Question / Help Encoding overload NVENC

A

Axelflurry

New Member
Hello, I'd appreciate and kind of help I can get.
My computer is on the higher end of the spectrum GTX 1070, i7 8700k. But I've been having issues with encoding overload. I had a previous thread

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/encoding-overload-low-cpu-usage.95081/#post-373447

where I changed everything up and switch recording to NVENC and lowered my streaming settings, but even with just recording I'm still getting encoding errors, my log is below.

In task manager, neither my cpu or gpu ever get high, currently in that log, the highest it gets is 60% total usage, with obs hovering around 9% but I occasionally see it spike to around 18%.

Please help me solve this issue


https://obsproject.com/logs/4Vb4NWy-wGKvxmgp
 
koala

koala

Active Member
You use an unusual rate control for recording. Use CQP with a CQP value of 15 (higher quality) to 23 (lower quality) instead of VBR. I don't know if this is relevant in relation to the encoding lag in your log, but I know for sure that a GTX 1070 can do nvenc CQP with 1920x1080@60fps just fine, because I used it without frame drops. And CQP gives better recording quality than VBR, so you don't lose anything.
If you still have encoding lag with nvenc+CQP, please post a screenshot of the first page of gpu-z. I want to make sure your GPU runs on pci-e x16 speed.
 
A

Axelflurry

New Member
koala said:
You use an unusual rate control for recording. Use CQP with a CQP value of 15 (higher quality) to 23 (lower quality) instead of VBR. I don't know if this is relevant in relation to the encoding lag in your log, but I know for sure that a GTX 1070 can do nvenc CQP with 1920x1080@60fps just fine, because I used it without frame drops. And CQP gives better recording quality than VBR, so you don't lose anything.
If you still have encoding lag with nvenc+CQP, please post a screenshot of the first page of gpu-z. I want to make sure your GPU runs on pci-e x16 speed.
Click to expand...


I have just went through with a fresh install of windows to rule out any possibilities of external interference so I'm currently setting a lot of things back up, but I will try what you mentioned when I have everything setup properly
 
A

Axelflurry

New Member
Another thing to note, I'm recording all of my footage to a usb 3.0 external HDD, in my computer I have an SSD and 1 SATA HDD but the HDD has been slow lately

Would it help my issue to maybe buy another SATA HDD and record to that instead of the external?
Would it affect recording/gameplay to record to the same drive that the game I am playing is installed to?
 
A

Axelflurry

New Member
I hate yet to try recording again, but here is my gpu-z anyways
gpuz.PNG
 
koala

koala

Active Member
Your gpu-z looks fine. Your GPU is in a x16 slot.
Recording to a USB HDD may lead to problems, if it is connected with USB2. Having a USB3 HDD does not guarantee a USB3 connection. Verify that you are actually connected via USB3. But that would not lead to encoder overload.
Recording to the same drive where the game is installed will not affect frame rate, neither game nor recordings.
 
koala

koala

Active Member
That log is not the usual log you see in this forum. You have encoding lag with nvenc. Usually, this only happens if the GPU is fully loaded by the captured game, but in this case all other logs report not only encoding lag but also "lagged frames due to rendering lag". But these are not reported in your log.
Anyway, if you let your game with unlimited fps, try to limit your game to 60 fps by activating vsync or use some ingame frame limiter. Just to see what will happen.
By the way, do you have Geforce Experience installed? Did you activate Shadowplay? Go into the Geforce configuration, look it up and deactivate Shadowplay if it is active. Having Shadowplay active means constantly having one invisible nvenc session running in background within the GPU.
 
A

Axelflurry

New Member
I deactivated shadow play, and limited my game to 60 fps, my gpu was hovering around only 50% usage the entire time I was recording, there was still a lot of encoding errors,

While monitoring task manager while recording though, I noticed the Drive that i'm recording to spiking from low to around 50% at times, and from low to near 100%.

https://obsproject.com/logs/mxxdQjBZcReAi2EZ

Also how do I find the log that reports rendering lag?
 
koala

koala

Active Member
Rendering lag is logged at the end of each recording or streaming session, if there are any lagged frames due to this. In your log, there are none, so there was no frame loss on the GPU itself. Only lost frames due to encoding lag are logged in your log.
I'm sorry, I don't know what may be causing your problems. I don't even have an idea where to search. You seem to have the perfect setup, yet you lose frames with NVENC.
Try x264 as encoder as last resort. Use CRF rate control with a CRF value of 15-23 (same as CQP for nvenc). It's the software encoder, using much CPU power, but you seem to have it. Start with preset veryfast.
 
A

Axelflurry

New Member
Could it maybe have something to do with my main monitor being 144 hz and the others being 60? I thought I read that somewhere on these forums at some point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top