total 1.5 TB

I'm REALLY annoyed at OBS for being so inconsistent. one day I can record good quality gameplays like Helldiver's 2 gameplay with voice no problem and other similar spec required games and I'm trying to record helldiver's 2 again and other games like Jedi Survivor, valorant etc and I get abysmal encoder overload and low fps and it crashes my games. without OBS, the games run PERFECTLY and at high specs aswell. i can record older games like minecraft, empire at war, jedi fallen order, battlefront 2 (2017). I know my pc can record at high or better quality level so the fact that this is happening all the time is F****** BS. I've attached the logs. idk what else people may need to verify the problem since i'm new to obs forums so do ask for extra details if you guys need. i appreciate any responses.

 

[qhobbes]

1. Display and Game Capture Sources interfere with each other. Never put them in the same scene (Scene).
2. In the Output settings, set Multipass Mode to Single Pass and disable Look-ahead and Psycho Visual Tuning. Those use additional GPU.
3. Record to MKV. If you record to MP4 or MOV and the recording is interrupted, the file will be corrupted and unrecoverable. If you require MP4 files for some other purpose like editing, remux them afterwards by selecting File > Remux Recordings in the main OBS Studio window.
4. Audio buffering hit the maximum value. This is an indicator of very high system load, will affect stream latency, and may even cause individual audio sources to stop working. Keep an eye on CPU usage especially, and close background programs if needed. Occasionally, this can be caused by incorrect device timestamps. Restart OBS to reset buffering.
Source affected (potential cause): Mic/Aux
5. Your GPU is maxed out and OBS can't render scenes fast enough. Running a game without vertical sync or a frame rate limiter will frequently cause performance issues with OBS because your GPU will be maxed out. OBS requires a little GPU to render your scene. Enable Vsync or set a reasonable frame rate limit that your GPU can handle without hitting 100% usage. Your encoder overload is related to your GPU being overloaded. You're also going from 144 (hopefully) FPS to 60 FPS which is 5 out 12 frames. Should be multiples of each of other. If you can, change the refresh rate on your no name monitor to 120 and cap your FPS at 120 too.

If that's not enough you may also need to turn down some of the video quality options in the game. If you are experiencing issues in general while using OBS, your GPU may be overloaded for the settings you are trying to use. Please check our guide for ideas why this may be happening, and steps you can take to correct it: GPU Overload Issues.

You can also try gaming on your AOC (with game locked 60 FPS) and having OBS run on your 144 Hz.
6. Be aware that having the YUV Color range set to "Full" will cause playback issues in certain browsers and on various video platforms. Shadows, highlights and color will look off. In OBS, go to "Settings -> Advanced" and set "YUV Color Range" back to "Limited".

After you have made all of those changes then close and re-open OBS. If still having issues, please post 1 log of the recording (Help > Log Files > Upload Current Log File > Copy URL > paste the URL here.

 

[Valkorian99]

1. Display and Game Capture Sources interfere with each other. Never put them in the same scene (Scene).
2. In the Output settings, set Multipass Mode to Single Pass and disable Look-ahead and Psycho Visual Tuning. Those use additional GPU.
3. Record to MKV. If you record to MP4 or MOV and the recording is interrupted, the file will be corrupted and unrecoverable. If you require MP4 files for some other purpose like editing, remux them afterwards by selecting File > Remux Recordings in the main OBS Studio window.
4. Audio buffering hit the maximum value. This is an indicator of very high system load, will affect stream latency, and may even cause individual audio sources to stop working. Keep an eye on CPU usage especially, and close background programs if needed. Occasionally, this can be caused by incorrect device timestamps. Restart OBS to reset buffering.
Source affected (potential cause): Mic/Aux
5. Your GPU is maxed out and OBS can't render scenes fast enough. Running a game without vertical sync or a frame rate limiter will frequently cause performance issues with OBS because your GPU will be maxed out. OBS requires a little GPU to render your scene. Enable Vsync or set a reasonable frame rate limit that your GPU can handle without hitting 100% usage. Your encoder overload is related to your GPU being overloaded. You're also going from 144 (hopefully) FPS to 60 FPS which is 5 out 12 frames. Should be multiples of each of other. If you can, change the refresh rate on your no name monitor to 120 and cap your FPS at 120 too.

If that's not enough you may also need to turn down some of the video quality options in the game. If you are experiencing issues in general while using OBS, your GPU may be overloaded for the settings you are trying to use. Please check our guide for ideas why this may be happening, and steps you can take to correct it: GPU Overload Issues.

You can also try gaming on your AOC (with game locked 60 FPS) and having OBS run on your 144 Hz.
6. Be aware that having the YUV Color range set to "Full" will cause playback issues in certain browsers and on various video platforms. Shadows, highlights and color will look off. In OBS, go to "Settings -> Advanced" and set "YUV Color Range" back to "Limited".

After you have made all of those changes then close and re-open OBS. If still having issues, please post 1 log of the recording (Help > Log Files > Upload Current Log File > Copy URL > paste the URL here.

thanks for the detailed reply. Done most if not all of what you asked. still not much change. here's the updated log

 

[Valkorian99]

still no change. any other problems you guys can see that can be fixed?

 

[rockbottom]

Yep, your iGPU is showing up on (2) Adapters. Updating the driver should fix this configuration issue.

04:18:19.698: Adapter 1: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
04:18:19.698: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
04:18:19.698: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
04:18:19.698: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
04:18:19.698: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
04:18:19.698: Driver Version: 31.0.101.3413

04:18:19.698: Adapter 2: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
04:18:19.698: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
04:18:19.698: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
04:18:19.698: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
04:18:19.698: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
04:18:19.698: Driver Version: 31.0.101.3413

Intel® Core™ i5-11400H Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) Downloads, Drivers and Software | Intel

Intel® Core™ i5-11400H Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) - Download supporting resources inclusive drivers, software, bios, and firmware updates.

www.intel.com

 

[Valkorian99]

Yep, your iGPU is showing up on (2) Adapters. Updating the driver should fix this configuration issue.

04:18:19.698: Adapter 1: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
04:18:19.698: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
04:18:19.698: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
04:18:19.698: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
04:18:19.698: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
04:18:19.698: Driver Version: 31.0.101.3413

04:18:19.698: Adapter 2: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
04:18:19.698: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
04:18:19.698: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
04:18:19.698: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
04:18:19.698: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
04:18:19.698: Driver Version: 31.0.101.3413

Intel® Core™ i5-11400H Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) Downloads, Drivers and Software | Intel

Intel® Core™ i5-11400H Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.50 GHz) - Download supporting resources inclusive drivers, software, bios, and firmware updates.

www.intel.com

done that and not much if any changes. i have recorded these EXACT games before with good and stable quality so i'm not actually sure wtf is going on

 

[rockbottom]

The driver update didn't do the trick, not sure what's going on there. Do you use the iGPU at all? If not, disable it in BIOS.

15:37:38.519: Adapter 1: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
15:37:38.519: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
15:37:38.519: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
15:37:38.519: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
15:37:38.519: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
15:37:38.519: Driver Version: 31.0.101.5522

15:37:38.519: Adapter 2: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
15:37:38.519: Dedicated VRAM: 134217728 (0.1 GiB)
15:37:38.519: Shared VRAM: 17034557440 (15.9 GiB)
15:37:38.519: PCI ID: 8086:9a68
15:37:38.519: HAGS Status: Disabled (Default: No, Driver status: Unsupported)
15:37:38.520: Driver Version: 31.0.101.5522

Hard to say for sure what impact the above is having on your system but it's probably not good as there is lots of rendering lag, your GPU is overloaded. Take a look at the link below. For your encoding settings change the Preset to P5. Also remove all the filters on your mic before you test, your audio thread is extremely slow.

15:38:16.556: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 504 (55.4%)
15:38:16.557: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 512/907 (56.4%)

15:42:44.173: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 4168 (39.1%)

Encoding Performance Troubleshooting | OBS

OBS Knowledge Base. Learn best practices to solve encoding performance issues

obsproject.com

 

[rockbottom]

Have you tried using a new Profile? A good troubleshooting step, 1 Scene, 1 Source, test.

 

[Valkorian99]

LOL idk how it fixed but I just uninstalled obs and delete all profiles and settings and now i always get 60fps for OBS. some of my games lag more but it's manageable i think.

 

[rockbottom]

Yep, something was bugged. Big improvement & encoding 1080p now. No lag at all in the 03-08-44 log. Did you do a system restore or rollback the iGPU driver? I noticed it's back to the old version. Also, have you tried encoding with it yet? Interested to see if it works correctly in the state it's in.