Question / Help Frame Rates drop In games when obs is active

[Molder169]

As the title states. My framerates drop when I start obs. I am primarily streaming league of legends. I had thought it was the fact that my hard drive is old but i just replaced it and still have the same problem (I noticed that when obs was running on the old HDD disk usage was peaked) that is no longer an issue but i cannot properly play the game if my framerates wont go above 37 fps. Below is a copy and paste of my log file settings. I hope to hear from you more experienced streamers out there!
(note: please ignore the audio problems int he end of the log i was fooling with hardware setting while obs was running at that time and have fixed that issue)

I would also like to point out that it is not throttling or my router (I am a good cable technician and everything is hard-line (cat 45e direct to netgear ac router to modem with good levels) I am sure there is a setting somewhere that I could change to properly fix this issue

 

[dping]

As the title states. My framerates drop when I start obs. I am primarily streaming league of legends. I had thought it was the fact that my hard drive is old but i just replaced it and still have the same problem (I noticed that when obs was running on the old HDD disk usage was peaked) that is no longer an issue but i cannot properly play the game if my framerates wont go above 37 fps. Below is a copy and paste of my log file settings. I hope to hear from you more experienced streamers out there!
(note: please ignore the audio problems int he end of the log i was fooling with hardware setting while obs was running at that time and have fixed that issue)

I would also like to point out that it is not throttling or my router (I am a good cable technician and everything is hard-line (cat 45e direct to netgear ac router to modem with good levels) I am sure there is a setting somewhere that I could change to properly fix this issue

the only real thing I can see thats wrong in your log is your mic is having a hack of a time staying detected. This could be due to old drivers or I dont know really. but when your log was ending it was still doing it every second. take a look.

MMDeviceAudioSource::Initialize(0): Could not create IMMDevice = 80070490

 

[Molder169]

yes i know as i said this was because i was editing hardware setting for my audio devices. This is no longer an issue.

 

[dping]

yes i know as i said this was because i was editing hardware setting for my audio devices. This is no longer an issue.

There was a few places where the audio was delayed as well, so I just figured it was a similar issue.

 

[Molder169]

Here is a log file from a short stream I just broadcasted, this time with my audio settings fixed and at optimal levels for music, game sound etc. But still my league frame rates bounce between low 30's to mid 40's and in fights this drops down a little bit more towards the lower end.

Looking at the log I did notice this.

11:43:14: WARNING: Another hook is already present while trying to hook d3d9.dll, hook target is unknown. If you experience crashes, try disabling the other hooking application

Is this simply just OBS changing the stream from the League Client to the League in game client?

 

[dping]

Here is a log file from a short stream I just broadcasted, this time with my audio settings fixed and at optimal levels for music, game sound etc. But still my league frame rates bounce between low 30's to mid 40's and in fights this drops down a little bit more towards the lower end.

Looking at the log I did notice this.

11:43:14: WARNING: Another hook is already present while trying to hook d3d9.dll, hook target is unknown. If you experience crashes, try disabling the other hooking application

Is this simply just OBS changing the stream from the League Client to the League in game client?

Oh jeeze, so I just realized you have no dedicated GPU. OBS will cause extra CPU load when the iGPU is weak. and along with you playing games as well, is causing frames to tank. OBS uses the GPU to scale video and capture. I would recommend at least getting a cheap DX11/12 GPU to go with your setup. iGPUs of older gen intels dont work well alone with OBS.

Cant do much about unknown hooks. hooks are other game capture software that are trying to capture the same image as OBS and can cause issues, but when they are unknown, there really isn't much that can be done. usually when they are unknown, they dont seem to bother OBS. 3 is somewhat typical to be seen so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Molder169]

Yeah I was afraid of that. I wasn't quite sure how OBS rendered the recordings and the amount of resources it required. Unfortunately this means an entirely new PC. Thank you for the help on this I really appreciate it and the response time was fantastic. I'll still keep streaming but hopefully I can just deal with the FPS tanking until money is available.

 

[dping]

Yeah I was afraid of that. I wasn't quite sure how OBS rendered the recordings and the amount of resources it required. Unfortunately this means an entirely new PC. Thank you for the help on this I really appreciate it and the response time was fantastic. I'll still keep streaming but hopefully I can just deal with the FPS tanking until money is available.

Whole new PC? there are DX12 adding cards as low as $100 so unless you have a power supply with only 200w, I dont know why you couldn't just upgrade. Anyway, best of luck.

 

[Molder169]

on another note/ question. I am attempting to place a decent overlay on my client. OBS however only lets me resize the overlay without skewing it. I did some digging and found that it is because my aspect ration is not 16:9. any ideas on how to change this setting because obs will not let me.

 

[Molder169]

Oh i can't upgrade it because my current system is a laptop which we both know doesn't allow updating graphics cards ;)

 

[dping]

on another note/ question. I am attempting to place a decent overlay on my client. OBS however only lets me resize the overlay without skewing it. I did some digging and found that it is because my aspect ration is not 16:9. any ideas on how to change this setting because obs will not let me.

modify the aspect ratio is a program like Photoshop

 

[dping]

Oh i can't upgrade it because my current system is a laptop which we both know doesn't allow updating graphics cards ;)

Oh, I'm dumb. I must have mixed you up with another user. but yes. unless you have an nvidia card in that PC using optimus, you'd need to just upgrade.

 

[Molder169]

Okay so I am bumping this instead of just doing another thread. I recently repaired my Alienware m11X-r3 with an NVidia GeForce 540M video card along with the Intel HD graphics with an i7 processor. This is a fresh install with the exception of games. for the most part I am able to play all of my games on high graphics (with some exeptions of course it is not exactly what you would consider a beast mode computer.) Its properly cooled and despite being a laptop acts more like a desktop with external monitor, keyboard mouse etc.

So I just tested OBS with World of warships which since i downloaded it on the new system, plays flawlessly....

Until I start streaming. Load time into the game etc stay the same, but after about 2-3 minutes into the game my Frame rates tank. It does have moments where the frame rates resume normal levels but they are short lived.

I had thought it would be great if There was a way to use the onboard intel video to do the rendering, and use the Nvidia to actually play and operate the game, this might solve my framerate issue.

(keep in mind that this problem is make or break for me if I stream. I've been re-introduced to what good graphics look like, but framerates are very important to me ofor obvious reasons, and Won't bother streaming if there is not a way to fix this)

Thanks for the answers before. As you can see I took them seriously.

Update: just rebooted the game and obs. rebooted the game, went to obs settings and saw that I had an option to select the intel (it wasn't there before). I select the intel and preview stream, put obs on the other screen (which shows me what obs is seeing while im fullscreened on monitor 2) and the screen is just black. switch it back to nvidia, game pops-right up. So i am imagining whoever answers this thread to tell me that using both cards is not possible.

2nd update. did not change a thing, went back to video settings and all I see are two Nvidia options (both exactly the same) click one of them and the video is still black until I reboot obs then it looks fine.

 

[dping]

Okay so I am bumping this instead of just doing another thread. I recently repaired my Alienware m11X-r3 with an NVidia GeForce 540M video card along with the Intel HD graphics with an i7 processor. This is a fresh install with the exception of games. for the most part I am able to play all of my games on high graphics (with some exeptions of course it is not exactly what you would consider a beast mode computer.) Its properly cooled and despite being a laptop acts more like a desktop with external monitor, keyboard mouse etc.

So I just tested OBS with World of warships which since i downloaded it on the new system, plays flawlessly....

Until I start streaming. Load time into the game etc stay the same, but after about 2-3 minutes into the game my Frame rates tank. It does have moments where the frame rates resume normal levels but they are short lived.

I had thought it would be great if There was a way to use the onboard intel video to do the rendering, and use the Nvidia to actually play and operate the game, this might solve my framerate issue.

(keep in mind that this problem is make or break for me if I stream. I've been re-introduced to what good graphics look like, but framerates are very important to me ofor obvious reasons, and Won't bother streaming if there is not a way to fix this)

Thanks for the answers before. As you can see I took them seriously.

Update: just rebooted the game and obs. rebooted the game, went to obs settings and saw that I had an option to select the intel (it wasn't there before). I select the intel and preview stream, put obs on the other screen (which shows me what obs is seeing while im fullscreened on monitor 2) and the screen is just black. switch it back to nvidia, game pops-right up. So i am imagining whoever answers this thread to tell me that using both cards is not possible.

2nd update. did not change a thing, went back to video settings and all I see are two Nvidia options (both exactly the same) click one of them and the video is still black until I reboot obs then it looks fine.

optimus is difficult for OBS to capture due to the drivers switching between intel and nvidia igpu and dgpu. OBS needs to be pointed at the one that is being captured or else black screen. maybe you could give me a really short description on what the issue is. because what I'm understanding here, this is an optimus issue that already has a work around.
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/laptop-black-screen-when-capturing-read-here-first.5965/