Question / Help i9 7900x gtx 1080ti 32gb Stuttering when streaming

[m4c13k]

Hi

I need some help dear members of OBS forums, I cannot setup correctly my PC for steaming to twitch. When I had i7 5820k it was much simple than now when I have i9 cpu, some weird stuttering in games appears even OBS is not using more than 20% of resources. But first full specs:

i9 7900x boost 4.3Ghz or 4.16ghz
32gb Kingson 3333Mhz ram
Asus gtx 1080Ti strix OC
m2 ssd samsung evo 960 pro
windows 8.1

Settings in OBS studio:

encoder: x264
bitrate: 6000
keyframe interval: 2
cpu usage preset: medium
profile: high
tune: none
x264 options: threads=22


base resolution: 1920x1080
video output scaled: 1600x900
downscale filter: lanczos
common fps: 60

First time when I installed OBS studio I was trying stream game without "threads=22" and I noticed huge stuttering in games also on twitch. After searching OBS forums I found some rules about x264 encoder:

40 lines*27=1080p
40 lines*22.5=900p

x264 - 1.5 threads per logical core so in my case my cpu have 20 x 1.5 = 30

That's why I decided to add "threads=22" method and stuttering went down little bit and I could play nearly normal but I have seen few more streamers on twitch with similar PC and when I'm watching them they don't have any stuttering in games or twitch and they play more demanding games than me. When I change cpu usage preset from medium to "fast" this stuttering is still present don't know why. There are some log files but I'm not sure they are going to be helpful. So question is what I'm missing?

This is where I started digging my problem with stuttering: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...am-stream-recording-stuttering-problem.80505/

 

[DEDRICK]

You don't have Lagged Frames beyond small blips(less than 0.1%, not worth mentioning), you also don't have skipped frames which means it's not your CPU or preset. You only have a single monitor so it's not a case of mixed refreshrates.

There's another thread with users reporting stuttering under the same circumstances as you (No lagged or Skipped), the encoder used makes no difference(x264, QuickSync, NVENC), even other programs like Bandicam and Xsplit it is occuring. It's happening in Windows 7 through 10

The common denominator is they all use NVIDIA GPUs

 

[m4c13k]

Dedrick thank you for your reply. Is there anything I can change apart of threads=22 to achieve less stuttering? Maybe ref=1? I saw two twitch streamers with same setup as mine and they don't have any issues and they stream 900p@60fps with i9 7900x 32GB ram and gtx 1080ti.

 

[JorPorCor]

Seeing as though your log files state you don’t have any lagged/skipped frames I would suggest the issue is exactly what DEDRICK has stated. Have you updated the NVIDIA driver for your graphics card? If you have and it doesn’t fix the issue I’d suggest trying a clean driver install. You can do this by going to NVIDIAs GeForce website and searching for your graphics card and the appropriate OS. Download the installer and run that. When it has you select what to install, make sure to click on “clean install” it’ll be a check box below all the stuff you can install for the graphics card. This will run a clean install of the driver on your graphics card. A few questions: Are you gaming on this rig or is it a dedicated stream PC? Is this PC overclocked (all cores) or are you giving us the turbo boost speeds? If you game on the same rig are you getting stuttering in game? I’d try enabling vsync and/or try a different capture method.

 

[m4c13k]

Seeing as though your log files state you don’t have any lagged/skipped frames I would suggest the issue is exactly what DEDRICK has stated. Have you updated the NVIDIA driver for your graphics card? If you have and it doesn’t fix the issue I’d suggest trying a clean driver install. You can do this by going to NVIDIAs GeForce website and searching for your graphics card and the appropriate OS. Download the installer and run that. When it has you select what to install, make sure to click on “clean install” it’ll be a check box below all the stuff you can install for the graphics card. This will run a clean install of the driver on your graphics card. A few questions: Are you gaming on this rig or is it a dedicated stream PC? Is this PC overclocked (all cores) or are you giving us the turbo boost speeds? If you game on the same rig are you getting stuttering in game? I’d try enabling vsync and/or try a different capture method.

Thank you for your reply. Few answers for you: I stream and play from same computer, cpu is not oc at the moment, it's boosting to 4.3ghz or all of them to 4.16ghz I think. When I only game on this pc everything is smooth as butter not a single blink or stuttering. I'll update my graphics drivers after work and I'll post it if any difference. Graphics card is not overlclocked. I also have benq 240hz monitor but I don't think this is the issue. When I change preset from medium to high it still does micro stuttering and I thought i9 should be able to run this no problem.

 

[DEDRICK]

Seeing as you have a single 240Hz also try this to eliminate it as a possibility.

Right-click and disable the Preview, start recording then minimize OBS.
Close anything open in Chrome or Firefox, especially anything hardware accelerated.
Play as you normally would then check the recording for the reported stuttering you are experiencing.

 

[m4c13k]

Seeing as you have a single 240Hz also try this to eliminate it as a possibility.

Right-click and disable the Preview, start recording then minimize OBS.
Close anything open in Chrome or Firefox, especially anything hardware accelerated.
Play as you normally would then check the recording for the reported stuttering you are experiencing.

ok I'll try this one as well. When I'll be back from work I'll post new settings plus new log files if that helps. As I remember with my previous pc which had i7 5820k@4.2ghz 16Gb of ram and gtx 1080 I was able to stream using nvec codec and "preview" was always displayed with OBS in the background and I had no single issue with it. Unfortunately this pc is gone and I'm unable to test it with x264 codec. Do I need to change anything in nvidia graphics settings? Like max refresh rate: depending on application or leave it as maximum refresh rate available for monitor?

 

[DEDRICK]

Leave it on Max refresh, I just want to test a theory with OBS running at 60 FPS and the desktop running at 240Hz, what, if any, impact disabling the preview and minimizing it has.

I'm also assuming you are running in Fullscreen while gaming, not Borderless

 

[m4c13k]

Leave it on Max refresh, I just want to test a theory with OBS running at 60 FPS and the desktop running at 240Hz, what, if any, impact disabling the preview and minimizing it has.

I'm also assuming you are running in Fullscreen while gaming, not Borderless

1st test:
Game run in full screen
OBS studio settings:
preview is disabled
encoder: x264
bitrate: 6000
keyframe interval: 2
cpu usage preset: medium
profile: high
tune: none
x264 options: threads=22
base resolution: 1920x1080
video output scaled: 1600x900
downscale filter: lanczos
common fps: 60

Nvidia 388.71 + settings:
power management mode: prefer maximum performance
preferred refresh rate: highest available

No Chrome browser or other application working in the background, game only and steam.

micro stuttering still exist :(

PS. Ill update this post when I change few settings around

 

[DEDRICK]

Here's a thought, does the stutter only occur with Steam games? What happens if you disable the Steam Overlay? and also turn off capture third-party overlay in Game Capture.

Need to think of non-typical things that could cause something like this.

Remove the Game Capture and try Window or Display and see if it still stutters.

Obviously try these in separate attempts

 

[m4c13k]

Here's a thought, does the stutter only occur with Steam games? What happens if you disable the Steam Overlay? and also turn off capture third-party overlay in Game Capture.

Need to think of non-typical things that could cause something like this.

Remove the Game Capture and try Window or Display and see if it still stutters.

Obviously try these in separate attempts

Steam overlay is disabled all the time for me.
OBS is setup as game capture.

2nd + 3rd test:
Game run in full screen
OBS studio settings:
preview is disabled
encoder: x264
bitrate: 6000
keyframe interval: 2
cpu usage preset: medium - I have tried high preset and still stuttering
profile: high
tune: none
x264 options: threads=22 - I have tried without "threads" option and still stuttering
base resolution: 1920x1080
video output scaled: 1600x900 - I have tried 1280x720 and no changes
downscale filter: lanczos
common fps: 60

Nvidia 388.71 + settings:
power management mode: prefer maximum performance
preferred refresh rate: highest available

No Chrome browser or other application working in the background, game only and steam.

4th test:
I added to x264 options: threads=22 ref=1 - this helped little bit but after few min got stuttering but not as much often as before.

5th test:
I added to x264 options: threads=22 ref=2 - now its worst than ref=1 :) omg

6th test:
x264 options: threads=22 ref=1 but in OBS - sources - game capture - properties I added "limit capture framerate" - it helps when gaming but still on twitch when you watch it even showing 200fps or more its not smooth like other streamers :(

7th test:
x264 options: threads=24 ref=1- it helps in one round but then its stuttering time to time

I'm done for tonight testing. 3.13am here :P It looks like threads=24 ref=1 help little bit but still I feel and see micro stuttering. I have no idea what to do next. These nvidia drivers were installed fresh, because this pc is like 2 weeks old so I don't think I need to do another clean install of new drivers. Also I don't believe I need to OC this CPU to get working on medium preset.

For tomorrow testing:
Uninstall Nvidia 388.71 drivers and install Nvidia 390.77 with fresh install

 

[JorPorCor]

Definitely do a fresh install of the NVIDIA driver. Also, if you are streaming and gaming on the same machine then I can almost guarantee that is the issue. The PC cannot handle that low of a preset and gaming at the same time. I am sure you could optimize it, but honestly if I can hardly push 900p60 and 1080p60 with the slow/slower preset on the 18-core i9 and its purely dedicated to streaming, then I doubt the 10-core can do the slow, medium or even probably the fast preset while gaming. One of two things are probably happening to you. It could be both of these problems: You are playing on a 240Hz monitor therefore the graphics card is having to downscale whatever the average framerate is. I would assume around 150fps average in most games. I have the BenQ 240Hz monitor that I use with my gaming rig and I use uncapped fps, but its going into a capture card that actually processes the video into 60fps by itself and then into my streaming rig. So it could be that your fps is too high for your rig to downscale on top of everything else. The other issue could simply be that your rig is just not able to process that much while doing both at the same time. I do know a couple streamers that have a similar rig and I looked at their stuff to. Summit1g has the 10-core i9 with SLI GTX1080Ti's and he streams and games on the same PC, but he uses the fast preset when streaming and I think he just switched to streaming 900p60 from 720p60. Shroud uses the 10-core i9 in a dedicated streaming rig and he is running the medium preset at 1080p60, which I assume is the best he is able to go in that rig without stuttering or lag. So with your rig and comparing it to someone like Summit1g who games and streams from the same rig I would suggest going to the fast/faster preset and see how it works out for you. I would suggest you still cap the threads if you want, but I do not think its necessary on the 10-core with hyper-threading enabled, because you only have 20 threads and you are capping it at 22, which is more threads then what you have. I would try 720p60 at fast preset and see how it goes.

 

[JorPorCor]

Oh and also, I would look into truly overclocking your PC and not letting Turbo Boost do it for you. Turbo Boost is garbage, if you are relying on certain clocks. **WARNING** You can damage your PC overclocking it so please do some research on that particular CPU and make sure you have good cooling and a good enough PSU before attempting any type of overclocking. The i9's are made to be overclocked and I am sure you can find plenty of guides online that give good reasonable overclocks. Do some research and if you feel comfortable go ahead and overclock it. I look at Turbo Boost as a half ass method of boosting the speeds temporarily.

 

[m4c13k]

Definitely do a fresh install of the NVIDIA driver. Also, if you are streaming and gaming on the same machine then I can almost guarantee that is the issue. The PC cannot handle that low of a preset and gaming at the same time. I am sure you could optimize it, but honestly if I can hardly push 900p60 and 1080p60 with the slow/slower preset on the 18-core i9 and its purely dedicated to streaming, then I doubt the 10-core can do the slow, medium or even probably the fast preset while gaming. One of two things are probably happening to you. It could be both of these problems: You are playing on a 240Hz monitor therefore the graphics card is having to downscale whatever the average framerate is. I would assume around 150fps average in most games. I have the BenQ 240Hz monitor that I use with my gaming rig and I use uncapped fps, but its going into a capture card that actually processes the video into 60fps by itself and then into my streaming rig. So it could be that your fps is too high for your rig to downscale on top of everything else. The other issue could simply be that your rig is just not able to process that much while doing both at the same time. I do know a couple streamers that have a similar rig and I looked at their stuff to. Summit1g has the 10-core i9 with SLI GTX1080Ti's and he streams and games on the same PC, but he uses the fast preset when streaming and I think he just switched to streaming 900p60 from 720p60. Shroud uses the 10-core i9 in a dedicated streaming rig and he is running the medium preset at 1080p60, which I assume is the best he is able to go in that rig without stuttering or lag. So with your rig and comparing it to someone like Summit1g who games and streams from the same rig I would suggest going to the fast/faster preset and see how it works out for you. I would suggest you still cap the threads if you want, but I do not think its necessary on the 10-core with hyper-threading enabled, because you only have 20 threads and you are capping it at 22, which is more threads then what you have. I would try 720p60 at fast preset and see how it goes.

I'll try after work new drivers but I don't think this is the issue. There is a streamer called Smoke and he plays escape from tarkov and he does 900p@60fps and he streams and play from same pc. When I'm using medium preset cpu usage is 10% for obs so I don't get it how it cannot handle it. When I change to high preset stuttering is still there so it's not this. I know that i7 5820k can do high preset no problem and even without tweaking like threads=24 is working fine no stuttering so i9 with more power cannot handle high? Also x264 takes 1.5 thread per core thats why I setup threads=22, 22x40 lines gives you 900p. 1.5 thread per core with my cpu i9 - 20 gives you 30. It does help this command without it stuttering is out of control. I'll update drivers and see if that helps. Thanks for reply.

 

[DEDRICK]

The stuttering in this case isn't threads or resolution or CPU preset, at least according to the log. The stuttering is actually occurring for you while playing the game as well?

Have you tried playing around with your Global Max Pre-rendered frames? A lot of people think setting this globally to 1 is "good" but it can actually negatively impact your frame timing and cause stuttering. For some games the default for the profile is 1, and increasing it can actually improve performance.

Lower isn't better in all cases, despite the claim of lower input lag. The setting controls how many frames the CPU is allowed to work on ahead of the GPU thread, so the CPU can feed the GPU a more constant supply of frames, smoothing out your frame time

 

[m4c13k]

The stuttering in this case isn't threads or resolution or CPU preset, at least according to the log. The stuttering is actually occurring for you while playing the game as well?

Have you tried playing around with your Global Max Pre-rendered frames? A lot of people think setting this globally to 1 is "good" but it can actually negatively impact your frame timing and cause stuttering. For some games the default for the profile is 1, and increasing it can actually improve performance.

Lower isn't better in all cases, despite the claim of lower input lag. The setting controls how many frames the CPU is allowed to work on ahead of the GPU thread, so the CPU can feed the GPU a more constant supply of frames, smoothing out your frame time

This stuttering happens only when I game and stream. When I only game no streaming each game is perfect doesnt matter is it from origin or steam and so smooth like never before on my previous pc''s. Can you guide me with Global Max Pre-rendered frames please because I didn't tweak this option yet. What is a proper command I need to put in x264 options? I want to try this before I'll reinstall nvidia drivers and before I'll oc my cpu. Thanks

 

[m4c13k]

Definitely do a fresh install of the NVIDIA driver. Also, if you are streaming and gaming on the same machine then I can almost guarantee that is the issue. The PC cannot handle that low of a preset and gaming at the same time. I am sure you could optimize it, but honestly if I can hardly push 900p60 and 1080p60 with the slow/slower preset on the 18-core i9 and its purely dedicated to streaming, then I doubt the 10-core can do the slow, medium or even probably the fast preset while gaming. One of two things are probably happening to you. It could be both of these problems: You are playing on a 240Hz monitor therefore the graphics card is having to downscale whatever the average framerate is. I would assume around 150fps average in most games. I have the BenQ 240Hz monitor that I use with my gaming rig and I use uncapped fps, but its going into a capture card that actually processes the video into 60fps by itself and then into my streaming rig. So it could be that your fps is too high for your rig to downscale on top of everything else. The other issue could simply be that your rig is just not able to process that much while doing both at the same time. I do know a couple streamers that have a similar rig and I looked at their stuff to. Summit1g has the 10-core i9 with SLI GTX1080Ti's and he streams and games on the same PC, but he uses the fast preset when streaming and I think he just switched to streaming 900p60 from 720p60. Shroud uses the 10-core i9 in a dedicated streaming rig and he is running the medium preset at 1080p60, which I assume is the best he is able to go in that rig without stuttering or lag. So with your rig and comparing it to someone like Summit1g who games and streams from the same rig I would suggest going to the fast/faster preset and see how it works out for you. I would suggest you still cap the threads if you want, but I do not think its necessary on the 10-core with hyper-threading enabled, because you only have 20 threads and you are capping it at 22, which is more threads then what you have. I would try 720p60 at fast preset and see how it goes.

This is what I got from twitch analyser from twitch streamer Smoke he have i9 @ 4.4ghz 32gb ram and gtx 1080ti and he streams 900p@60fps escape from tarkov and his stream is smooth like butter

 

[DEDRICK]

This stuttering happens only when I game and stream. When I only game no streaming each game is perfect doesnt matter is it from origin or steam and so smooth like never before on my previous pc''s. Can you guide me with Global Max Pre-rendered frames please because I didn't tweak this option yet. What is a proper command I need to put in x264 options? I want to try this before I'll reinstall nvidia drivers and before I'll oc my cpu. Thanks

Max Pre-rendered is in Nvidia Control panel 3D Settings. By default it is set to Application Controlled, each application profile has it's own value, PUBG is 1 for example, but sometimes it is 3 which is default. If you Globally set it to 3, the true default, it will override the value set for each game.

So try 3, then 2, then 1 and see if it makes any difference.

 

[JohnCiber]

This looks a lot like a problem that some of us are having ( https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...review-which-goes-into-recorded-videos.77744/ )

The problem seems to be that for some weird reason, OBS cut the fps to half (So, from 60 to 30 por some seconds). A temporary fix for recording is change to 120 fps (So when it cut to half, it will be 60), but this can be very hardware demanding and of course, for streaming 120fps its just too much

 

[OLAF_SAVAGE]

m4c13k Have you fixed the problem because I have the same problem My specs i9 9900K GPU msi 2070 and 16 gb ram