Question / Help I'm at a loss. I can't seem to get a consistent 60fps recording in 1080p.

[Kizzume]

I've tried about 20 configurations and get the same results. Game mode (and other Microsoft gaming options) on, game mode off.

I used to have an i5 2310. Earlier this week I upgraded to a Ryzen 3900X with 32 gigs of ram for the main purpose of being able to record in a nice smooth 60fps (or technically at 59.94fps). On my i5 2310, I used to be able to get a nice framerate in OBS (using NVENC with my GTX 1060) when I'd record my rant videos with an Elgato Cam Link hooked to my mirrorless camera, but at some point last year I had to switch to using Microsoft's Camera app because of lag issues in OBS. I was hoping my problems would be over by upgrading my computer, but the exact same problems remain.

All I seem to be able to record with OBS at a consistent 60fps is when I'm transferring VHS to digital in 640x480 resolution, and that's only right after I restart my computer (if I haven't restarted in a while, I'll still randomly get a choppy framerate in OBS even at that low resolution). Yeah, I'm just at a loss. It was a huge financial investment to make just to have the same results I did before.

Here are examples of when I'm playing Lonely Mountains Downhill, I've supplied log files for both sessions:

The first video gets choppy at 15 seconds in, 32 seconds in, 50 seconds in, 1:07. 1:25.

YouTube

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www.youtube.com

The second video gets choppy at 14 seconds in, 32 seconds in, 49 seconds in

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Kizzume]

Well, I tried something I thought for sure wouldn't work... and it worked! I switched the encoder to "x264" rather than "NVENC". Phwew! Thank goodness.

 

[Kizzume]

Annnnd even with the new settings, I'm back to having to restart my computer before I get a smooth 60fps in OBS. Now I wish I wouldn't have deleted the videos I originally supplied. (I deleted them because I figured I didn't need them anymore) Granted, it's not as bad as it was with the other settings, but the problem still remains.

Is anyone else dealing with the same issue, where you have to freshly restart your computer before you get a consistent 60fps in OBS?

Thanks.

 

[Kizzume]

I re-uploaded (they're unlisted) the videos, plus the newest one from before I restarted my computer.

Version 1, gets choppy at 15 seconds in, 32 seconds in, 50 seconds in, 1:07. 1:25:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Version 2, gets choppy at 14 seconds in, 32 seconds in, 49 seconds in:

Lonely Mountains Downhill recording2

Gets choppy at: 0:14 0:32 0:49

www.youtube.com

Version 3, gets choppy at 3 seconds in, 21 seconds in, 38 seconds in, and 56 seconds in:

Lonely Mountains Downhill recording3

Gets choppy at 0:03 0:21 0:38 0:56

www.youtube.com

Attached is the log file for the 3rd video

Do I have some settings wrong? Do I really have to continually restart my computer before recording or streaming? I've had this computer and copy of Windows for less than a week.

 

[Kizzume]

Alright, I've found out that not even restarting the computer by itself necessarily does the job, but restarting the computer *and* changing the encoder seems to make it act decently for a while. If anyone knows another way to ensure smooth consistent framerates, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Tangential]

The NVENC encoder only works if you have an NVIDIA GPU. Does your new system have an NVIDIA video card? A lot of AMD systems have an AMD video card. OBS has an AMD GPU based encoder but it is not as performant as the NVIDIA one. Generally, the pure CPU (software) encoder (x264) is not as performant as a GPU based one. Also, what format are you saving your videos in?

 

[Kizzume]

The NVENC encoder only works if you have an NVIDIA GPU. Does your new system have an NVIDIA video card? A lot of AMD systems have an AMD video card. OBS has an AMD GPU based encoder but it is not as performant as the NVIDIA one. Generally, the pure CPU (software) encoder (x264) is not as performant as a GPU based one. Also, what format are you saving your videos in?

Yes, I have a GTX 1060. I save my videos as mp4, and the framerate issues can sometimes be seen in the OBS window when I'm not even recording yet. The problems I have with recording I also have with streaming.

 

[Kizzume]

Looking now, I realize that the 3rd log I supplied was not from the 3rd recording, it was from when I was trying to record TV, which was done before the 3rd game recording. Sorry about that.

 

[rockbottom]

1080p/60FPS @ 5Mb/s is going to give you the results you're getting. CBR is for streaming, but if you have to use it, push the bit-rate to 8Mb/s or lower your framerate to 30.

BTW, you'll get better quality with CQP for your recordings.

Give these settings a try

 

[Kizzume]

1080p/60FPS @ 5Mb/s is going to give you the results you're getting. CBR is for streaming, but if you have to use it, push the bit-rate to 8Mb/s or lower your framerate to 30.

BTW, you'll get better quality with CQP for your recordings.

Give these settings a try
View attachment 56161

When I record using CQP, the resulting file is usually around 15,000kbps, and I already tried that and the results were exactly the same. I've actually found that lower kbps settings offer better performance--meaning, the higher I have those settings, the more framerate problems I've had in the past, at least when I still had the i5 2310. The bitrate is mostly about the quality of the image, not the framerate.

And absolutely no, I will not lower the framerate to 30, that's ridiculous, I didn't spend $1,500 to upgrade my system to downgrade the quality of my recordings. The entire point of my upgrade was to get rid of framerate issues. I'm at least wanting what I could do without a problem 2 years ago.

 

[rockbottom]

No soup for you!!!!!!

 

[Kizzume]

Fair enough I guess. I'm guess I'm quite pissy over making this monetary investment and not getting out of it what I had hoped. Sorry if I treated you poorly in the process.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[TryHD]

Seems to be a syncing issue to me.
Do you have the problem also if you turn VSync off and why do you use desktop capture instead of game capture?

 

[Kizzume]

Seems to be a syncing issue to me.
Do you have the problem also if you turn VSync off and why do you use desktop capture instead of game capture?

That's an interesting thought about syncing. I'd never considered turning vsync off (because I hate tearing), but it's worth seeing what it does, I'll try that just to see.

I used desktop capture because I didn't think it made much difference--but that's something to consider as well. Thanks.

It's just that I have the same problem when I'm capturing from my video capture devices as well. I have an Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro that I hook the HDMI output from my cable box to so I can record TV in 60fps, and I have my Elgato Cam Link that I hook my mirrorless camera to to record in 60fps as well.

Again, thanks for brainstorming with me. I want to again apologize to rockbottom for being so pissy before, they didn't deserve that.

 

[Kizzume]

(continued) I also have an I-O Data GV-USB2 for capturing from my VCR (that first gets captured with AmaRec TV and then sent to OBS), and even that, in 640x480, still gives me a choppy framerate in OBS at times.

 

[Kizzume]

Seems to be a syncing issue to me.
Do you have the problem also if you turn VSync off and why do you use desktop capture instead of game capture?

Well, I just tried it with vsync off and it ended up being worse than ever. This is so weird.

I mean, I suppose it's not that bad if I have to restart my computer and toggling encoders before starting a recording or doing a stream, but it sure wasn't expected.

 

[carlmmii]

Definitely should not be required to have to restart your computer every time.

From the logs, there are absolutely zero missed frames in the recording. This means x264 vs nvenc would make no difference, and even running as admin would not help (although this is recommended)

I agree with TryHD, this seems to be some sort of sync issue. Are you able to test other games? Try setting up a new scene collection with only display capture, and grab a recording. Then remove that source and use game capture instead, and see if there's any difference.

From there we can move ahead with the capture device -- that is most likely a separate issue, specific to usb capture for 480i analog input.

 

[Kizzume]

I will try that. I'll install Hollow Knight next and see if that has issues. Since the issue is potentially a sync issue, for a while I thought a problem might be that I have OBS video settings set for 59.94 instead of 60, but previously when I tried it at 60 it didn't seem to make a difference, but I still may experiment with that again.

I just got done doing a test stream on YouTube and it was smooth the whole time, but I had also just restarted my computer. But I was still quite happy that it worked well.

To do further tests that mean anything, I need to wait at least a couple hours.

I appreciate all the help. Thanks.

 

[Kizzume]

After some testing, I've noticed no differences between recording display capture and game capture, but I've decided to stick with using game capture anyway, since that's what it's made for. I switched to primarily using the platformer Hollow Knight as a test, as it seems to give me more consistent results when it comes to framerate issues.

Since sync seems to be the biggest issue here, thanks to input here on the forum, I decided to try changing my monitors' refresh rates to what is labeled as "59hz" after reading on several other forums and websites that it's actually 59.94hz rounded down in the way it's labeled, and I made sure both games were using "59hz" as well, and low and behold, at least as of so far, I'm not having the problem. When I tried switching everything back to 60hz, Hollow Knight had the framerate issues in OBS again, and then when I switched everything to 59hz yet again, the framerate issues in OBS were gone again.

I don't know whether this is consistent yet, I still have a lot more tests to do, but I do find this rather fascinating. Since I do capture from my cable box, as well as do transfers from VHS, keeping it at what is labeled as "59hz" (which is supposedly actually 59.94hz) might be my best option. I will keep you updated.

Again, thanks very much for all your input.

 

[carlmmii]

Thanks for your findings, it'll definitely prove useful at some point down the line.

Fwiw, the math checks out for it being a 59.94 vs 60 fps issue. The desync rate is 1 frame every 1000, which lines up to 16.66~ seconds... which matches your timestamps perfectly for the recordings.