High GPU utilization when OBS is idle

[ATZ80]

Hello all,

I am new here and hope that you can possibly help me.
First of all: I am currently sitting at work and can only provide logs file later. But in advance I would like to know or clarify two things already.

Is a GPU load of 60% normal, with OBS open WITHOUT active stream or recording? So OBS is only open and the GPU load jumps to 60%.

I have reinstalled my computer several times in the last 2 days (due to another problem (network), but that should not matter) and I think that the load was not even close to 60% before my reinstallation. I have a bit of concern that I have now somehow shot my hardware during the reinstallation. But I have also read things that since the latest Windows updates there are display errors in the task manager with the GPU and or the desktop window manager makes problems in combination with the latest Nvidia graphics drivers.

My graphics card is a RTX 3080 OC V2 from Asus TUF, 32 GB RAM, MB Strix Z690 F WiFi.
As mentioned above, I'm still at work and will be happy to provide log files and more info on my hardware later.

But for now, could someone possibly tell me what a normal GPU load should be when OBS is idle?

I thank you in advance and will provide more info later.

ATZ80

 

[sandrix]

When OBS starts up, it reserves some GPU resources for itself. In idle mode, there should be no load on the GPU, or it is extremely minimal.
You should check your hardware, drivers, especially for the video card. Run OBS as administrator, give the program high priority. Set High Performance Mode in Windows and NVIDIA Control Panel. Check your PC for viruses using a virus scanner. In any case, you need a log file

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Is a GPU load of 60% normal, with OBS open WITHOUT active stream or recording? So OBS is only open and the GPU load jumps to 60%.

Presuming you have a video source enabled in a Scene, OBS is NOT idle (not sure if any Scene within Scene Collection, or only Active Scene... my guess would be any scene in active Scene Collection... but an uneducated guess only). OBS has to render to create the Preview screen, and a large amount of the computational load of real-time video rendering is therefore already taking place. Do you have OBS Studio in Studio Mode? then potentially 2X the rendering workload.

 

[ATZ80]

Hey all,

and thanks for the first answers.

I can't imagine that after reinstalling three times, my computer is loaded with viruses. But I will test it anyway.
And also my drivers are up to date, at least the latest ones I could get from the ASUS site.

OBS is running as administrator and is not running in studio mode.

I just did different tests again and watched the GPU load in the task manager:
1) Completely idle

2) Only running Valorant

3) OBS active in stream mode (bandwidth test mode) + Valorant

4) Here I just had the Whatsapp window open and dragged it wildly back and forth across the desktop. 44% GPU utilization for the desktop window manager? WTF? That's not normal, is it?

Also my OBS streaming settings. Exactly with these settings I have worked/streamed before the reinstallations and that absolutely without problems.

But now let's get to the important stuff. Attached are the logs. I don't know if they are correct or if you need other information. Please let me know and I will create new logs asap.
Does OBS 29 need more resources than the previous versions?
Had before my new installation still the 28er version on it...but I can not imagine that the new version so much more GPU demands.

Thank you very much and have a relaxing weekend.
ATZ80

 

[sandrix]

You don't have OBS problems in my opinion. If there's a problem, it's deep somewhere, but OBS is fine. You use a lot of media sources, scenes, all this requires additional GPU resources. Almost everything you add to OBS consumes some amount of GPU. In the Task Manager, the GPU load looks quite high when streaming, that's right. But the fact is that the task manager indicates the total load on the GPU and the encoder / decoder consumed by OBS.

In the first log file you have network frame drops. It's not because of the obs, but because of the network connection. If they reappear, then use the twitch test to determine the best speed and server.

TwitchTest | r1ch.net

Test your upload bandwidth and connection quality to Twitch

r1ch.net

From the settings, I personally would recommend specifying
- 2pass mode: QRES
- Look-ahead: OFF
- Visual Tuning: ON
- B-frames: 2

 

[sandrix]

You don't have to worry about the load on the encoder. it is a separate component inside the GPU.
That is, NVENC says to the GPU: - Bro, you take care of graphics and 3D, and I encode and decode video, just give me some CUDA resources.
You can see the load on the encoder in the task manager, but in a slightly different place.

 

[FerretBomb]

Normally this occurs when the GPU is sitting idle; it downclocks itself into a low-power state, which causes minimal load to show up as an excessively high number. This tends to make people concerned, seeing a big number for no reason, not realizing that the GPU is only running at 5-10% of its peak capability to cut down on power draw/heat generation/wear. In the example above, dragging WhatsApp around uses 44% of maybe 5% (or less).

Same thing goes when OBS is sitting idle without a game running. It incurs a MINIMAL 3D load for compositing/rendering tasks (general housekeeping) which can ping as a big number... but only because the GPU is in a low-power state, and barely running at all.

When in-game and streaming, note that the game is using "GPU - 3D" while OBS is using "GPU - Video Encode", which are different segments of the physical GPU die, on nVidia cards (AMD uses 3D rendering resources for the encode process, one of many reasons AMD's AMF is pooptastic). "GPU - Video Encode" load will not affect in-game performance on nVidia cards.

 

[ATZ80]

Hello and Happy Sunday!

Thank you for both your answers and feedback.
Your answers now sound logical or plausible and I make me then possibly too much worry xD

Nevertheless I will do 1-2 hardware tests during the day, because I have the feeling that my computer does not run as smoothly as it did before I reinstalled.

Thanks also for the settings suggestions for OBS, I will then also try out.

Edit:
Where can I find the setting?
- 2pass mode: QRES

In the first log file you have network frame drops. It's not because of the obs, but because of the network connection. If they reappear, then use the twitch test to determine the best speed and server.

Yeah the omitted frames in network....is the real problem why I started reinstalling my computer in the first place and am now sitting here worrying about my hardware.
Up until Jan 4th/5th I had absolutely no problem with frames dropping in network.
I have a 1Gbit/s download & 50Mbit/s upload line.
Modem/router have already been changed and also a Vodafone technician was on site, but according to him my line is clean and no fluctuations can be detected.
Then I thought that maybe my network controller/network card on the mainboard has a problem and started with the reinstallation.....
But as you have noticed, the frame drops still occur in the network.
I'm getting stumped here and just annoyed...why such problems seem to occur overnight for unexplainable reasons.
Tomorrow comes again a technician...but fear that he tells me again the same.

Can possibly one of these setting the problem somewhat reduce?

And with what tool/software, I can check my internal home network for errors? Maybe a cable is broken, but then I would have to open the walls and I would like to avoid. But I can not imagine that anything has happened.

Thanks a lot for your support
ATZ80

 

[sandrix]

Dynamic bitrate may correct the situation, but it does not solve the root of the problem.

Massive Network frame drops! HELP! <3

So 2 nights ago all the sudden I started getting crazy high network drops. I stream off a new Windows laptop, hardwired, 500 up 20 down. Midstream I all the sudden started getting about 2% loss, annoying but manageable, this grew to 10-15%, the following day it was just as bad, before...

obsproject.com