Question / Help Frame drops by almost 50% when streaming

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MrFriday

New Member
Hi,

Basically, i'm getting MASSIVE frame drops when streaming with OBS. I lose almost 50% of the frames when I stream in almost every game I play. I tried to change the encoding from x264 to NVENC H.264 and it still didn't do anything. Infact, it lags even more when I play. The bitrate I stream on is 4000 and CPU usage preset is superfast. I tried lowering my settings/bitrate and nothing really changed.

Here's the FPS list:

The Forest
When not streaming: 140-160 fps (epic settings)
When streaming: 50-70 fps (epic settings) - stutters

Ryse: Son of Rome
When not streaming: 110-140 fps (highest settings)
When streaming: 15-50 fps (highest settings) - unplayable and big stuttering at certain places like the woods.

For Honor:
When not streaming: 210-250 fps (extreme)
When streaming: 130-150 fps (extreme) - stutters

Many more games suffer the FPS drop when streaming. Also, I have nothing in the background running except for my chat window (google chrome) and OBS. I disable the preview as it causes lag in game. I don't think it's my internet because my upload speed is 10 mb/s. I tried lowering bitrate and I get the same results. And it's not my PC either:

Intel Core I7-7700K - KabyLake
16 gb RAM - 3000hz
GTX 1080 ti amp extreme edition

The temps are cool and nothing unusual when streaming with OBS. I might start trying other programs to stream just to see if it's my PC or OBS itself.
 
D

Deleted member 121471

Post a log file of a streaming/recording attempt. It's hard to offer advice specific to your situation otherwise.
 
D

Deleted member 121471

Take my advice with a grain of salt.

Your GPU is being overloaded slightly. Before changing anything, try to stream/record with only game capture as a source as a test.

As for which settings to change, assuming 4k bitrate is what you prefer, you could do the following:

1) Only one capture source, no more than that.

2) Under OBS settings->video, set "output (scaled) resolution" to "1280x720" then either 30FPS (High motion games) or 60FPS (Low motion games). You'll need higher bitrate if you really want good visual quality and 60FPS on all games. If you don't care about this, set it at 60FPS.

3) Under OBS settings->output, change "encoder" to "x264", untick "rescale output" and change "CPU usage preset" to "very fast".

4) Use VSYNC or frame rate limiter, as OBS needs some GPU resources to work, no matter how good your system is. Leaving it uncapped leads to stuttering and log shows both rendering and encoding stalls. Possibly lowering some ingame settings might help, as needed.

CPU-bound games tend to also be a factor in choosing best encoding settings, since they might cause x264 encoding stalls and ingame FPS while streaming.

Finally, if you can increase bitrate, NVENC becomes a pretty decent alternative to x264 for 720p@60FPS once you upload at 4.5 to 5.5k bitrate, depending on game motion, granted I'm a visual quality snob.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
M

MrFriday

New Member
Volfield said:
Take my advice with a grain of salt.

Your GPU is being overloaded slightly. Before changing anything, try to stream/record with only game capture as a source as a test.

As for which settings to change, assuming 4k bitrate is what you prefer, you could do the following:

1) Only one capture source, no more than that.

2) Under OBS settings->video, set "output (scaled) resolution" to "1280x720" then either 30FPS (High motion games) or 60FPS (Low motion games). You'll need higher bitrate if you really want good visual quality and 60FPS on all games. If you don't care about this, set it at 60FPS.

3) Under OBS settings->output, change "encoder" to "x264", untick "rescale output" and change "CPU usage preset" to "very fast".

4) Use VSYNC or frame rate limiter, as OBS needs some GPU resources to work, no matter how good your system is. Leaving it uncapped leads to stuttering and log shows both rendering and encoding stalls. Possibly lowering some ingame settings might help, as needed.

CPU-bound games tend to also be a factor in choosing best encoding settings, since they might cause x264 encoding stalls and ingame FPS while streaming.

Finally, if you can increase bitrate, NVENC becomes a pretty decent alternative to x264 for 720p@60FPS once you upload at 4.5 to 5.5k bitrate, depending on game motion, granted I'm a visual quality snob.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, but I don't really understand capturing one source? You mean only the game? With no webcam and no nothing?. And also, it seems like my PC can't really handle streaming, can it?. I'm thinking of building a streaming PC because when I play off stream every game is so smooth and I need every frame since I'm using a 240hz monitor (1080p). Will that fix the problem? If I use two PC's to stream instead of one?. I can't really stand playing on medium/low on stream. I also streamed on Xsplit and it seems that just like what you said the GPU is the problem here but also the CPU can be overloaded easily which is really weird to me as streaming/recording affects my performance and it's very noticable.
 
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Deleted member 121471

MrFriday said:
Thanks for the help, but I don't really understand capturing one source? You mean only the game? With no webcam and no nothing?. And also, it seems like my PC can't really handle streaming, can it?. I'm thinking of building a streaming PC because when I play off stream every game is so smooth and I need every frame since I'm using a 240hz monitor (1080p). Will that fix the problem? If I use two PC's to stream instead of one?. I can't really stand playing on medium/low on stream. I also streamed on Xsplit and it seems that just like what you said the GPU is the problem here but also the CPU can be overloaded easily which is really weird to me as streaming/recording affects my performance and it's very noticable.
Click to expand...

You have game and monitor capture in the same scene. That has caused me issues before and is generally not recommended. Camera, browser, etc... are fine.

Your PC can handle streaming, just that uncapping frames means there's little to no GPU power left for OBS to actually do its job. I had this issue as well and capping my games' FPS to 120 fixed all my stuttering problems.

A dedicated streaming PC would help but your system is very capable, as is. You don't need to go medium/low, just ultra settings on everything is generally a waste of resources for little to no visual improvement over the 2nd best setting, specially when you're trying to push such high FPS and stream at same time.
 
M

MrFriday

New Member
Oh so if you hide the source it still captures it?. Which means I have to manually remove it. That would make sense. I am doing what you told me right now and I will stream again in a couple of days and update you. Also, can you actually cap frames at 120? The only cap I know is at 60. I'm seriously thinking of building a streaming PC. I'm currently blowing up on youtube so I'm really enjoying the streams but the lag is seriously an issue. Maybe a $700 Ryzen 5 build would be great in the future but I will definitely try capping the FPS and limiting the GPU usage.
 
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Deleted member 121471

Rivatuner allows you to cap FPS if the game itself has no such function. Feel free to PM me if you need assistance during the stream.
 
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