Lowest settings for OBS studio for low end pc

[rec]

HI so I have a really low end pc and i would like to RECORD my gameplay. I do not care about the quality and I also do not have nvidia graphics card. Whenever I run the game and record at the same time I get screen freezes ad input lag. Please give me the lowest settings possible for recording in obs. Specs-

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7020U CPU @ 2.30GHz 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 4.00 GB
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

 

[DayGeckoArt]

Your CPU has a built in Quicksync encoder so make sure you use that setting. Record at whatever resolution your screen is. Set it to constqp with a value between 20 and 30 to start with, and adjust from there to get the quality you want

 

[rec]

Which value is best quality and which is the best performance?

 

[rec]

Also what about the video settings

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

The above screen shot is the video recording settings, the most important being the encoder setting. Then comes rates control, and I defer to the comments made by others

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/best-settings.140188/#post-514693 @FerretBomb comment #2
2) Record using CQP or CRF, not CBR. CBR is only used for streaming, where the back-end infrastructure requires it. CQP/CRF are quality-target based encodes, and will use as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a constant image quality. No wasting bitrate on simple/slow scenes, no choking on fast-moving or complex scenes. 22 is a good starting point. 16 will result in much larger files, but near-perfect video. 12 should only be used if you plan to edit and re-encode later, and will be VERY large. Anything lower than 12 shouldn't be used unless you know exactly why you need it, and what problems it can cause.

then additional comments from those who know way more than I

Related to # 2 above ["FerretBomb, post: 529433, member: 4349"] Don't record with CBR or VBR, use CQP instead.
CQP is a quality-based encoding target that uses as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality level.
22 is the normal 'good' point, 16 for 'visually lossless', and 12 is generally the lowest you'll want to go even if you plan to edit the video later (to cut down on re-encoding artifacts). The lower the number, the closer to 'lossless' video it gets. But below 16 the filesizes get ridiculously large very fast.

For easy setting, use simple output mode instead of advanced and choose "High Quality, Medium File Size" as quality. Or if you insist on advanced output mode, increase the cq value to get smaller files. Increasing the cq value by 3-4, you're halving the file size.

…. recording, use a quality based rate control like CQP (if you use nvenc on a Nvidia GPU) or CRF (if you use x264) or ICQ (if you use Quicksync on a Intel iGPU). CBR/VBR is for streaming only.

Oh, and another issue may be, depending the what else you are running, is that you are running out of RAM. 4GB RAM is a small amount
So, be sure to look into optimizing your operating system (not just OBS). Make sure things that don't need to be running aren't. Microsoft is mimicing Apple in some aspects, and turns on services assuming a powerful PC with lots of resources. You will most likely need to adjust (no, I can't tell you what, as that depends on what you are doing. I can tell you what I do... but that is for my use case and preferences, not yours). And turn off background processes not needed (most likely)... etc

 

[rec]

The above screen shot is the video recording settings, the most important being the encoder setting. Then comes rates control, and I defer to the comments made by others

then additional comments from those who know way more than I

Oh, and another issue may be, depending the what else you are running, is that you are running out of RAM. 4GB RAM is a small amount
So, be sure to look into optimizing your operating system (not just OBS). Make sure things that don't need to be running aren't. Microsoft is mimicing Apple in some aspects, and turns on services assuming a powerful PC with lots of resources. You will most likely need to adjust (no, I can't tell you what, as that depends on what you are doing. I can tell you what I do... but that is for my use case and preferences, not yours). And turn off background processes not needed (most likely)... etc

My RAM amount is ok as it usually stays beneath3.5gb ram but my main problem is that I have a weak CPU. So is there any way to reduce CPU usage as OBS while recording always uses 15% of my cpu which causes lag in my game.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

OBS is a complex tool. Is there a way to optimize OBS for lower hardware resource demands? Yes, lots. There isn't a simple answer to your question, as it all depends
- Start with the encoder settings above, keeping recording quality really low (high #) to start
- don't use any filters, effects, etc
- Keep base canvas & output resolution the same (so no re-scaling)
do NOT underestimate CPU impact to do real-time video encoding. So optimizing the rest of your OS may well be required to make 'room'. And as much as I like, and use OBS, if you are doing a simple screen recording (no compositing) then built-in Windows screen recording or other tool may have lower resource demands and meet your needs.

 

[rec]

Built in windows xbox gaming bar just causes even more lag thats why i disabled it and i have already used all the above settings still it uses around 15% CPU while recording

 

[quartz gamer]

run obs as administator