Frame time spikes in ALL capture programs (but not in games)

[CarefulCalligrapher]

Every capture software I use to try to record games has intermittent frametime spikes that result in extremely annoying stutter. This happens whether I am recording PC games, or recording from a capture card (that is connected to a PCIE slot on my motherboard), but the actual games themselves run fine.

I have tried OBS, Geforce Experience, Elgato's 4K Capture Utility, and Virtual Dub, and all of these programs have this same frame time stutter, despite the games themselves not lagging/stuttering at all.

I have tried every manner of solution I can think of, drivers, Windows versions, V-sync settings, unplugging and changing monitor frame rates (I run 3), I've even built 2 entirely different PC's with completely different hardware. Nothing has fixed this issue.

Here is an image I analyzed with a frame rate tool just to see what's going on with the frametimes, I should reiterate that the frametimes and lag seen in the image are NOT from the actual game, this only happens in the recording software itself, and despite that, a program like OBS still displays as 0 dropped frames from encoding or rendering lag. It seems fairly obvious to me that it is V-sync/display related since all of the lag occurs in pockets where the frame times increase to 33.3 ms, and somehow that's manifesting in the preview and affecting the final output file, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to resolve it.

Here is the log file from a recording where stuttering occurred, although like I said, OBS does not give any meaningful information for why this might be occurring, and it happens in programs outside of OBS as well. (also yes I did try running as admin and setting the process priority higher, it does nothing): https://obsproject.com/logs/rE91xrujhTuYRqTj

Also the reason I was recording lossless was to be able to analyze the frame times accurately. I do not normally record in this format, although my computer is more than capable of doing so if I needed to. This happens even in other NVENC settings in OBS (again though, I don't think it's specifically an OBS issue).

Let me know if I can provide any more information, and thank you for your help.

 

[CarefulCalligrapher]

I have tested this with Display Capture in OBS and have found the frame times even more inconsistent and fluctuating, despite no recorded frame drops due to encoding/rendering lag. I am truly baffled here.

 

[CarefulCalligrapher]

Bump

 

[OoRacket]

Hey there, can't help you but just wanted to say you're not alone in terms of getting these frametime spikes. I see them occasionally on many content creator's content as well.

I've been trying to figure it out myself after it become quite prevalent in the past year or so for both recording and streaming, with OBS also reporting 0 dropped frames, just like yourself.

I will say this is now only for recording things on the same PC. Enabling buffering on my capture card's properties in OBS actually fixed the stutter 100% on any captures using that, but I know that hasn't worked for others who have had this issue in other threads on here.

I still check periodically some of the other threads to see if anyone ever figures out the issue, as it's been widespread enough for a while, but I've never seen anything that fixes it yet, or even an idea of where the issue may lie in the chain.

 

[CarefulCalligrapher]

Hey there, can't help you but just wanted to say you're not alone in terms of getting these frametime spikes. I see them occasionally on many content creator's content as well.

I've been trying to figure it out myself after it become quite prevalent in the past year or so for both recording and streaming, with OBS also reporting 0 dropped frames, just like yourself.

I will say this is now only for recording things on the same PC. Enabling buffering on my capture card's properties in OBS actually fixed the stutter 100% on any captures using that, but I know that hasn't worked for others who have had this issue in other threads on here.

I still check periodically some of the other threads to see if anyone ever figures out the issue, as it's been widespread enough for a while, but I've never seen anything that fixes it yet, or even an idea of where the issue may lie in the chain.

Keep me in the loop for anything you find out please! It is infuriating and I've practically given up hope of ever figuring it out. Enabling buffering does seem to help a lot for the capture card but it also ends up resetting the device resolution to 1080p, I can't use it with 4K capture, and it still leaves the issues with capturing from PC which is just completely messed up at this point in time.

 

[OoRacket]

Keep me in the loop for anything you find out please! It is infuriating and I've practically given up hope of ever figuring it out. Enabling buffering does seem to help a lot for the capture card but it also ends up resetting the device resolution to 1080p, I can't use it with 4K capture, and it still leaves the issues with capturing from PC which is just completely messed up at this point in time.

Hmm, I use buffering with 4K capture with my Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 with buffering enabled, even capturing HDR off my PS5 in the OBS beta in 4K. Can't remember if I had to manually put in the resolution or if it was one of the options, but it has worked for me.

[Deleted.]

[Deleted.]

obsproject.com

This was one of the threads I was following. Few suggestions here and there, and while the original post was talking about capture cards, PC capture does get mentioned and yeah, nothing I've ever seen or tried has ever worked.

Will definitely hit you back if I ever see anything about that PC capture stuff. Really been bugging me forever too. I get how frustrating it is, as I've had a few games where the content is basically unwatchable, which does make me think it's a bottleneck issue somewhere. Chivalry 2 was that game. Never helped me figure out my problem though