Question / Help Lag in recordings, crystal clear on stream

[Syringe19]

Hey folks, posted a few days ago about my recordings being super laggy and even skipping full sections of gameplay. I tested my OBS this morning for streaming to my twitch.tv account and it was flawless. My chat cover and banner were working as intended, it was 1080p 60fps with minimum lag.

So my question is, why in the world would my recordings be lagging/choppy if my stream is working perfect? I am trying to record my guild's kills in heroic/mythic raids and I need OBS to work! Please help!

Attached is a log from just a few moments of recording that had some serious lag in the first 10-15 seconds.

 

[Narcogen]

07:45:26.652: Output 'simple_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 1052 (22.1%)
07:45:26.653: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
07:45:26.653: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 288/4765 (6.0%)

Your recording settings are overloading both your GPU and your encoder (NVENC).

For recording you should be using CQP, not CBR-- CBR is best for streaming.

 

[Syringe19]

That definitely helped, but it still seems to be lagging a bit. Is there another way to free up usage of my GPU? Maybe using x264? If I use x264, what kind of rate control?

If that wouldn't help, then just let me know!

 

[carlmmii]

Wouldn't help. The problem exists before the frames are sent to the encoder, so changing the encoding method would still result in the same rendering lag.

The problem is happening because OBS doesn't have enough GPU resources available to do its scene compositing. This is usually a result of the game being allowed to run free with its framerate, or otherwise just being prioritized with a heavy load. Since it's WoW on a 1080, I'm inclined to believe it's just framerate -- try capping it (if possible, set a maximum, otherwise turn Vsync on), and see if you still encounter rendering lag.