Question / Help Fullscreen Preview to capture card causes game/applications to stutter

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TheNatural

New Member
Hello, I recently moved, and after setting up my streaming equipment at my new apartment, I am running into an issue I had before that eventually resolved itself, but has returned.

Right now, I use a 2 PC setup, and I run OBS on the gaming PC and send the fullscreen preview to my capture card in the streaming PC, and it has worked well for me in the past. I haven't streamed since July due to real life stuff and my move, but now when I go to try and set up the stream, as soon as everything is configured, I notice my game is stuttering, and it feels as if the refresh rate is changing.

I have two 144hz monitors connected to via Displayport from my GPU, and I have an HDMI out from that GPU going to my capture card (I have tried my Elgato HD60 Pro and my Magewell 4k Capture Plus), I run OBS on the gaming PC and just set the bitrate to an arbitrarily high number, and then do a fullscreen preview out to the capture card.

This worked before, but now, when I do it, my game (in both fullscreen and borderless windowed) feels janky and just, well, bad.

I have tried both classic, and studio (yes, I disabled encoding while previewing in classic), I have tried different refresh rates on both monitors connected to my gaming PC, I have even tried a different HDMI cord.

I thought it might be the difference in refresh rates, and not an OBS problem, but I can only recreate the issue when using OBS. If I send a fullscreen game, application, or video over to the HDMI connected to my capture card, the game runs fine, it only begins to affect my game when I send over the fullscreen preview.

Any help would be appreciated

My SPECS:


GAMING PC:
CPU: i7-7700k @4.9Ghz
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ROG‑STRIX
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB 3200MHz
MOBO: ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270
PSU: Corsair HX850 Pro Series

Streaming PC:
CPU: i7-4790k @4.8Ghz
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 ROG‑STRIX
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866mhz
MOBO: ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero
PSU: Corsair HX850 Pro Series
CAP CARD: Magewell Pro Capture 4k Plus and Elgato HD60 Pro
SOUND CARD: ASUS Essence STX II 7.1
 
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awolive

Member
Bad drivers, settings, bad overclock, thermal throttling typically are reasons why a solid gaming PC would stutter
 
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TheNatural

New Member
awolive said:
Bad drivers, settings, bad overclock, thermal throttling typically are reasons why a solid gaming PC would stutter
Click to expand...

Like I said before, it has nothing to do with the PC hardware, I can literally run a second instance of the game and send it through the HDMI to the capture card, and things are smooth as silk, it is only when I send the fullscreen preview to the capture card through OBS that the game seems to behave oddly.
 
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awolive

Member
Oh yeah you need to disable preview. It’s a bug or just how windows 10 works because of aero. You will get stuttering/dropped frames. You can also try moving OBS to the same screen you are streaming the game on
 
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TheNatural

New Member
awolive said:
Oh yeah you need to disable preview. It’s a bug or just how windows 10 works because of aero. You will get stuttering/dropped frames. You can also try moving OBS to the same screen you are streaming the game on
Click to expand...
I think you are misunderstanding my issue, while also not reading anything I posted in my original post. I am not at all trying to be rude, but I already wrote that I have tried both studio and classic, as well as disabling the preview as well as the encoding, I have sent it through HDMI trying several methods, and only when sending the preview through HDMI, with classic or studio, it causes the game to behave oddly.
 
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TheNatural

New Member
It also only occurs when I have the fullscreen preview sent to the capture card, if I send it to my other monitor connected via displayport, everything runs perfectly.
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
Are you running OBS on your gaming PC? I don't understand why you're sending a "fullscreen preview" to the capture card. Have you tried simply duplicating the screen via the GeForce settings and sending the second output directly to the capture card? I can understand that this might not work with the Elgato, but I think the Magewell can handle a 144Hz input.
 
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