Question / Help OBS "Lag/Stuttering" even at ridiculous low resolution/bitrate

[KayJay]

Hi all

I have been struggling for a week or two now to get OBS working fine. I tried every single thing I could find. Every tutorial and every guide. I recorded at 720p30, I recorded with 500 bitrate, I recorded using the NVENC, I recorded using the software, I recorded on a SSD, I recorded on a HDD, I recorded on an external HDD, I recorded with my antivirus off, I recorded with antivirus on, I recorded with the auto config, I recorded using manual settings, I recorded using simple settings, advanced whatever damn setting you can imagine. I can not get rid of these microstutters. I have no browsers open, I shut off the Preview function,... I am trying VBR, CBR, simple mode, 500kbps bitrate, 2050 bitrate, nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing fixes it.

I monitor my game performance and my CPU and GPU are roughly around 35/40 for GPU and 50% for CPU with the game only. When adding OBS to that it caps at 65/70% for both CPU & GPU. So it is not possible I guess I am being throttled by the maximum capacity of my hardware.

I am just completely clueless right now. I have absolutely no idea anymore what to do. Would anyone be able to help me? I tried everything I could find before creating a thread.

My log file:
https://hastebin.com/epikozakip

 

[Harold]

Turn off 2-pass encoding in your settings and make sure the nvidia in-game overlay is off.

 

[KayJay]

Hi Harold,

Thanks for the quick feedback. I don't have GeForce experience installed so that is not a possible issue. I just tried turning off 2-pass encoding and the outcome is identical. Even at ridiculous bitrates of 200 or 500 and NVENC coding, the stutters are there.
.
I suppose the stuttering I see are the "lagged frames" as noted in the pastebin? I tried now using compatibility settings and running the game like so, same thing.

When I move from NVENC to x264 for example, the stuttering is worse making the screen freeze for seconds. I don't know if it is anything related though. My CPU and GPU are barely at 90% usage even when using x264.

And contrary to what the log says I have Bitdefender turned off.

Edit I uploaded some to Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4DzGO17ILM&feature=youtu.be

The stutters seem to happen randomly. For example from 00:57 to 00:59, 1:17 until the ball hits the post after which it is buttery smooth again, then at 1:36 another major hiccup (only in the video, nothing in the game), around 2:45 again,.. and I can go on.

I just can't comprehend that with my PC, which admittedly is not the greatest anymore but still, I can't get a decent recording out of it. Incredibly disappointing and demotivating.

 

[KayJay]

I take the silence as a sign I should give up trying I suppose.

 

[alexitx]

Hi, KayJay!
I've posted a thread today for the exact same thing couple hours ago. (You can see it a little bit down in the same category) This is just ridiculous...
I have a lot of experience, so to speak in recording software, video framerates, bitrates, etc. But I cannot slove these issues from months. (Having them from when I started using OBS Studio overall, maybe year and a half - two ago)
I've tried literally hundreds of things, experimented with everything and no success... (This is not hardware issue, I'm 100% sure in that)

 

[BK-Morpheus]

Sounds like GPU load spikes over 90% but the log shows only very little rendering lag (not enough GPU resources for OBS).
With x264 instead of NVENC, the CPU is overloaded:
"Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 3204/7839 (40.9%)"

Also I saw that Windows GameDVR is "on". I would turn it off, cap ingame FPS to 60, maybe even try to play with VSYNC.

 

[KayJay]

How is possible that the log says my CPU is overloaded when monitoring I never reach 100%? I have vsync on, FPS are capped at 60 and I never put GameDVR on.

 

[BK-Morpheus]

Note sure, how you have monitored the CPU load, but x264 1080p 60fps even at ultrafast preset is very demanding in fast games for an i5 6600k processor, so I would say the encoder overload in the last recording test can be expected.

 

[KayJay]

I see. I can understand that cause the lag was significantly more present compared to using NVENC. But what would the cause of the microstuttering be during the recorrding with NVENC for example? And how does the dropped frames in my log compare to others using similar CPU's? is it in line or should I not expect any dropped frames when using NVENC? The load should definitely not be 100% when using NVENC as far as I monitored (just task manager though).

I'm very sorry as I really hate to complain, I'm trying to understand it as much as possible even with my limited knowledge of the topic. I do really appreciate the feedback.