Question / Help FPS drops when recording

Nekro

New Member
I have the fps capped at 144 and the fps drops for about 40 after i open the preview on OBS or record.
I have already read many of the posts that say that its overloading the gpu with rendering and stuff but i dont understand how, because my cpu and gpu never go over 40% usage. It would be a big help if someone has a good anwser for that or even better a solutiuon of someking

Oh and im using a 144hz monitor, if that changes anything
Thanks
 

Narcogen

Active Member
If you're running OBS on a display running at 144hz, then you're asking OBS to render the preview at that refresh rate. Not surprisingly, that uses GPU resources.

Also, 144 doesn't pull down neatly to 60/30 so resulting stream sessions or recordings may have visible judder in them. Most content is made to be viewed at 60 or 30 hz, which means the best refresh rates to use to record or stream them is 30 or 60 hz, or at the very least a refresh rate that is an even multiple of those, like 120 instead of 144. (That won't stop the preview from using GPU, but it would remove the judder if you have it.)

OBS renders whenever it is running (not only when streaming or recording) and the preview will use more GPU than usual if on a high refresh rate display.
 

Nekro

New Member
If you're running OBS on a display running at 144hz, then you're asking OBS to render the preview at that refresh rate. Not surprisingly, that uses GPU resources.

Also, 144 doesn't pull down neatly to 60/30 so resulting stream sessions or recordings may have visible judder in them. Most content is made to be viewed at 60 or 30 hz, which means the best refresh rates to use to record or stream them is 30 or 60 hz, or at the very least a refresh rate that is an even multiple of those, like 120 instead of 144. (That won't stop the preview from using GPU, but it would remove the judder if you have it.)

OBS renders whenever it is running (not only when streaming or recording) and the preview will use more GPU than usual if on a high refresh rate display.
I get all of what you mean, but as i said, i dont understand why doesnt it use more gpu or cpu power to increese my fps in game while rendering, it can be really annoying at times. If you know how to increse the usage that would be helpful
 

Narcogen

Active Member
OBS and your game are sharing the GPU.

While OBS is running, every frame the game renders is an opportunity for OBS to render a frame.

OBS renders its own frames (because it's a compositor, not a recorder) and does so constantly while it is open, whether or not it is recording or streaming.

In addition to rendering its internal frame for recording or streaming, if the preview window is on, it's rendering the preview-- and if studio mode is on, it's rendering both Program and Preview windows as well.

OBS renders those windows at the refresh rate of the monitor-- meaning even if you've set OBS to record at 60fps, its internal frames are rendering at that rate, but the preview and program windows are rendering at your refresh rate.

So if you're trying to do a 30fps capture of a 60fps game (let's say you're capping your framerate, or have vsync on) then if everything goes as expected, OBS' job is pretty simple-- take every other frame the game renders, and render it. Boom, you now have a 30fps capture of a 60fps source. It's less smooth, but as long as none of the frames are late and the GPU isn't overloaded, it's as good as a 30fps version of a 60fps thing can be, and all it has to do was sample 60 down to 30 by taking every other frame.

Now you want to do a 60fps capture of a 144hz source. Every other frame of 144hz is 72. So you now need to fit 72 frames of motion into a second in which you're only allowed to render 60 frames. 12 frames need to be dropped. But which 12? There's no method of doing so that does not result in the gaps between some of your frames covering more time than others, which means judder/stuttering.

Bottom line: You're either prioritizing your own viewing experience, or your audience. Even the most powerful cards currently available are not fully able to render some of the latest games at full quality on a high refresh rate monitor AND also capture, render and encode 1080p60 without lag, and even if they were, you would STILL have some lack of smoothness caused by the translation of 144 down to 60.

Prioritizing the audience experience, for the vast majority of situations, means either running applications at the same framerate you're broadcasting at (60) or at least at a refresh rate that is compatible with a simple sampling down to that framerate (120).

If you're encountering a specific performance issue please post a log and I can see what it says about your problem.

Please post a log with your issue! Here's how...
 
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