Question / Help Game Capture itself lags for seemingly no reason...

A

Arnox

New Member
There's a weird and highly annoying issue with OBS where the capture framerate will drop from a smooth 60 FPS straight to 45 FPS randomly every 2-5 seconds or so. And it looks like there aren't any settings I can use to change this either as the problem isn't with the actual recording as it's just encoding what the capture window sees pretty much. And I can see the framerate fluctuate constantly when it's not even recording/broadcasting anything. And even more mind-boggling, the stats and the Task Manager say everything's more than OK. No dropped frames. """60""" FPS. I know it's dropping frames though, damnit. I can see it in the window and in any recordings I make. I'm using Doom 3 vanilla BTW as a capture source.

My specs:
Windows 10 Professional v1709
AMD FX-8300
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
16 GB of RAM
120 GB SSD
1 TB HDD

Log: https://pastebin.com/BRb0V8Z7

UPDATE 1: Using plain Window Capture seems to fix the issue perfectly. But when I use Game Capture, it starts dropping frames. I should also add that I'm running Doom 3 in a window if that makes any difference.
 
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Bump. Issue returns with Jedi Outcast, and this time, it's personal, apparently. Even setting it to Window Capture doesn't really fix it.
 
Bump. I've noticed this problem in many other videos not made by me as well. Really. No one knows the answer here?
 
Having read this thread and your report on Mantis, I don't think this is a bug in the game capture code. Neither log appears to show dropped, skipped, or lagged frames (all of these are different with important distinctions). I don't own Doom 3, and I don't actually know where my copy of Jedi Knight 2 is, so I can't test these games, but I have not noticed the specific behavior that you describe here. This sounds more like a system resource bottleneck, perhaps some disk access problem or driver issue.

Please recreate this issue in a clean scene collection (no other sources besides a single game capture, only one scene). Please attempt to recreate this issue while recording, as that may provide some more diagnostic info. Once you have recreated it, stop recording, close OBS, then reopen OBS and upload the last log file instead of the current log file.

Please also download GPU-Z and post a screenshot (the camera button in the program and upload to free image hosting). Make sure you are running a game that causes this issue while doing this. Please note system conditions while you're doing this (whether or not you're running a game, if the issue is occurring while you run GPU-Z).

Are your storage volumes near capacity, or do they have lots of free space?

Arnox said:
the capture framerate will drop from a smooth 60 FPS straight to 45 FPS randomly every 2-5 seconds or so
Click to expand...
Is the interval random or is it every 2 seconds or every 5 seconds?

Arnox said:
the problem isn't with the actual recording as it's just encoding what the capture window sees pretty much
Click to expand...
What do you mean by this? That your recordings turn out fine, or something else?

Arnox said:
I can see the framerate fluctuate constantly
Click to expand...
Do you mean the FPS number in the OBS status bar changes, or do you mean you visually feel like the framerate has changed?

Does just the OBS preview stutter, or does your game stutter as well? Do other visible elements stutter when this happens (does the entire display stutter)?

I can't say for sure that I'll know the answer to your issue, but the information I've asked for above should hopefully help shed some light on the issue.
 
RytoEX said:
Having read this thread and your report on Mantis, I don't think this is a bug in the game capture code. Neither log appears to show dropped, skipped, or lagged frames (all of these are different with important distinctions). I don't own Doom 3, and I don't actually know where my copy of Jedi Knight 2 is, so I can't test these games, but I have not noticed the specific behavior that you describe here. This sounds more like a system resource bottleneck, perhaps some disk access problem or driver issue.

Please recreate this issue in a clean scene collection (no other sources besides a single game capture, only one scene). Please attempt to recreate this issue while recording, as that may provide some more diagnostic info. Once you have recreated it, stop recording, close OBS, then reopen OBS and upload the last log file instead of the current log file.

Please also download GPU-Z and post a screenshot (the camera button in the program and upload to free image hosting). Make sure you are running a game that causes this issue while doing this. Please note system conditions while you're doing this (whether or not you're running a game, if the issue is occurring while you run GPU-Z).

Are your storage volumes near capacity, or do they have lots of free space?


Is the interval random or is it every 2 seconds or every 5 seconds?


What do you mean by this? That your recordings turn out fine, or something else?


Do you mean the FPS number in the OBS status bar changes, or do you mean you visually feel like the framerate has changed?

Does just the OBS preview stutter, or does your game stutter as well? Do other visible elements stutter when this happens (does the entire display stutter)?

I can't say for sure that I'll know the answer to your issue, but the information I've asked for above should hopefully help shed some light on the issue.
Click to expand...

Thank you for helping me with this! I still think this is definitely a bug because no matter WHAT I do, it continues to persist. But yes, I'll definitely work with you and get you the info you need ASAP.

Oh BTW, in the meantime I can safely say it's not my HDD. JK2/Doom 3 were running on my 1 Terabyte HDD with ~800 GB's of space left. S.M.A.R.T. checks about a month or two ago using CrystalDiskMark (if I remember the name correctly) also showed the all clear.
 
Could you do a recording and upload the log file (your log file does not contain a streaming or recording attempt).
I know, that you get that problem even without recording, but the log will not show any GPU overload, as long, as there is no recording, although the scene rendering is done by the GPU even when obs is just opened and not recording.
 
RytoEX said:
Having read this thread and your report on Mantis, I don't think this is a bug in the game capture code. Neither log appears to show dropped, skipped, or lagged frames (all of these are different with important distinctions). I don't own Doom 3, and I don't actually know where my copy of Jedi Knight 2 is, so I can't test these games, but I have not noticed the specific behavior that you describe here. This sounds more like a system resource bottleneck, perhaps some disk access problem or driver issue.

Please recreate this issue in a clean scene collection (no other sources besides a single game capture, only one scene). Please attempt to recreate this issue while recording, as that may provide some more diagnostic info. Once you have recreated it, stop recording, close OBS, then reopen OBS and upload the last log file instead of the current log file.

Please also download GPU-Z and post a screenshot (the camera button in the program and upload to free image hosting). Make sure you are running a game that causes this issue while doing this. Please note system conditions while you're doing this (whether or not you're running a game, if the issue is occurring while you run GPU-Z).

Are your storage volumes near capacity, or do they have lots of free space?


Is the interval random or is it every 2 seconds or every 5 seconds?


What do you mean by this? That your recordings turn out fine, or something else?


Do you mean the FPS number in the OBS status bar changes, or do you mean you visually feel like the framerate has changed?

Does just the OBS preview stutter, or does your game stutter as well? Do other visible elements stutter when this happens (does the entire display stutter)?

I can't say for sure that I'll know the answer to your issue, but the information I've asked for above should hopefully help shed some light on the issue.
Click to expand...

Alright then! I got the goods. Finally. Sorry it took so long to back to you.

Here's the new log with two recording attempts. Cleaned all scenes and capture sources. Made one scene and one Game Capture source. Had it capture the JK2 window. Output settings set to Simple and "High Quality, Medium file size" with NVENC. Audio bitrate of 160.

https://obsproject.com/logs/WNfaVEZrwiR8zrT4

Here's what GPU-Z's seeing for my GFX card:
lo9uTzm.gif


Here's what GPU-Z's seeing right as I'm recording JK2:
QpSDWsW.gif


Here's what GPU-Z's seeing when I'm not recording and just playing JK2:
j4EwACo.gif


During recording, OBS Stats claim it's hitting the full 60 FPS completely and non-stop with zero dropped or lagged frames. But there are still small dips in the recorded video and they happen at random intervals. (I can upload a video if you like.) You can also see it in the preview window even when OBS isn't recording anything. Whether GPU-Z is running or not, OBS it seems cannot make a single recording without having the FPS dips. The game itself though in all cases will run completely smoothly regardless of OBS.

I'm starting to think it may be Windows 10 though... Right now, I'm running the Windows 10 16299.431 build. (v1709 mostly unpatched) This is before the AMD performance fixes Microsoft shipped out but after the Spectre fix. I'm also running somewhat old NVidia drivers. v388.31. Having said that though, the processor never really breaks past 20% utilization at all soooo... I doubt it's really the processor.
 
Bump. Updated to the latest build of Windows 10 v1709. (16299.726) Updated the graphics drivers to the latest stable version. (416.34)

STILL the bug persists.
 
Your 1050 Ti is running at PCIe 2.0 instead of 3.0. This usually indicates an improperly installed GPU or a system with too many PCIe lanes being used. Normally, you'd have to survey what PCIe slots are filled and check your motherboard documentation for either scenario. However, a quick search on your CPU indicates that motherboards supporting that CPU do not support PCIe 3.0. I'll consult with some others about this thread, but this sounds like you may be hitting a PCIe bandwidth bottleneck.
 
I'm running OBS Studio 22.0.2, using an FX-8350 + GTX 970, on Windows 10.0.17134 Build 17134; I am unable to duplicate your issue with fairly similar specs running my games at 1080p75 while encoding with NVENC at 720p60 / 1080p60.

I'm also unfamiliar with any hardware quirks related to this specific hardware. This issue seems isolated to your PC and games. Your logs reflect this as well. I would suspect an issue with your games first, and recommend trying other games with Game Capture to see if the issue persists there, but you're more than likely hitting some resource limits somewhere along the line.

Considering I have a copy of JK2, I'll boot that and see if I have issues as well.
 
Update on the JK2 test: looks like that game doesn't like mouse input very much. Trying slower movements in an attempt to show smooth motion shows some hitching in the game. I was able to duplicate this with and without OBS running, which leads me to suspect it's simply an issue with how the game handles input. I suspect it will mostly be the same on DOOM 3 but don't have a copy to confirm.
 
RytoEX said:
Your 1050 Ti is running at PCIe 2.0 instead of 3.0. This usually indicates an improperly installed GPU or a system with too many PCIe lanes being used. Normally, you'd have to survey what PCIe slots are filled and check your motherboard documentation for either scenario. However, a quick search on your CPU indicates that motherboards supporting that CPU do not support PCIe 3.0. I'll consult with some others about this thread, but this sounds like you may be hitting a PCIe bandwidth bottleneck.
Click to expand...

You are indeed correct that my processor (and also my mobo) doesn't support PCIe 3.0. HOWEVERRRR...

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/601676-gpu-z-bus-interface-load/

https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/pci-express-3-0-vs-2-0-gaming-performance-gain/

As you can see from the links, the bus interface, though definitely old, should make no difference in this case. And to put the final nail in the coffin, if you look back at my GPU-Z screenshots on the performance stats, you'll see the bus interface BARELY getting used. 2% load with both OBS recording and JK2 running. And even further, if there was too much strain on the bus interface, and frames were getting dropped due to excessive load, shouldn't OBS have picked that up in its own stats instead of claiming it's 60 FPS with no dropped frames?

I should say as well though, I'm willing to install and run any tools the OBS devs might think of on my system in order to fix this issue.
 
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