Question / Help Monitor capture causing severe FPS drops

ShadowU

New Member
For a start I'd really like to thank everyone who's contributed to this project. It is truly an amazing program, and I never expected a good alternative for Xsplit to be out this quickly.

That being said, I'm having a problem with the program. My PC is pretty powerful so I can play & stream using Game Capture at 60+ FPS in just about any game just fine, however, Monitor Capture is a lot more convenient for me since I usually drag windows around fairly often and having to make add a new source every time I do so isn't really convenient.

Whenever I use Monitor Capture and either start stream or preview stream though, my in-game FPS drops to 20-30, in any game. Sometimes it'll be a stable 30, other times it'll fluctuate constantly. It doesn't matter what graphics settings each game is on, it'll still happen.

Now before you ask, yes, I'm on Windows 7. I've tried with Aero on/off, it doesn't matter. The problem also happens with Window Capture with Aero on/off. The problem doesn't happen on Windows 8, but Windows 8 blows so I'd rather not have to switch to it every time I want to stream.

My specs are as follows:
i7 920 OC @ 3.6GHz
AMD HD7970 OC
6GB RAM
2x monitors

And here's my log:

Code:
Open Broadcaster Software v0.50b - 64bit ( ^ω^)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         920  @ 2.67GHz
CPU Speed: 3440MHz
Physical Memory:  6134MB Total, 2699MB Free
stepping id: 4, model 10, family 6, type 0, extmodel 0, extfamily 0, HTT 1, logical cores 8, total cores 4
monitor 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1200}
monitor 2: pos={1920, 0}, size={1680, 1050}
Windows Version: 6.1 Build 7601 S
Aero is Enabled
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
  Video Adapter Dedicated Video Memory: 3203592192
  Video Adapter Shared System Memory: 2947608576
=====Stream Start: 2013-04-23, 10:45:34===============================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1200
  Output resolution: 768x480
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
Playback device Default
------------------------------------------
Using desktop audio input: Speakers (3- Logitech G35 Headset)
Using 7.1 surround speaker setup (experimental)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 96
Using Monitor Capture
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 768, height: 480
    preset: veryfast
    CBR: yes
    CFR: no
    max bitrate: 400
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 105, number of frames that lagged: 59 (56.19%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Total duplicated frames: 6 (5.71%)
=====Stream End: 2013-04-23, 10:45:39=================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 39.877 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 99.1%] [unaccounted: 0.908%]
| scene->Preprocess - [97.7%] [avg time: 38.973 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [1.36%] [avg time: 0.542 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 1.32%] [unaccounted: 0.0401%]
| | CopyResource - [0.015%] [avg time: 0.006 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.0978%] [avg time: 0.039 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | call to encoder - [1.21%] [avg time: 0.481 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | sending stuff out - [0%] [avg time: 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 

dodgepong

Administrator
Community Helper
Aero should always be off when capturing with Monitor capture. Can you post a log where Aero is disabled when capturing with Monitor capture?
 

ShadowU

New Member
Hey, thanks a lot for the response.

As I've said I've tried with both Aero on/off to no avail, but here's a log anyway.

Code:
Open Broadcaster Software v0.50b - 64bit ( ^ω^)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         920  @ 2.67GHz
CPU Speed: 3440MHz
Physical Memory:  6134MB Total, 2258MB Free
stepping id: 4, model 10, family 6, type 0, extmodel 0, extfamily 0, HTT 1, logical cores 8, total cores 4
monitor 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1200}
monitor 2: pos={1920, 0}, size={1680, 1050}
Windows Version: 6.1 Build 7601 S
Aero is Disabled
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
  Video Adapter Dedicated Video Memory: 3203592192
  Video Adapter Shared System Memory: 2947608576
=====Stream Start: 2013-04-23, 13:35:46===============================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1200
  Output resolution: 768x480
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
Playback device Default
------------------------------------------
Using desktop audio input: Speakers (3- Logitech G35 Headset)
Using 7.1 surround speaker setup (experimental)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 96
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 768, height: 480
    preset: veryfast
    CBR: yes
    CFR: no
    max bitrate: 400
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 545, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Total duplicated frames: 0 (0.00%)
=====Stream End: 2013-04-23, 13:36:08=================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 0.794 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 57.9%] [unaccounted: 42.1%]
| scene->Preprocess - [0%] [avg time: 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [57.9%] [avg time: 0.46 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 56.4%] [unaccounted: 1.51%]
| | CopyResource - [0.756%] [avg time: 0.006 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [1.64%] [avg time: 0.013 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | call to encoder - [54%] [avg time: 0.429 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | sending stuff out - [0%] [avg time: 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

My friend who's running a pretty similar set-up can stream with monitor and window capture, regardless of whether Aero is on or off, just fine, so I've been desperately trying to see what's wrong on my end.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Previous log was wrong one, this one's the right one.
 

dodgepong

Administrator
Community Helper
Your bit rate is miniscule, and you're not capturing anything...OBS is encoding super fast as a result, since it doesn't have anything to do...

By all accounts, since this log doesn't show you using OBS to capture anything, and at a super low bit rate, I can't imagine why it would be causing you drop your in-game frame rate.
 

ShadowU

New Member
The same thing happens when I steam of course, and I haven't tested if upping the bitrate would have any effect on the FPS drops but the friend I mentioned who's running a similar set-up and is using monitor capture and can record just fine, is broadcasting at the same bitrate too.

So in short I guess the only thing I could do is wait for a new revision? :/ I really don't want to have to change to Win8 to stream all the time... Bah.

Thanks for your response anyway.
 

Krazy

Town drunk
Why are you using monitor capture, anyway? It's by far the worst capture method in Windows 7. I know it's more convenient or whatever, but if performance is an issue, it's just really not worth it.

Windows 8 is probably better all around for streaming, anyway. The hate against the OS is entirely without merit.
 

ShadowU

New Member
Krazy said:
Why are you using monitor capture, anyway? It's by far the worst capture method in Windows 7. I know it's more convenient or whatever, but if performance is an issue, it's just really not worth it.

Windows 8 is probably better all around for streaming, anyway. The hate against the OS is entirely without merit.

I know that it's a pretty poor capture method in Win7, but that's how I used to stream with Xsplit and it was very convenient, because I'd frequently drag windows, pictures, etc on my monitor and then back out, when I needed to.

Edit: It also makes it much easier to stream games like League of Legends that have a separate launcher from the actual game, eliminating the need to set up scenes and complicated scene switch parameters for each.

I know that it's not really worth it, which is why I'll probably just stick with Game Capture for now, but I just wanted to see if anybody has any idea why this peculiar problem would be happening to me and not my friend, or other people for whom monitor/window capture has no problems.

And without getting into a debate about operating systems, it's obviously hugely inconvenient to have to switch to a new OS just to stream, particularly so since I don't like it - which is why it's just sitting there and not getting any use.

In any case, thanks for your response. If you could think of anything that could possibly be the cause of this problem, I'd be very grateful to know.
 
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