Question / Help Laggy Game Capture OR Screen Tearing

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Dawson June

New Member
I've been trying to use OBS to record gameplay, mic audio and a video feed of me in real time. My computer is more than capable to handle it, yet I have to deal with either extremely laggy finished video, or screen tearing while playing. By "either" I mean that if I change some settings - I forgot which ones - to alleviate the laggy video, I experience annoying screen tearing in game. The finished video does not show this. If I don't change those settings, I experience smooth gameplay but when I watch the video it stutters so much. I should perhaps note that I am using an Elgato HD60 Pro PCI-E video capture card to capture my GoPro footage.

My Computer Specs Are: Intel i7-7820X processor (8 Cores, 3.60 GHz), EVGA GeForce 1080 Ti graphics processor, 16 GB of RAM, plenty of hard drive space. Windows 10. I have a 1440p 165hz monitor with G-Sync and it's enabled. Since I can't upload multiple images, I'll just write them.

I'm recording in MP4 format, using the NVENC H.264 encoder. Rate control is CBR, at 40,000 bitrate. Default preset, profile high. I am using two-pass encoding.

In game, display is 1440p, at the max refresh rate and FPS. V-Sync is on, because with it off I get screen tearing for some reason. Graphics as best as I can get.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but I would hope someone has a solution. It's probably a really simple one, too... Alright, thanks! Responses are all appreciated!

Log File: https://gist.github.com/1e9770b106a9362d5ecbe8e6684cf34e
 
Last edited:
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Unfortunately there are no streaming/recording attempts in this log file. I'm going to guess your 1080Ti isn't able to drive 1440p at 165 FPS consistently in the game you're playing without maxing out, which results in OBS performance tanking.

First restart OBS, then start your stream/recording for a few minutes and stop it again. Make sure you replicate any issues as best you can, which means having any games/apps open and captured, etc. When you're done select Help > Log Files > Upload Current Log File. That should give us more information to work with.
 
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Dawson June

New Member
I reposted the log file because I had the incorrect one. The one I have now shows that I began recording at the bottom. If you could check my updated link, that would be great.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 3268 (36.0%)

GPU overload looks to be the culprit.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
From a purely gaming standpoint it's a great setup. Either your GPU can keep up with 165 FPS or, when it can't, G-Sync keeps everything running smooth during the dips. The problem is that OBS also uses a bit of your GPU power for scene compositing, so a maxed out GPU means not enough resources for OBS.

There are lots of ways to reduce GPU load -- run the game at a lower resolution or lower graphics settings, cap the FPS with a tool like NVIDIA Profile Inspector (or run the monitor at a lower refresh rate), etc. -- so use whatever suits you. The main goal is to find settings that don't push the GPU to 100% load, so the solution might vary from game to game.
 
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Dawson June

New Member
Alright, thank you so much for your help. I lowered the resolution to 1080p and capped the FPS at 60, and everything runs smoothly now with no lag or screen tearing. Thank you, once again. I can't believe that I didn't think about my GPU maxing out. I guess I just expected too much, haha.
 
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