Question / Help Encoding overload/lag streaming.

[keport926]

While streaming, video looks super pixelated and often lags/stutters to the point of freezing completely. OBS shows no dropped frames, but occasionally an encoding overload error. Running games on mostly all low/medium video settings with the highest encoding speed possible to suck up less CPU. Tried other streaming software, xsplit/shadowplay, same issues present in all.

Running on a 1600-1800 bitrate, 30fps, 1280x720, ultrafast with bilinear downscaled filter. Tried encoding both off CPU and nvidia GPU.

Computer specs: CPU Intel i5 4460 3.2GHz, GPU: Nvidia geforce gtx 970, 16gigs ram, windows 10 pro 64 bit, 2, 1920x1080 60hz monitors.

Also my upload speed is around 60-70mbps

Log attached.

 

[Sapiens]

Use vsync or some other form of frame limiting in your game to manage its CPU and GPU load. You should be able to handle 720p30 on veryfast using x264.

 

[keport926]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried tweaking with all kinds of in game (and it is basically universal with any game I attempt to stream) settings including vsync, antialiasing, enabling anticheat hook compatibility, it does not effect the quality of the stream. Still lag, still lots of fps drops. I know it makes no sense I can't handle 720 @ 30fps, that's why I came here.

And this is running on x264 ultrafast, 1800bit rate/ custom buffer size on a constant bit rate

 

[Sapiens]

The purpose of using vsync is to limit the number of frames your hardware has to render, reducing CPU/GPU load and allowing you to use a better preset than ultrafast (which is pretty terrible in bitrate-limited situations like streaming). Additionally if you're using a custom buffer size to force perfect CBR you're actively slaughtering your quality, so please don't do that. Leave the custom buffer size option unchecked unless you're following the instructions in the local recording guide.

 

[keport926]

Right I understand the purpose. I'm just stating it's had no noticible difference. And also the only reason I've resorted to attempting ultra fast and a custom buffer size, which I saw as a suggested fix on another forum post, is because running on super fast, 1800 it was consistently laggy and of a terrible quality, getting "encoding overload, try switching to a faster encoding preset speed" error message on OBS studio.

So what are the best recommended settings to apply given my specs? Is it good to leave CBR checked as well or no?