Question / Help Higher FPS in-game = OBS can't keep 60fps

[soulreaver2662]

Hi i'm honestly not sure if this problem started a long time ago or if it's happened recently.

I reformatted my pc last month and had to redo all my obs settings/scenes. I'm pretty sure i've been able to stay at a constant 1080p 60fps for local CRF=15 recordings even with veryfast preset in the past.

Since the reformat, i've changed it to the ultrafast preset as games like BF1 eat my beloved 5960x for breakfast. Yet, somehow even with less intensive games like Overwatch, i'm seeing that little fps counter on OBS go down to 40+ in the menu without streaming/recording.

Tidbit: I believe it's because since the reformat, i've learnt that competitive games are usually played in fullscreen, vsync off, no fps limit, tearing be damned, yadayadayada... due to input lag. And i've turned my fps limiter off as a result. (Capping at 60 = very bad tearing. Capping at 300 = game runs at 120 - 150fps = tolerable tearing) I used to play most games in borderless window mode as it was easier to alt-tab for streaming purposes/multitasking, hence no tearing, capped frames at 60.

tl;dr: Capping games at 60fps = OBS stays solid 60fps / Uncapped game at 100++ fps = OBS fps counter starts to dip.

Is there any way i can workaround this? I've tried various methods, process priority in obs, set priority/affinity in task manager, close things i usually run while streaming/recording like manycam/msi afterburner/rivatuner/discord/chrome. They all come up with the same result.

edit: things that are already disabled/non-existent on my OS: xbox game dvr crap / MS security essentials / Nvidia geforce experience

 

[OG See OH Zee]

By any chance are you able to replicate the problem with the exact settings on Windows 7/8.1? Select users have confirmed this problem is on Windows 10 and possibly the Nvidia drivers for this OS in general including me and never had such issues on any other Windows version that isn't 10.

The problem is that when the GPU usage is maxed on the game in Windows 10, OBS will go below 60fps regardless of your encoding settings. Don't matter how powerful your GPU is as even a GTX 1080 user confirmed this.

Here's the user who had a GTX 1080 and was able to use OBS flawlessly on Windows 7 but not in 10: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...mirillis-action-doesnt-why.56453/#post-247283

And my original post to confirm the same problem despite using a budget card; OBS ran flawless in Windows 8.1 even while maxing out the GPU usage, but didn't in 10 in the exact settings on OBS and in-game: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...-studio-comparing-logs-on-w8-1-and-w10.55169/

 

[soulreaver2662]

By any chance are you able to replicate the problem with the exact settings on Windows 7/8.1? Select users have confirmed this problem is on Windows 10 and possibly the Nvidia drivers for this OS in general including me and never had such issues on any other Windows version that isn't 10.

The problem is that when the GPU usage is maxed on the game in Windows 10, OBS will go below 60fps regardless of your encoding settings. Don't matter how powerful your GPU is as even a GTX 1080 user confirmed this.

Here's the user who had a GTX 1080 and was able to use OBS flawlessly on Windows 7 but not in 10: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...mirillis-action-doesnt-why.56453/#post-247283

And my original post to confirm the same problem despite using a budget card; OBS ran flawless in Windows 8.1 even while maxing out the GPU usage, but didn't in 10 in the exact settings on OBS and in-game: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...-studio-comparing-logs-on-w8-1-and-w10.55169/

Just did a test with some other games, and you're absolutely right. As long as GPU isn't above 90%, OBS sticks to 60fps. Once it gets to somewhere around 95% usage, the fps on OBS tanks no matter the CPU usage, and here i was going crazy thinking i had to go out and get myself a dual pc setup because my 5960x clearly isn't good enough.

THANK YOU. So we either downgrade or wait i suppose? :/

 

[Andy Hexagon]

I'm bumping this thread, I have the exact same issue and it started a few days ago. Ever since launch I could stream Battlefield 1 in ultra settings and get 120 fps without any problems at all (I stream in 720p @ 60 fps). But now the fps fluxuates between 120-99 and the fps in OBS Studio fluxuates from 60-45. I've tried installing older Nvidia drivers for my GTX 1070, downgrading to an older version of OBS Studio and I even re-installed Windows 10 - none of that worked. I changed the encoding from h264 to NVENC and it kinda helped, but it's still not what it was before.

I have been noticing a lot of issues lately, not only related to gaming and streaming. My K65 Corsair keyboard for example. Whenever I press down the @ symbol, there's a one second delay before the symbol appears. Another user on the Corsair subreddit reported the same issue about 20 hours ago.

I'm starting to suspect all these problems are related to Windows 10 somehow, I can't think of anything else.

 

[OG See OH Zee]

You're pushing your GPU which is showing the issues on OBS but it shouldn't be that severe on the same settings on Windows 10. Only solution is reducing GPU loads such as enabling Vsync in the game (assuming you'll keep above 60fps on GPU-intensive stuff) or using framerate limiters such as using an Nvidia Inspector profile.

 

[troyX]

I have the same problem with my RX 480 8 Gb. Can't play at 120 fps without the video dipping at 57 fps. It's so frustrating considering I don't have FPS dips in-game... Is there any way to solve it ? Besides capping your game at 60 fps (which doesn't work by the way, I'm still at 59 fps with VBR_LAT).

 

[Andy Hexagon]

I have the same problem with my RX 480 8 Gb. Can't play at 120 fps without the video dipping at 57 fps. It's so frustrating considering I don't have FPS dips in-game... Is there any way to solve it ? Besides capping your game at 60 fps (which doesn't work by the way, I'm still at 59 fps with VBR_LAT).

I've tried different NVIDIA drivers, older versions of OBS Studio, ran MemTest to check my RAM, re-installed Windows 10 - none of it worked. The only solution so far that seems to work is to cap your fps to 90 with RivaTuner or NVIDIA Profile Inspector so the GPU and OBS Studio doesn't go absolute cray-cray.

 

[Andy Hexagon]

Does anyone have any updates regarding this issue? I just can't accept going from playing a game in 120fps with OBS Studio handling it without any issues while getting a constant 60fps to all of the sudden OBS taking a dip in fps (from 60 down to 50-45) out of nowhere. Like, something must have happened to either OBS, the NVIDIA drivers, Windows 10, etc. - because I'm obviously not the only one having this issue or else this thread wouldn't exist. The only work-around I've found so far is capping my fps to 90 using RivaTuner to make OBS Studio keep a constant 60fps. It's really frustrating.

 

[Andy Hexagon]

After latest NVIDIA driver update, Windows 10 update and Battlefield 1 patch the fps drop in OBS Studio is even worse now. Capping it to 90 doesn't work anymore, it still drops down to around 55. This shit makes me not want to bother with streaming anymore, it's just issue after issue.

 

[Andy Hexagon]

So I managed to solve this issue by re-installing Windows 10 in UEFI mode, now I'm back to stable 60 fps in OBS Studio no matter what fps I get in-game. Sweet.

 

[Andy Hexagon]

A fresh OS install just to fix a performance problem such as this? Jeez... Well, time to get mentally prepared for setting everything back up when I do it again, probably after Christmas. Lol

Yeah, I tried everything; rolling back to older NVIDIA drivers, older versions of OBS Studio, tried OBS Classic, resetting my router... it was a pain in the pass, but re-installing Windows 10 in UEFI mode fixed it for me.