OBS Capture Feels Choppy Unless Game is Capped to 60FPS – Need Help!

C

chaosgaming

New Member
Dear community,


I really need your help on this one — it's been driving me insane.

I've spent countless hours optimizing my OBS stream smoothness for YouTube (1440p 60FPS), but nothing seemed to fix the subtle stutter... until I stumbled upon something strange.

️ Setup:

The issue:
Even though my game runs at 180–200 FPS, the stream sometimes looks choppy — especially when turning the camera left/right (micro stutter or tearing feel).

To test this, I capped the In-game’s FPS to exactly 60 — matching OBS output.

Result (see 00:37 in the stream):
The stream looks buttery smooth, like it's 120–240 FPS… but playing the game becomes nearly unplayable — massive input lag, sluggish motion, totally kills the experience on my 160Hz monitor.

Link to the test video: https://www.youtube.com/live/DwTDikqT2_o

Is there a way to get that same ultra-smooth stream without capping gameplay to 60FPS and ruining my playability?
Any workaround or proper method to keep high-FPS feel for myself but stream at clean 60FPS?


Any advice, tricks, or shared experience is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
 
koala

koala

Active Member
If the game fps is higher than the OBS fps, OBS has to leave out (drop) some frames to get down to 60. If the game fps is evenly dividable by OBS fps, for example game 120 and OBS 60, OBS will drop every other frame and the video appears as smooth. With game 180 fps, OBS will drop 2 and keep 1 for every 3 frames.

However, with game 160 fps and OBS 60 (factor 2.667), OBS has to sometimes drop 2 and sometimes drop just 1 frame, and this unsteady drop is visible as unsteady video. Not really laggy, but unsteady. If the game fps varies and OBS has to drop whatever it needs to get down to 60, it's even more visible.

tl;dr
Make sure the game fps is steady and a multiple of the OBS fps.
 
C

chaosgaming

New Member
koala said:
If the game fps is higher than the OBS fps, OBS has to leave out (drop) some frames to get down to 60. If the game fps is evenly dividable by OBS fps, for example game 120 and OBS 60, OBS will drop every other frame and the video appears as smooth. With game 180 fps, OBS will drop 2 and keep 1 for every 3 frames.

However, with game 160 fps and OBS 60 (factor 2.667), OBS has to sometimes drop 2 and sometimes drop just 1 frame, and this unsteady drop is visible as unsteady video. Not really laggy, but unsteady. If the game fps varies and OBS has to drop whatever it needs to get down to 60, it's even more visible.

tl;dr
Make sure the game fps is steady and a multiple of the OBS fps.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the clear explanation—it makes perfect sense. I’ll run some tests and follow up with the results shortly.
 
C

chaosgaming

New Member
koala said:
If the game fps is higher than the OBS fps, OBS has to leave out (drop) some frames to get down to 60. If the game fps is evenly dividable by OBS fps, for example game 120 and OBS 60, OBS will drop every other frame and the video appears as smooth. With game 180 fps, OBS will drop 2 and keep 1 for every 3 frames.

However, with game 160 fps and OBS 60 (factor 2.667), OBS has to sometimes drop 2 and sometimes drop just 1 frame, and this unsteady drop is visible as unsteady video. Not really laggy, but unsteady. If the game fps varies and OBS has to drop whatever it needs to get down to 60, it's even more visible.

tl;dr
Make sure the game fps is steady and a multiple of the OBS fps.
Click to expand...
You're an absolute legend! You pointed me in the right direction, and now the whole experience feels dramatically smoother — thank you so much! Wishing you an outstanding day!

Initially, capping my game via nvidia control panel to a fixed 120 FPS helped a little, but I was still getting periodic micro-stutters.
What finally made the real difference was this combo:
  • ✅ Set OBS stream to a fixed 60 FPS
  • ✅ In Game Capture source properties, enabled “Limit Capture Framerate” to deliver a clean 60
  • ✅ Installed RTSS (Stealth Mode: ON, Frame Limit: 116) to stabilize frame pacing -> Nvidia built-in FPS capping is a trash, don't use it!!

What an absolute banger of a setup!
Now everything feels responsive, and the stream looks silky-smooth — couldn’t be happier!
Thanks again!!
 
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