Question / Help Nvidia Share vs OBS

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HonorguyXNL

Member
Hi All,

I have been wondering something for a long time and I hoped that OBS devs could shed some light on this. OBS is a great program but with my rig I can't even get 720P 30FPS stream going with my rig for some reason despite it having the horsepower for it. I've been streaming on 540P 30FPS with Intel Quick Sync to be able to get my games going reasonably for myself, otherwise it's a lagfest. But not the point right now.

I wonder about the difference of streaming with OBS vs Nvidia Share. As I understood Nvidia Share uses Nvidia NVENC codec or atleast something that goes on the GPU more than the CPU. With Nvidia Share I can stream Battlefield 4 at 1080P @60FPS while gaming on Ultra and having no issue at all. Great eh? Too bad Nvidia Share is very limited in many ways. But then comes OBS, when even trying 720P 30FPS I get stutters and in-game FPS go around 50-60. While with Nvidia Share I can stick 100+ with ease.

My question is, what is the difference in the encoding between Nvidia Share and OBS? Especially since I can stream with amazing quality with Nvidia Share but I can't even get a decent looking stream with OBS.

To give some VOD examples:

Nvidia Share: https://www.twitch.tv/thehonorguy/v/77144716 (1080P 60FPS)

OBS Studio: https://www.twitch.tv/thehonorguy/v/76708640 (540P 30FPS because otherwise I start lagging. Intel Quick Sync used which is lesser quality)

To add again, my question is about the difference between Nvidia Share and OBS regarding the performance impact when streaming. How come I can do way higher quality easily with Share but not OBS?

My rig:
  • Intel I7 4770K @4,4 Ghz
  • Cooler Master Hyper EVO 212 Double Sided fans
  • Asus ROG Maximus VI Hero
  • Kingston 1600 Mhz 16GB
  • EVGA GTX 1080 SuperClocked ACX 3.0
  • 2x SSD Samsung 840 Series
  • Several HDDs
  • Case: Enermax Fulmo GT
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Running a game without vertical sync or a frame rate limiter will frequently cause performance issues with OBS because your GPU will be maxed out. Enable vsync or set a reasonable frame rate limit that your GPU can handle without hitting 100% usage. If that's not enough you may also need to turn down some of the video quality options in the game.

OBS is a video compositor and requires some spare GPU power to work, the NVIDIA software just grabs frames and encodes them. That's the big difference.
 
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HonorguyXNL

Member
Sapiens said:
Running a game without vertical sync or a frame rate limiter will frequently cause performance issues with OBS because your GPU will be maxed out. Enable vsync or set a reasonable frame rate limit that your GPU can handle without hitting 100% usage. If that's not enough you may also need to turn down some of the video quality options in the game.

OBS is a video compositor and requires some spare GPU power to work, the NVIDIA software just grabs frames and encodes them. That's the big difference.
Click to expand...

Okay but, when I look to my hardware monitoring especially EVGA precision X I notice that GPU has loads of spare power left. So this response wouldn't add up in that way. But I am going to test this though it is known that VSync often causes more issues like having severe mouse lagg etc.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Then provide a log file from a recording session where you had a problem so we can see what else might be going on.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Unfortunately there are no streaming/recording attempts in this log, and the GPU doesn't match your listed specs (a 980Ti is reported instead of a 1080).
 
H

HonorguyXNL

Member
Sapiens said:
Unfortunately there are no streaming/recording attempts in this log, and the GPU doesn't match your listed specs (a 980Ti is reported instead of a 1080).
Click to expand...

I forgot I updated it already, GTX 1080 is due on monday for me xD Yes 980 Ti is correct. My bad!

But weird there is no attempt because I just did some testruns. Let me create a new one.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
Are you still running without vsync or some type of frame rate limiter?
Are your monitors running at different refresh rates?
 
H

HonorguyXNL

Member
Sapiens said:
Are you still running without vsync or some type of frame rate limiter?
Are your monitors running at different refresh rates?
Click to expand...

I'm running on a frame limiter of 60 fps right now. My main monitor is 75hz by default and 2nd on 60hz. I do not know if I can change this.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Forum Moderator
The stream looks fine to me with the frame rate capped, though you really should be using x264 to stream. Your CPU should be up to the task pretty easily at 720p30.
 
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