Question / Help Having issues with Dual Monitors and stutter.

[Jason Greer]

Hello people.

I have been using successfully for around 5 months now, but have now experienced an issue since switching over to a dual-monitor setup.

Currently, my settings work fine if the preview window is either minimized, or hidden behind the main screen, but as soon as I show the preview window on my second monitor (which is the whole reason that I added the second monitor to keep an eye on the stream) my video recordings and streams begin to stutter. I have tried lowering the fps to 10fps, bitrate down to 1000k and all options in between. None seem to work.

I normally record locally at 60fps @ 50000k to give me as good quality as I can get, and the computer handles it perfectly if the preview screen is not shown.

Is there a way that I can fix this? I have uploaded my log file to be looked at.

http://pastebin.com/gxsZ7aKC

See below for the difference with and without the preview screen.

Preview screen minimized - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13176433/Do not move. Linked content/Untitled.mp4

Preview screen maximized - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13176433/Do not move. Linked content/Untitled_1.mp4

 

[Lain]

This is somewhat uncommon but not unheard of with multi-monitor setups, usually when multiple monitors are plugged in to multiple adapters.* I'm not sure what to recommend unfortunately, as it's sort of a driver thing which is beyond the control of the program itself. If it is using a second adapter, make sure the monitor is attached to the same adapter as your first.

If there isn't a second adapter then I'm not sure what to do, because that is definitely very unusual. I have two monitors myself and haven't ever really experienced such a problem, though I had a different brand of card.

 

[Jason Greer]

This is somewhat uncommon but not unheard of with multi-monitor setups, usually when multiple adapters are in use. I'm not sure what to recommend unfortunately, as it's sort of a driver thing, beyond the control of the program itself. If it is using a second adapter, make sure the monitor is attached to the same adapter as your first.

If there isn't a second adapter then I'm not sure what to do, because that is definitely very unusual. I have two monitors myself and haven't ever really experienced such a problem, though I had a different brand of card.

Sadly I'm only using the one adapter. I have no idea of anything I can do to fix this. Sadly I bought the second monitor for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on the OBS window. Dang.

 

[dodgepong]

That is certainly strange. You're sure your driver is up to date?

What happens if you swap primary and secondary monitors to use different outputs to each monitor?

 

[Jason Greer]

That is certainly strange. You're sure your driver is up to date?

What happens if you swap primary and secondary monitors to use different outputs to each monitor?

Yeah, tried a few different versions just to be sure, as well as some older version of OBS to make sure it wasn't version related.

As for trying monitors, swapping primary monitor makes no difference, as well as changing the output.

 

[Lain]

Well that's definitely weird.. I'll have to make note of it for future reference. The only time I ever saw that sort of thing was when the monitors were plugged in to different adapters, so I'm not sure what's going on here. I haven't heard of issues when they're both plugged in to the same adapter. I don't even know if I could theorize at what specifically it could be in the drivers/hardware because I've just never really heard of this sort of thing happening before.

 

[Jason Greer]

Thank you for your time Jim. I'm assuming you were able to clearly see the stuttering in the video that I linked up? The quality isn't really that great when streaming but seems evident.

I have tried literally everything I can think of and it seems like the trigger is simply the second monitor showing the preview.

Trust it to happen to me after spending £130 on a monitor!

 

[Jollyriffic]

dual monitor with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 at that resolution is likely your issue.
there just isn't enough gpu to go around.

 

[Jason Greer]

dual monitor with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 at that resolution is likely your issue.
there just isn't enough gpu to go around.

Thanks for the input. Tried running it as low as possible, with both monitors running as low as they could get to, and sadly the stutter is still there.

I tried recording to both a 5400rpm and 7200rpm to see if maybe write speeds were an issue. Doesn't seem so.

I'm kind of lost as to what's happening here.

 

[Jollyriffic]

if you aren't recording does it still happen?

 

[Jason Greer]

if you aren't recording does it still happen?

Yes it still happens.

If I select preview in OBS the stutter is present there as well, so it's definitely not the encoding and writing of the file.

It seems directly related to the image being on screen.

I tried windowed mode to rule out some potential issues by running my games windowed mode on the main screen, and having the OBS preview window on the main screen as well. Still causes stutter.

Disconnected the second monitor, and it instantly stopped.

I have however just ran the game in windowed mode on the main monitor with OBS on the second monitor and it the stutter isn't present. As soon as I go full screen it comes back.

 

[Jollyriffic]

games are pretty unique to how they behave when in fullscreen vs windowed.
i forget if this was a bf3 issue, but i could swear that my buddy said he got more fps with windowed than with full. i've noticed the same thing in some other games before where i got a performance boost with playing the game in one or the other. so borderless window mode may be the key here for your needs.

 

[Jason Greer]

games are pretty unique to how they behave when in fullscreen vs windowed.
i forget if this was a bf3 issue, but i could swear that my buddy said he got more fps with windowed than with full. i've noticed the same thing in some other games before where i got a performance boost with playing the game in one or the other. so borderless window mode may be the key here for your needs.

Yeah, possibly might need to admit defeat. Shame F1 doesn't really like borderless.

I have done a video of me switching between the two and you can see it quite clearly on this due being rendered at 60fps. - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13176433/Do not move. Linked content/Screen Test.mp4

The games fps suffers quite badly when in bordeless windowed so might need to give it up.

 

[Jollyriffic]

what is your cpu load around the time you're getting the stuttering?

 

[Jason Greer]

It tested both a stuttering scenario and non-stutter, both sat around the 45% mark, which with OBS turned off is pretty much identical to what F1 sits at. To rule this out, I tried Max Payne 3, Dota 2, Crysis 3 and Left 4 Dead 2 just now. All games have the exact same issues (Left 4 Dead was stuttering in both windowed and full screen).

All CPU seem pretty consistent with each game, whether stuttering or not.

 

[Jollyriffic]

so 45% load without obs open and still getting stutter or no?
what load with obs recording?

 

[Jason Greer]

so 45% load without obs open and still getting stutter or no?
what load with obs recording?

Game full screened / No OBS running at all = Between 30% and 50%
Game full screened / OBS preview window only (this gives stutter) = Between 30% and 50%.
Game full screened / OBS preview minimized (No stutter) = Between %30 and 50%

So with preview only it seems to make no impact on CPU load Windowed mode seems fairly consitent with those numbers as well,

Game full screen / OBS Recording and Preview on screen (this gives stutter) = Maximum of 60%
Game full screen / OBS Recording and Preview minimized (No stutter) = Maximum of 60%

Game windowed / OBS Recording and Preview on screen (no stutter) = Maximum of 60%
Game windowed / OBS Recording and Preview minimized (No stutter) = Maximum of 60%

It seems like the screen itself doesn't impact CPU load at all.

 

[Jollyriffic]

go to settings, advanced. in the general area, make sure that disable encoding while previewing is unchecked.
if its checked you must have your preset set pretty fast.

if it's unchecked, i'm going to go back to my first comment and say, its your gpu.
pretty sure a 560 only has 1gb of ram, and thats a huge problem for doing dual monitor.

some gpu porn http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202108
thing cost more than my entire computer build, but wow!

 

[Jason Greer]

go to settings, advanced. in the general area, make sure that disable encoding while previewing is unchecked.
if its checked you must have your preset set pretty fast.

if it's unchecked, i'm going to go back to my first comment and say, its your gpu.
pretty sure a 560 only has 1gb of ram, and thats a huge problem for doing dual monitor.

some gpu porn http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202108
thing cost more than my entire computer build, but wow!

Yeah, must be the only thing I can think of as it's unchecked.

Driving me round the bend as the program itself is amazing. I'll borrow a mates 760 to see how that fairs.

 

[Jason Greer]

Ok so a quick update.

My friend has pretty much the exact system as mine (I built both systems at the same time) and I know he has literally the identical model of card to mine as I bought it in the same order. His works fine!

Starting to think something software must be knackered. Keeps getting better and better!