Question / Help FPS drops by half when streaming

[pingeepie]

Alright so here's my story

quick rundown of specs:
cpu- fx8350 eight core
video- gtx 660
ram- 24gb
internet- 50d, 5 up. speedtest gives 5.5

I am unable to get a consistent fps in Smite. I stick around 30 fps. I have done a lot of research and tried multiple settings. Tried a range of 1000 bitrate to 3000 bitrate with same for buffer. Use cbr. Chose Chicago IL as my server as it is the closest (I checked). Tried 25 fps and 30 fps. I use 1920 x 1080 downscaled to 720. tried disabling aero and enabling. x264 cpu at very fast and faster. use cfr and not use cfr. I am out of ideas at this point. Strangely, the gameplay and stream don't look laggy or bad at all and it's playable. I just assumed I could play with 60 fps while streaming. I typically get 85-120 fps when not streaming.

https://gist.github.com/d40dd053e6ec165b8d53

 

[Floatingthru]

Hmm there are nothing wrong with your settings, and OBS is running nicely. Bitrate/Buffer doesn't effect FPS at all, and CFR isn't an issue for you either. Never played Smite before so I can't really explain why it would drop so much. What happens if you downscale more? It is normal to lose frames when using OBS, but if its really half on average that's a bit much.

 

[pingeepie]

Yeah, it's strange. I have a few friends with way weaker systems who run 60 no problem. If I lower it significantly I will get around 45 for a minute and then it just goes to 30 or so and fluctuates a lot. I did a speed test when it dropped, curious if my isp was reducing my upload and it was around 5 still. This was at 1500 anyway so it shouldve been fine. My ping is always 65 or less. My cpu isn't taking a beating or anything... just don't get it! I haven't down scaled to 480 yet. I would rather play 30 fps in 720 than 60 in 480, haha. I can't figure out why I can't do 60 in 720!

 

[Floatingthru]

Nothing is overheating or dropping clocks? Usually when you lose that much performance there are hardware issues. Have you tried changing in game settings? Like using vsync or lowering graphic options? I am really not sure without testing the game myself. To me everything looks fine.

Well I mean just test 480p to see if that changes anything for science!

 

[pingeepie]

Tested it with 480 just now and also ran cpu temp. Wow so I ran 480 and it was 60 when I got in a game and it went to 45 and fluctuated a lot, then sat comfortably at 30 again!

Before streaming it was running in the 50 degree range.
While streaming it was around 65.
I have tried adjusting some graphical settings and it hasn't made a difference.

 

[Floatingthru]

Well the only other things I would test would be using no webcam, and trying Window Capture. I know that game has a windowed full screen mode right? I guess I would update GPU drivers also or do a clean install/reinstall to make sure that isn't causing an issue. Other than that I am not sure why it is doing that. Seems really strange to me. I might download Smite myself to see how it performs on my PC out of curiosity.

 

[pingeepie]

Yeah it does have windowed full screen mode as well. Would it make a difference using monitor capture instead of game capture? I actually just installed a new driver out of curiosity and it made no difference. Do you mean clean installation of video drivers or of the game itself? I haven't tried it without webcam yet. I don't know anyone who has this problem and I know a lot of smite streamers. Frustrating.

 

[Floatingthru]

Well Monitor Capture under Windows 7 is pretty bad, so that wouldn't help. Window Capture with Aero on is decent, though. I meant a clean install of your video card drivers, but if you just updated them it should be fine. I am stumped myself ;[ I have no idea why it's doing that for you. Sorry!

 

[pingeepie]

Thanks for trying. Can you at least narrow it down for me what specifically controls the fps in case i want to try swapping out hardware and changing settings? What settings in obs affect fps?

 

[Floatingthru]

x264 preset, resolution, and fps are the main things that controls performance. Oh I guess you could try NVENC for poops and giggles to see if that changes anything. Video quality won't match x264, but you might as well try everything.

 

[Boildown]

Try setting OBS's process priority downwards. If OBS is running fine but your game is taking fps drops, then OBS is hogging the CPU too much and you probably need to de-prioritize it. That would be on the advanced page at the top, Process Priority Class, set it a notch lower than the default and see what happens.

Oh I just noticed you haven't always been using Very Fast preset. Keep your preset on Very Fast until you get it to work better, you can mess with it after you have a baseline of success instead of fail. The preset isn't something you should move to the slow side when things aren't working, only move to Very Fast or even faster than that.

 

[pingeepie]

It was on Normal, and now it's on idle. That is what you meant, yes? Gonna try it in a few minutes. Also switched back to "very fast". I mean it was only using about 60% or so of my CPU total with the game and obs streaming so I am not sure if it will help. I will also try the NVENC for shits and giggles. SIGH! I just want to stream 60fps!!

 

[pingeepie]

Alright so for nvidia nvenc I got an error : encoder initialization failed

I tried lowering priority and it didn't make a difference either

I turned off the webcam and it really really changed things. With webcam on, I'd go 20-30 fps and it went crazy. if I sat in the base away from action it slowly climbed but stopped completely at 45 fps. When I turned it off... it went to 45 fps for the most part and climbed slowly to 60 if in base. what do you make of this?

I tried running it as a window and ran full screen windowed and it stayed 60 for about a minute then dropped down to around...45 and stayed there. It still runs smooth as hell and I dunno what the deal is, really. I turned stream off and it stayed 45 and wouldn't really go up.

Another thing I noticed is during fights I would be 40-45 and then if I sit in base away from the action, it slowly climbed up to 60 and stayed there.


This is how it looks currently without webcam: http://www.twitch.tv/pingeepie/b/504695625

There is an example of what the fps looks like WITH webcam at 2:22

Thoughts?

 

[Boildown]

Whenever you make a change, post a new log file from that run (make the runs at least 5 minutes long with action, not just staring at the same screen), so we can see if things are getting better or worse or unchanged, etc.

To run NVENC you need the latest Nvidia drivers, by the way.

 

[pingeepie]

Strange, I updated driver directly from nvidia and installed without issue. Suggestions? I'll get a log file soon