Need advice: network has started fluctuating in OBS

rocksolid87

rocksolid87

New Member
A little info on what I'm working with:
  • Custom PC
    • MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk Wifi AM5 motherboard
    • Ryzen 9 9900X cpu
    • G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5-6000 32gb ram
    • MSI RTX 3050 2X XS Overclocked 8gb gpu (not ideal, I know, but all we could get at the time)
    • EVGA XR1 Lite 1080p USB 3.0 HDMI capture
  • Network
    • Cable internet 175mbps down & 50mbps up
    • Surfboard SB8200 modem
    • TP-Link Archer AX73 router
  • OBS stream settings
    • 1080p 60fps native (no scaling)
    • NVIDIA NVENC HEVC @ 10mbps
    • 160kbps audio
    • Youtube RTMPS
    • Dynamic bitrate
    • Network optimizations
    • TCP pacing
  • Camera (if it matters)
    • Canon XA55 via HDMI
Within the past week or two we've started having a problem with our church live stream where the network on OBS has started fluctuating between 10mbps (or a little over) down to 2mbps or lower and every point in between. We were having some ethernet wiring problems for some time, not quite hitting our max speeds at our sound booth although it didn't seem to be affecting our stream. When this problem started we figured the wiring issue just got worse (as reflected by speed tests) so we ran new high quality Monk cable last Friday. We also put in a new router (the TP-Link listed above) in place of an older ASUS router that just wasn't cutting it wifi-wise (plus the TP-Link is all around better). Now our speed is a consistent 175mbps down and 50mbps up all over our church. The only problem is that this issue with the stream hasn't gone away. The only thing we were really able to try on the fly yesterday evening was turning off power saving settings for the network controller on the PC we stream from. That didn't help.

I'll be at our church this evening doing more diagnosing and trying to get it working. I was hoping to get some advice on this as it's crucial that we get it working before our revival service that begins tomorrow evening.

We've had the PC plugged into a TP-Link TL-SH1016DE smart managed switch, which had never given us any problems and still doesn't seem to be problematic for anything else plugged into it. The switch is plugged in directly to the router. However, after the service I set up another new ethernet cable directly from the router to go directly to our streaming PC so I can bypass the switch to rule that out. We did try over Wifi, which at our sound booth connects to a TP-Link Omada Wifi 6 access point (the model escapes me at the moment, but it yields the full 175x50 speed), but it didn't fix the fluctuating network problem in OBS. The GPU hovers around 45-50% encoding utilization at the settings we've been running. We regularly update everything on the PC. As far as Windows Update goes it should be up to date along with any additional driver updates via Windows Update. The AMD chipset and integrated GPU is also up to date. The firmware on both the router and switch are up to date as well. I just ran a new bios update after church, but haven't had a chance to rule that out yet, but will this evening.

The only other PC we have available at the church is identical to our streaming one. I'll be bringing my personal computer to rule out any sort of issues with the PC itself. Any advice or direction anyone could give would be greatly appreciated! Hopefully the information I've provided will suffice, but don't hesistate to let me know if I've left out any crucial details.
 
Yes, I failed to mention we went through that guide. If process of elimination doesn't yield a fix then I'll definitely be reaching out to our ISP. I wasn't sure if there's anything else we should be checking before then.
 
qhobbes said:
I know we all want 60 FPS but until you get your bitrate sorted, I would advise 30 FPS. More bits per frame.
Click to expand...
I understand, but we've never had issues with things exactly as they are until about a week ago. Changing it isn't going to solve anything with the problem we are having.
 
After doing some further research and testing I think the issue was with the network chipset on the PC motherboard. It's a Realtek RTL8125BG which many say is notorious for packet loss. Perhaps we just never experienced an issue until now. I updated the driver to the latest available from Realtek and also used GoInterruptPolicy to set the priority for the controller to high which is supposed to remedy the problem it has. Afterward I was unable to replicate the problem we were having Sunday. My laptop had no problem streaming on our network and never experienced any fluctuation so I'm certain it's not the network.
 
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