Question / Help OBS dropping frames when out of focus or non-active window

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Kylix

Member
I'm getting a stable 60fps in OBS when it's the active or in-focus window, but when I switch over to my game, OBS drops down to about 10-15fps. Any idea why?

My game runs at 60fps whether it's active or not, but OBS only runs at 60fps while it's the active window. This is happens without even streaming.

Please advise.
 
K

Kylix

Member
https://gist.github.com/486cdef63c0c31248469bcce50fd25f7

OBS starts out at 60fps, then when I go into the game window, OBS drops to about 25-30fps. Then when I switch to another scene, OBS drops to about 7-10 fps. My game remains at 60fps while all of this is happening.

OBS CPU usage is 5-15% max and I have a GTX 980 GPU with 3 monitors active. (Game is full screen on only 1 monitor.)

Overall CPU usage is only about 40-50% with everything going. (i7-7700k, 16GB RAM)

EDIT:

On the same scene that gets 7-10fps, if I switch back to OBS as the active window, it goes back up to 60fps, with the game still running at 60fps in the background.
 
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Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
Turn off Windows 10 game mode, it actively reduces the CPU and GPU time of other applications.
 
K

Kylix

Member
Xaymar said:
Turn off Windows 10 game mode
Click to expand...

I don't even see a game mode in my Windows 10 settings. Everything I've looked up on Google to turn that mode off doesn't seem to exist for me. I might not be up-to-date yet, so I don't think it's affecting me. I'll be sure to turn it off if it pops up after I update Windows to the creator's update.
 
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IMI4tth3w

New Member
My wife is having this EXACT same issue. When the OBS window is selected, full 60fps. as soon as i click off the window onto the game it drops badly. She stopped streaming in February and recently started to stream again and now its doing this.

PC specs are i7 4770K + 780ti + windows 10 (has not updated to anniversary yet) + obs studio 64
Encoding settings 720p/60fps using nvec encoder. 3000 bit rate.
internet speeds: 300Mbps down 20Mbps up
 
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Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
Are you limiting the FPS in the game itself? If you aren't doing this, then OBS will have less GPU time available to it.
 
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IMI4tth3w

New Member
Yes. The FPS is being limited in game (overwatch). The in game fps is a solid 144 while obs will stutter around.
 
Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
If you tab out of the game/focus OBS, does the FPS in the game drop? If so, something is either limiting background application performance or your GPU is hitting its hard limit.
 
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IMI4tth3w

New Member
the fps of overwatch drops to 60fps, but i think this is a feature of the game. Overwatch drops to the same fps on my pc which is not having this issue with OBS.
 
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IMI4tth3w

New Member
okay another update. It seems on my wife's pc (4770k + 780ti) that if i lower the settings in overwatch so that gpu load % is between 70-90%, i'm able to keep near 60fps steady in OBS. once it gets closer to 99% the fps in OBS tanks.

Now you could say i'm hitting a hard gpu limit, but this does not happen on my pc (4790K + 980ti). I can play gta v which maxes my gpu load at 99% and still get solid 60fps in OBS when streaming.
 
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enthalpy87

New Member
Since a couple of weeks ago i have the exact problem, even though gamemode is disabled. half a year ago it was working just fine :(
 
B

Brett Frazier

New Member
Hello,

I would like to add that I am having the exact same issue here with obs studio. I tried to run Alien Isolation and as soon as I take my cursor of my second screen obs tanks from 60 to like 7 FPS. I have recently come back to streaming and upgraded to OBS Studio 64bit.

I know my computer can run this game at max and with OBS up and running at the same time sinces I was doing this about a year ago. To tell you the truth something interesting just happen the other day where I got everything to work fine both the game and OBS Studio at 60fps but I am not able to reproduce it. I turned off Nvidia surround for triple monitor setup with my extra monitor and went into regular mode. Instant success but the next day I updated my GTX 1060 and it came back. This happens with all my games.

Something is up and I can't seem to pin it down, has anyone else had success?
 
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IMI4tth3w

New Member
still no success. So far i've just had to turn down games and set the fps limiter so that gpu usage doesn't get too close to 100%. once gpu usage gets near max, obs fps dips heavily.

Now i'm guessing that when you select obs as the active window, the game gpu usage goes down and allows obs to go back to 60fps. which is why we are seeing this phenomenon. but it might just be masking the real issue.

But still something is up since my pc has zero issues with obs dropping frames at 100% gpu usage in gta v.

been wanting to upgrade my wife's graphics card anyways so she just ordered a new gtx 1070 to replace the 780ti. will update if the issue is still there.
 
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Brett Frazier

New Member
IMI4tth3w said:
still no success. So far i've just had to turn down games and set the fps limiter so that gpu usage doesn't get too close to 100%. once gpu usage gets near max, obs fps dips heavily.

Now i'm guessing that when you select obs as the active window, the game gpu usage goes down and allows obs to go back to 60fps. which is why we are seeing this phenomenon. but it might just be masking the real issue.

But still something is up since my pc has zero issues with obs dropping frames at 100% gpu usage in gta v.

been wanting to upgrade my wife's graphics card anyways so she just ordered a new gtx 1070 to replace the 780ti. will update if the issue is still there.
Click to expand...

I am still having the same issue and I am unable to stream anymore because of this issue. Its not just OBS I have tried Xsplit and it still has the same issue I am so sad /=

I'll shot you guys an update if I find anything.
 
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AshleyNicolexo

AshleyNicolexo

New Member
It is a windows 10 issue , been dealing with it since a couple updates ago with windows 10. I think I have found a work around. So far it has been working fine for me and no FPS dips or stutter after doing this.

Nvidia cards since that's what I have and use the Nvidia control panel to do this.

1. Right click on the desktop then click Nvidia Control Panel.
2. Then once in the control panel , on the left had side navigate to "Adjust Desktop Size and Position" under "Display".
3. Once there set all the monitors to "Perform Scaling On: GPU" and "Override The Scaling Mode Set By Games and Programs"
(See Picture Below)
sZdkRvr.png


4. Hit Apply , Bottom right hand corner of the window to make the changes. Then you should be good!

P.S. - Little side note when using OBS as a monitor/game clone this way keep the main OBS window on your MAIN monitor just minimized while having the full screen preview on whatever monitor you choose.
(I am using this method because I have a 144hz monitor and I don't want my stream to have tearing and bc windows 10 clone monitor feature is dumb AF and locks refresh rates to the lowest denominator. But this seems to fix it for me almost like 99% of the times even when maxing out my GPU on gaming!)

Hope this works for y'all
 
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Videophile

Videophile

Elgato
AshleyNicolexo said:
It is a windows 10 issue , been dealing with it since a couple updates ago with windows 10. I think I have found a work around. So far it has been working fine for me and no FPS dips or stutter after doing this.

Nvidia cards since that's what I have and use the Nvidia control panel to do this.

1. Right click on the desktop then click Nvidia Control Panel.
2. Then once in the control panel , on the left had side navigate to "Adjust Desktop Size and Position" under "Display".
3. Once there set all the monitors to "Perform Scaling On: GPU" and "Override The Scaling Mode Set By Games and Programs"
(See Picture Below)
sZdkRvr.png


4. Hit Apply , Bottom right hand corner of the window to make the changes. Then you should be good!

P.S. - Little side note when using OBS as a monitor/game clone this way keep the main OBS window on your MAIN monitor just minimized while having the full screen preview on whatever monitor you choose.
(I am using this method because I have a 144hz monitor and I don't want my stream to have tearing and bc windows 10 clone monitor feature is dumb AF and locks refresh rates to the lowest denominator. But this seems to fix it for me almost like 99% of the times even when maxing out my GPU on gaming!)

Hope this works for y'all
Click to expand...
This also needs to be used when using 120hz/144hz monitors and cloning the outputs to a capture card like the HD60 Pro/HD60 S.
 
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