Bug Report Low FPS in OBS? Frames missed due to rendering lag? GPU problems? Look here.

Zap

New Member
The Problem (frames missed due to rendering lag)
Since ~mid 2017 there have been many posts about people with low FPS in OBS despite their in-game FPS being fine. The reason? Most people will tell you to "you're using too much GPU usage, cap your FPS (or enable V-Sync) to allow OBS to render the scene".

The "solution" above is a huge problem; It is very common for a game to vary in frame rate depending on where/what you are doing in the game. This makes it extremely difficult to find a point where you are not intruding on OBS' GPU needs, but have the quality and FPS (on your end) that you want.

Example
A game seems to be running at ~120 FPS most of the time. So I cap my FPS at around 90 to make sure I leave enough leeway for OBS to function. That's a 25% of my frame rate I'm sacrificing to make sure OBS has enough GPU power to function.

Problem #1: I'm missing out on frames that I would have been getting in areas/things with lower GPU rendering needs. I would have exceeded 90 FPS during these times. However because my FPS was limited to 90, I didn't get all the FPS that I could have.

... I enter an area/do something where my frame rate drops to 75 from the 90 I capped it at; the GPU needed extra power for graphics rendering at that moment instead of producing frames. (there was a GPU intensive visual effect or I enter an area that has a lot of high poly textures)...

Problem #2: The 90 FPS limit I set is still too high. Extra GPU power was needed for visual effects, high poly textures etc at that time, as well as trying to maintain the 90 FPS cap. I have intruded on the GPU usage threshold I left for OBS and my stream/recording has now dropped frames. I either need to cap it even lower, or turn my graphics down.

... As you can see, at this point I could even be considering capping at <70 FPS, for a game that could run at 120+ FPS at times. So now I either cap my FPS even lower, or turn down my graphics settings to allow more GPU power for producing frames (FPS) – at this point it is not only affecting my experience, but my viewers are seeing lower detail gameplay.

The Fix
Well, for us who have actually been using OBS for a while know this wasn't always the case. You used to be able to run your game at an uncapped FPS with whatever graphics you want; just like you would if you were playing without OBS running.

OBS used to take the power it needs BEFORE the game took what it needs. OBS would stay locked at 60FPS (as long as your PC was good enough for 60) and the rest of your GPU's power was allocated to the game. If you're in-game FPS did happen to drop from 120 to 75, no problem – OBS is taking the GPU usage it needs and your game's FPS will respond accordingly. No need for you to limit your GPU usage.

So now for a solution I've found. It's not one I'm happy with but IF you are having this problem, it applies to you.

OBS does not function as intended with Windows 10. I have tried locking myself to pre-creators update Windows 10, using old drivers and using old versions of OBS – the issue was still there. This said, Windows 10 used to function as intended with OBS, so the cause is still unknown. Apparently this happens with other streaming programs like XSplit, so something to do with Windows 10 is the culprit I assume.

I have since switched to Windows 7 and everything is fine. I can fire up a game I've never played before on stream and not have to worry about tweaking everything to perfection to make sure my own, and my viewers experience is smooth. I can use 100% of my GPU and OBS stays at a solid 60 FPS, just like it should.

If you see anyone with this issue please refer them to this thread. This is a major issue and everyone is refusing to acknowledge it. It's not how it is supposed to function.
 
Last edited:

BK-Morpheus

Active Member
[...]As you can see, at this point I could even be considering capping at 60 FPS, from a game that usually runs at 120 FPS. This is simply unacceptable.[...]
But that's just the way it works right now on Win10.
Deal with it by accepting the necessary fps limit, by switching to Win10 or by using a dedicated 2nd computer for streaming.

[...]Please, if you see anyone with this issue do not tell them to just "cap ur fps ur using too much GPU xD". This isn't how it's supposed to be. This a major issue and everyone is refusing to acknowledge it. If you are experiencing this, please raise awareness. This is not a feature. It is a bug.

I will still tell people with Win10 + OBS render lag + missing FPS limit, to limit their ingame fps.

Other solutions:
- swap back to Windows 7 and disable Aero
- use a separate streaming PC and a capture card

Win7 is not an option for many people (because of Hard-/Software compatibility issues for example).

Of course, I would be happy, if Microsoft will change this behavior in the future, but I would not bet on it.
 

Zap

New Member
But that's just the way it works right now on Win10.
Deal with it by accepting the necessary fps limit, by switching to Win10 or by using a dedicated 2nd computer for streaming.



I will still tell people with Win10 + OBS render lag + missing FPS limit, to limit their ingame fps.

Other solutions:
- swap back to Windows 7 and disable Aero
- use a separate streaming PC and a capture card

Win7 is not an option for many people (because of Hard-/Software compatibility issues for example).

Of course, I would be happy, if Microsoft will change this behavior in the future, but I would not bet on it.
- You don't need to disable Aero.
- Yeah, that's a valid point, but that's a lot to do just to get around this.

I'm really not sure of the cause. I don't think Windows 10 alone is the culprit, it used to work fine on Windows 10. As I said I tried going back before creators updates and it still happened. It's a mystery, but Windows 7 is the only option for me.
 

BK-Morpheus

Active Member
It would be cool, if MS would give us the option to prioritize GPU resources for applications via taskmanager, like we already can do it with CPU priorities.

For me the strangest thing is, that even with an fps limit and staying under 85% GPU load the stream/recording will some times stutter a few minutes before getting smooth again. But in general the fps limit (or rather the lower GPU load) does prevent OBS from rendering lag and the reasons behind that are somehow logic, although this was not necessary on Win7.
 

Dirty_Orcman

New Member
upload_2018-1-8_18-8-41.png

I'm sure that there must be another way of resolving this issue. Recently I've not been able to stream effectively at all, and you can see why above: The output is losing 20% + of the frames. (This was only a 20 minute stream).
In some cases it has been as high as 45%, and this is whilst playing games that I have streamed successfully many times before, including World of Warships, GTA V, etc.
I even upgraded my PC from on-board graphics (which used to cope OK but not brilliantly) to an Nvidia GeForce GT 710 (I hear scoffs of "that's old tech, buy a new PC" - not everyone has the wherewithal to buy the latest hardware!).

I'm really struggling to find any advice on how I can manage the settings in OBS to at least partially mitigate the problem, and no, switching back to Win 7 or using a 2nd PC aren't viable options for me.
 

pmarsh44

New Member
Chiming in here. I am streaming from a dedicated streaming box with a blackmagic capture card that until recently has had no issues. The box has an i7 2600 and 16GB of RAM.

I am going to guess that perhaps the sudden problems might be related to new Windows updates to deal with the Meltdown/Specter CPU bugs. Given that this is an older CPU because there is very little CPU usage and obviously no game running to cause resource issues.
 

grkn

New Member
After searching and reading countless forum posts and not finding a solution to alleviate this problem, besides the magical "Cap your FPS" solution everyone seems to be cool with. I made a forum profile on here just to write this message to show support to Zap, who I've seen in many different threads, preaching that capping the fps is not a good solution and that a solution to the whole "post-creators Windows 10 update" not jiving well with OBS is what we should be going after.

It looks like I'm going to be doing a fresh Windows 7 install as well, until hopefully someone smarter than me can figure out what's causing the REAL problem with OBS+Win10.
 
Please, if you see anyone with this issue do not tell them to just "cap ur fps ur using too much GPU xD". This isn't how it's supposed to be. This a major issue and everyone is refusing to acknowledge it. If you are experiencing this, please raise awareness. This is not a feature. It is a bug.

So we shouldn't advice people with the only workaround that we know right now? I'm sure anyone who has been using OBS in windows 10 has noticed that there is something fishy going on. I'm sure everyone acknowledges the issue, but most of us don't have the knowledge to do anything about it

Also another thing that i have been noticing is that streaming has become so accessible that everyone has the expectation that their computer is good enough to stream+gaming on the same machine, which honestly isn't the case. Lots of these threads about the streaming performance you see people with really low specs, but still they expect to do 1080p60fps stream while gaming for some reason
 
From what I can tell the issue is resource allocation in Windows 10 (I would happily be incorrect if that is the case)
and there is not much that the devs of OBS can do at all to mitigate other than to optimize as much as possible their code.

Aero doesn't or at least in my memory never made a difference whether disabled or enabled, under any version of Windows.

Running OBS in Administrator mode and using High Priority for the CPU profile helps a little to push resource allocation towards OBS first, yet Windows 10 still dictates what goes where.

Perhaps the DirectX 12 API introduction had Microsoft change a lot of their back-end for resource allocation which has affected prior DirectX versions? I have no idea to be honest as that stuff is way beyond my knowledge and patience to learn, maybe someone with more insight can chime in?
 

Zap

New Member
Hey guys. Thanks for replying.

I haven't actually been streaming recently, but I decided to check these forums again to see if this issue has been addressed in any way and it doesn't seem like it has.

May as well bump this post to see if we can get any dev attention at all or at least inform some people.

After searching and reading countless forum posts and not finding a solution to alleviate this problem, besides the magical "Cap your FPS" solution everyone seems to be cool with. I made a forum profile on here just to write this message to show support to Zap, who I've seen in many different threads, preaching that capping the fps is not a good solution and that a solution to the whole "post-creators Windows 10 update" not jiving well with OBS is what we should be going after.

It looks like I'm going to be doing a fresh Windows 7 install as well, until hopefully someone smarter than me can figure out what's causing the REAL problem with OBS+Win10.

Thanks man. I appreciate it! I actually just looked through my post history and got a laugh out of some of them lol.
 

Coma

New Member
I have also tried and failed to get the devs to look into this problem and made a post both on the bug tracker and this forum trying to also draw attention to this issue many months ago.

I can also confirm what Zap has said in that this was not an issue when win 10 was first released with OBS.

The solution to cap frame rate in game (which I have found has mixed success at best) really does not solve the problem.

I have gone so far as to start using a second dedicated streaming machine and have found that OBS STILL drops the fps counter if not in focus with only a VLC video capture of a UDP stream coming from a capture card and no game actually playing on the machine.

So there is defiantly something seriously wrong with either OBS or Windows 10 or both in combination.

As much as I love OBS and appreciate what the devs give us for free, I might not have any other option but to use another streaming program if this can not be fixed.
 
I really don't think it has anything to do with OBS, I think there is an introduced overhead in Windows 10 which is causing OBS performance to be degraded substantially.
I have no API knowledge so cannot confirm, I would put my finger on the implementation of DirectX 12 or in particular, something with the Creators Update.
 

Nessiroj

New Member
Setup:
Gamingrig => HDMI => Ripsaw => USB3.1 PCiE card in the streampc.
Both gaming rig and streaming rig run win 10 fully updated with 1920*1080

It has nothing to do with OBS, i tested it with OBS / SLOBS and Xsplit (lifelong license, not using cause it has issues with my RipSaw) and i get rendring frames on my dedicated streaming pc AFTER the win10 spring update. Today i did a fresh win 10 install and fresh all drivers from the manufactures but still having about 10% renderlag frame (didn't try capping my gamepc fps yet).
How can i get render lag when OBS is just sitting there idle (5% cpu, and using an x264 codec when recording or streaming).
the only thing i can think of is because of my gpu being EOL (AMD 5970)

Even did try to set the output to 720p, but the stuttering remains

few other things i noticed AFTER the win 10 spring update:
You actually see the render lag already even when not recording or streaming, when obs is just sitting there idle.
Funny thing is that the fps NEVER get's above 56,07 fps on the streaming rig in all 3 programs for me AFTER the spring update.....

So i guess we have to wait a few months before MS fixes this, i doubt all 3 programs have the same issue after a certain win10 update....

Fun part is if i hook a monitor to the output of the ripsaw i don't see the stuttering (hdmi passthrough, so the issue could be the signal from hdmi to usb or on the stream rig for displaying the actual "image"

Will run another test tonight, where i use a new profile in obs and only adding my ripsaw to see if the stuttering already happens, if not slowing adding stuff till i can find the "breaking" point
 
Last edited:

MikeHoncho

New Member
Registered an account just to say I am experiencing the same issue over the past few months. I am running:
i7-8700k
ASUS ROG Maximus Hero
32 GB DDR4 - 3200
MSI GTX 1080

I mainly stream Overwatch. Before the past few months I could play at Ultra settings 1080p/120fps and stream 1080p/60 fps rock solid. never dropped a frame on either side. It has degraded over the past few months to where I am throttling to Medium settings 1080p/90 fps and stream to 720p/60 fps and it is still hit or miss in OBS, IN-game stays solid. I have benchmarked my GPU and its performing perfectly. I have tried OBS Studio and some other programs as well all experience the same drops. If I strip down to the game capture and simple text for a title I stay way more stable. One interesting thing I am noticing: I added a little background bar with a smoke effect added as a local gif image looped it absolutely wrecks FPS. I feel like soemthing that small should not cause that much strain on the gpu. Definitely something weird going on in the background here.
 

Nessiroj

New Member
This was absolutely useless to me, as I'm using windows 7 and have this issue
lI doubt you have the same with win 7. Cause this is a specific issue with win 10.

Best to start an own topic so we can help you there, starting with logs / screenshots could help us help you
 
Last edited:

Nessiroj

New Member
Tested abit tonight and solved this issue for me (atleast for this stream, need to check sunday if it stays this way).
Made a new Scenecollection and started from skretch.
So no copying from the old one, and just started with the capturecard => 60 fps => cam => 60 fps and eventuelly i had readded everything in that 1 scene and working flawlessly

So atm i jsut have 3 scenes, 1 start 1 intro and the main scene and no problem. Rock solid 60FPS and no stuttering. So i guess something corrupted the scenes or because i had 35+ scenes stuff got loaded in memory orso?

i don't dare to touch my old scnene collection cause it's fixed atm. But if someone else could try starting from skretch to see if they get the same result might be handy.
 
Last edited:

Zap

New Member
I really don't think it has anything to do with OBS, I think there is an introduced overhead in Windows 10 which is causing OBS performance to be degraded substantially.
I have no API knowledge so cannot confirm, I would put my finger on the implementation of DirectX 12 or in particular, something with the Creators Update.

Yeah I don't believe it's a change in OBS. As the post says, I used to use OBS on Windows 10 around the time the first creators update came out. I locked myself to pre-creators update, old drivers and old OBS versions and I still had the problems, so I don't know. If I truly had to guess I'd assume it's a faulty driver that I kept when I did this testing. I don't actually remember using an old CPU driver, that's the only thing I can think of that wouldn't have been the exact same as before I had the problems.

Tested abit tonight and solved this issue for me (atleast for this stream, need to check sunday if it stays this way).
Made a new Scenecollection and started from skretch.
So no copying from the old one, and just started with the capturecard => 60 fps => cam => 60 fps and eventuelly i had readded everything in that 1 scene and working flawlessly

So atm i jsut have 3 scenes, 1 start 1 intro and the main scene and no problem. Rock solid 60FPS and no stuttering. So i guess something corrupted the scenes or because i had 35+ scenes stuff got loaded in memory orso?

i don't dare to touch my old scnene collection cause it's fixed atm. But if someone else could try starting from skretch to see if they get the same result might be handy.

I've already tried this. I was either losing less frames or POSSIBLY I wasn't losing any, but I definitely added more things/used my old scenes and OBS' fps tanked again. Back when I did this testing I think I noticed if you did somehow manage to keep OBS using under 4-5% you might not run into these problems.

I will give this a try tonight and post results. Will most likely be a couple days before I stream again.

Any results?
 
Last edited:
Top