Question / Help GPU 30% When OBS is idle. Didnt do that before update.

[Tykjen]

My 1080gtx works at 30-35% gpu when OBS Studio is active, and BEFORE Ive even begun streaming. I can honestly say I've never seen it do that before last update. Or am I blind and this is normal? If so, why is it doing this?

-Even if I disable preview, its still at 30%

 

[Boildown]

You should have v-sync on and cap your game's FPS to your monitor's native framerate.

 

[Tykjen]

That doesnt solve my problem. Im using a g-sync monitor. Using V-sync is totally not an option. Moreover, it doesnt stop my GPU from throttling around 30% before hitting "Start Streaming" or loading a game up. What in OBS name is using the GPU before starting a stream or a game? Im really curious.

 

[BK-Morpheus]

OBS renders your scene via GPU (even if you encode via x264/CPU).

Are you sure that those "30%" GPU load are based on the boost clock of your GPU or just 2D clock?

On my GTX1070 a 720p 60fps OBS scene (without running a game or recording...just showing a wallpaper+Webcam+Chromakey) is loading the GPU with 30% on 253MHz GPU clock (which is 5% on 1885MHz GPU Clock).

 

[sam686]

Show us OBS-Studio logs. https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/please-post-a-log-with-your-issue-heres-how.23074/

... Im using a g-sync monitor. ...

Try turning off g-sync. Windows 10 creators update may have broke parts of g-sync. https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+10+update+broke+g-sync

 

[Tykjen]

OBS renders your scene via GPU (even if you encode via x264/CPU).

Are you sure that those "30%" GPU load are based on the boost clock of your GPU or just 2D clock?

On my GTX1070 a 720p 60fps OBS scene (without running a game or recording...just showing a wallpaper+Webcam+Chromakey) is loading the GPU with 30% on 253MHz GPU clock (which is 5% on 1885MHz GPU Clock).

Thank you! It was the 2D clock. I didnt think of it because I recently found a "fix", wanting to cool the card down more: 120hz sets the gpu automatically to 2D when back in desktop. Any higher hz and it will stick in 3D clock. So im now 120hz in desktop and 165 whenever gaming. I simply forgot. Thanks again. A relief!

Show us OBS-Studio logs. https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/please-post-a-log-with-your-issue-heres-how.23074/

Try turning off g-sync. Windows 10 creators update may have broke parts of g-sync. https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+10+update+broke+g-sync

Im using win7 and its all been a smooth ride. I cant play without G-sync. Its what Ive waited for as an FPS player all my life. But, you just gave me another reason to stay away from Win 10 :) Thanks!

 

[BK-Morpheus]

Glad, that this was the case.

Gaming at more than 60fps will introduce a whole new world of possible problems, if you wanna stream on the same machine.
- 120hz+60hz dual Monitor setup @ Win10 = Problems
- more than 60fps = higher GPU load = stutter in OBS because of possible GPU bottleneck

Almost 25% of all problem threads in this forum is due to having no fps limit (which will definitely bottleneck GPU or CPU).

 

[Tykjen]

Glad, that this was the case.

Gaming at more than 60fps will introduce a whole new world of possible problems, if you wanna stream on the same machine.
- 120hz+60hz dual Monitor setup @ Win10 = Problems
- more than 60fps = higher GPU load = stutter in OBS because of possible GPU bottleneck

Almost 25% of all problem threads in this forum is due to having no fps limit (which will definitely bottleneck GPU or CPU).

Thank you for the tip! Will certainly keep that in mind on a certain underoptimized award winning multiplayer game. (cough, PUBG, cough)

 

[Sapiens]

If you actually make use of Gsync's ability to smooth out frame rate dips then that's your problem. The dip means your GPU is maxed out and can't hold the FPS at your monitor's refresh rate. OBS performance issues ensue.

 

[Tykjen]

If you actually make use of Gsync's ability to smooth out frame rate dips then that's your problem. The dip means your GPU is maxed out and can't hold the FPS at your monitor's refresh rate. OBS performance issues ensue.

Who are you replying to? And what is your argument concerning? I thought this thread was solved.

 

[Sapiens]

Skimmed the thread at work and posted without looking everything over closely, sorry about that. We get a lot of identical GPU overloaded posts, this turned out not to be one of them. ^^"

 

[Tykjen]

Skimmed the thread at work and posted without looking everything over closely, sorry about that. We get a lot of identical GPU overloaded posts, this turned out not to be one of them. ^^"

Alrighty =) But Im still kinda curious to what you meant. Should I, overall speaking, lock my fps when streaming?

 

[Sapiens]

Generally you want to have some kind of limit in place, yeah. If you don't, your GPU will just render as many frames as it can until it maxes out or something else bottlenecks it. OBS uses the GPU to composite scenes so if there aren't any resources left OBS performance will tank. Since one of Gsync's main benefits is maintaining smooth performance when your GPU can't hold the frame rate at your monitor's refresh rate, there's already going to be a problem if that feature is being utilized.

Best practice is to cap the frame rate at a value you know your GPU can maintain consistently without maxing out. If you want to take it a step further it should also be divisible by your streaming/recording frame rate. This value is going to differ between games so that's also something to take into account (e.g. you can hold 144 FPS in Minecraft easily but probably not in a CPU-heavy game like DX:HR or The Division without turning down some details).

There's a document around here somewhere with a longer explanation, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: https://gist.github.com/RytoEX/239f85c3515cae6b029bb909505a7333

This is a WIP document so the link may stop working or explode or what have you.

 

[Tykjen]

Generally you want to have some kind of limit in place, yeah. If you don't, your GPU will just render as many frames as it can until it maxes out or something else bottlenecks it. OBS uses the GPU to composite scenes so if there aren't any resources left OBS performance will tank. Since one of Gsync's main benefits is maintaining smooth performance when your GPU can't hold the frame rate at your monitor's refresh rate, there's already going to be a problem if that feature is being utilized.

Best practice is to cap the frame rate at a value you know your GPU can maintain consistently without maxing out. If you want to take it a step further it should also be divisible by your streaming/recording frame rate. This value is going to differ between games so that's also something to take into account (e.g. you can hold 144 FPS in Minecraft easily but probably not in a CPU-heavy game like DX:HR or The Division without turning down some details).

There's a document around here somewhere with a longer explanation, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: https://gist.github.com/RytoEX/239f85c3515cae6b029bb909505a7333

This is a WIP document so the link may stop working or explode or what have you.

Thank you very much! Locking fps down ^