Question / Help OBS causing in-game lag (solved?)

TheSpaceman

New Member
Yesterday I switched from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130 (complete reinstall with all drives wiped), and since then OBS has caused massive lag in every game. Massive lag meaning my FPS goes straight from 100+ to sub 30. This never happened with Windows 8.1, so it might be Windows 10's fault.

So far I have tried:
  • Completely reinstalling graphics drivers, OBS and directx
  • Using Nvidia NVENC and x264 encoder
  • Trying all combinations of output resolution (1080p, 720p), bitrate (1000-10000) and framerate (30 and 60)
  • Changing in-game settings from min to max in all games mentioned above
  • Enabling and disabling SLI (with Windows 8.1 enabling SLI didn't lower FPS while recording)
This is my log from Dishonored with SLI enabled using Nvidia NVENC. Also don't mind the bitrate, I'm using OBS to record, not to stream.

http://pastebin.com/K3RFt3zh

Tell me if you need logs with different settings or if I missed something.
 
Yesterday I switched from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130 (complete reinstall with all drives wiped), and since then OBS has caused massive lag in every game. Massive lag meaning my FPS goes straight from 100+ to sub 30. This never happened with Windows 8.1, so it might be Windows 10's fault.

So far I have tried:
  • Completely reinstalling graphics drivers, OBS and directx
  • Using Nvidia NVENC and x264 encoder
  • Trying all combinations of output resolution (1080p, 720p), bitrate (1000-10000) and framerate (30 and 60)
  • Changing in-game settings from min to max in all games mentioned above
  • Enabling and disabling SLI (with Windows 8.1 enabling SLI didn't lower FPS while recording)
This is my log from Dishonored with SLI enabled using Nvidia NVENC. Also don't mind the bitrate, I'm using OBS to record, not to stream.

http://pastebin.com/K3RFt3zh

Tell me if you need logs with different settings or if I missed something.
the issue is with either how MS changes Aero, or how DX12 has changed which affects the game/window capture methods. a valid work-around for the time being is monitor capture, which should give you your frames back. I have experimented with this since first public insider preview (which I dont recall having this issue) so my best assumption is is has to do with them disabling certain aero features because of the extra load it put on the Surface RT. Read a little here:https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/38vyn7/the_true_reason_behind_aero_glasss_removal_from_a/
 
the issue is with either how MS changes Aero, or how DX12 has changed which affects the game/window capture methods. a valid work-around for the time being is monitor capture, which should give you your frames back. I have experimented with this since first public insider preview (which I dont recall having this issue) so my best assumption is is has to do with them disabling certain aero features because of the extra load it put on the Surface RT. Read a little here:https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/38vyn7/the_true_reason_behind_aero_glasss_removal_from_a/
I tried using monitor capture. It worked fine until I started a game (Dishonored again in this case) and the display driver crashed. I also tried it with my second monitor disabled, but it still crashed. This problem also seems to be specific to OBS because Dxtory among others work fine (or maybe they don't use the same technique to capture).

Log from the crash: http://pastebin.com/MXneVmX1

EDIT: I tried with window capture and it kinda worked. FPS only dropped from 130 to about 70, but there was one strange thing. Two minutes long video was 400MB in size. It's almost like OBS is trying to capture nearly lossless video (that would explain the lag).
 
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I tried using monitor capture. It worked fine until I started a game (Dishonored again in this case) and the display driver crashed. I also tried it with my second monitor disabled, but it still crashed. This problem also seems to be specific to OBS because Dxtory among others work fine (or maybe they don't use the same technique to capture).

Log from the crash: http://pastebin.com/MXneVmX1
I almost forgot to mention that you'll need to run your game in windowed mode or windowed no border mode
 
I almost forgot to mention that you'll need to run your game in windowed mode or windowed no border mode
That seems to work in games that support borderless windows mode. I quess it works for the time being, but I also hope that it gets patched when windows 10 is released. Thanks for your help!
 
That seems to work in games that support borderless windows mode. I quess it works for the time being, but I also hope that it gets patched when windows 10 is released. Thanks for your help!
Its easier to patch something that wont change. so if OBS needs to adapt, it will be after the final product is out I would think. so much changes in preview to preview; things break, gets fixed, rebroken, the workarounds break so you have to undo those....
 
Its easier to patch something that wont change. so if OBS needs to adapt, it will be after the final product is out I would think. so much changes in preview to preview; things break, gets fixed, rebroken, the workarounds break so you have to undo those....
That's why I said "when Windows 10 gets released" (or maybe month after would be better). Anyway, I think it has something to do with latest Nvidia drivers and DX12 like you said. I don't have access to my desktop for few days, but after that I might test it using older drivers.
 
That's why I said "when Windows 10 gets released" (or maybe month after would be better). Anyway, I think it has something to do with latest Nvidia drivers and DX12 like you said. I don't have access to my desktop for few days, but after that I might test it using older drivers.
Its more than likely the fact that Windows 10 removed some Aero features.
 
Its more than likely the fact that Windows 10 removed some Aero features.
Could be that too, but installing older drivers takes like 10 minutes. There's no reason not to try it in my opinion. Also, I heard that it should work with at least some games, so I might even reinstall Windows.
 
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Could be that too, but installing older drivers takes like 10 minutes. There's no reason not to try it in my opinion. Also, I heard that it should work with at least some games, so I might even reinstall Windows.
the most recent release, they fixed many permission related issues so that fixed games with launch issues.
 
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