Question / Help OBS lags no matter what I do

[Niek Fasol]

OBS lags no matter what I do. When I put the resolution to 720p it lags less but it's still there. While using quicksync the recording doesn't lag but the quality is bad and there's a notable sound delay.
https://gist.github.com/babb7f819574634d2ef0

 

[Boildown]

Use this guide to set up local recordings of your games:
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.12600

Is that a webcam you're using? You might also try (as an experiment) not using your webcam and seeing if performance improves.

 

[dping]

I know you probably already know this but just to confirm your suspicions, yes, its probably the x264 encoder. typically to fix this a lot of people will change to CPU preset to superfast then set the buffer to 0 (which tells the encoder to use as much bitrate as it needs).
If usings quicksync, the same buffer 0 trick can be used to force higher quality video.

the crf commands in the link boildown send you are not needed unless you need pristine quality video, which in most cases will cause big files to be huge without the end video being much better.

Audio Format: 48000 Hz

you might also make sure that your windows audio device is 48kHz natively. If its 44.1kHz, use that in OBS instead.

Next time you post a log here just use the one from the help menu and copy the link here.

Lastly reguarding quicksync, the windows 7 driver isn't good, but the Windows 8.1 driver is better. If you decide to use QSV,then I would look into this, but based on what you have now, you should be able to tweak x264 without issue.

 

[Niek Fasol]

Monitor capture shows a black screen. I don't need it but I thought I'd tell you.
I can't install the multiplatform version despite having the proper drivers. I know this isn't the right tread for it but it shows how poorly my laptop handles OBS in general.
Do you mean upload the log file and then linking to it? I thought it was weird I needed to upload it to an outside website but I'll do it next time.
I tried the settings you proposed at the same time except disabling the webcam (I'm making vlogs so I need it) but it didn't work.
I'll try if a webcam driver solves the webcam problem but I still have all these other problems.

 

[Niek Fasol]

I deleted the log file text and replaced it with a log file link. It's another log file though.

 

[dping]

I deleted the log file text and replaced it with a log file link. It's another log file though.

Got it, yeah I see you lagging with x264 is actually active.

Total frames encoded: 224, total frames duplicated: 76 (33.93%)

try the superfast preset since you're already doing 0 buffer or QSV or downscale a little more. your source video is 720@30 from your "HP Truevision HD" so in the video tab of OBS, just use a custom resolution of 1280x720 no downscale and ofcourse get your preset to superfast.

 

[Niek Fasol]

I think if I would downscale the resolution to 720p like you said and use quicksync I could get rid of the lag.
Edit: it worked. Why didn't it work on 1080p with x264? Is my laptop too weak or is something wrong with OBS?

 

[dping]

I think if I would downscale the resolution to 720p like you said and use quicksync I could get rid of the lag.
Edit: it worked. Why didn't it work on 1080p with x264? Is my laptop too weak or is something wrong with OBS?

possibly CPU to slow or trying to do to much (game and record).

 

[dping]

I checked it. You're right. The CPU is running at a 100% even when I don't use a game. That explains why it didn't work with higher settings. I never realized how powerful my old desktop was until now, but I need the mobility of a laptop. Thank you for your help.

you might check what process is using your CPU, because if its at 100%, it shouldn't be. or another thought is your CPU is throttling meaning either by temperature or by power profile in windows.

 

[Niek Fasol]

Apparently there are some programs in the background that suck up all my CPU. I've disabled them and now it works. I've also fixed the OBS Multiplatform installation problem I had by installing both drivers instead of just the 64 bit version.

 

[Niek Fasol]

I keep deleting posts and then discovering it makes things hard to understand because of my perfectionism. I'm sorry but I can't help it. It's part of my autism.

 

[dping]

I keep deleting posts and then discovering it makes things hard to understand because of my perfectionism. I'm sorry but I can't help it. It's part of my autism.

Conversations aren't going to be perfect. If they were, you wouldn't be here right? I understood you perfectly.

 

[Niek Fasol]

I spoke too soon. The CPU usage is at around 20% now but OBS still lags when using my prefered settings. It seems my CPU isn't the problem.

 

[dping]

It might actually be temperature. I felt the airvent and it's very warm and it's loud too.

Monitor temps but also post a new log please. restart OBS, encode for 5 minutes then post that log.

 

[Niek Fasol]

My CPU switches from 20 to a 100 procent from one moment to the next. It's likely why I thought I'd fixed it before. The computer gets hotter over time. It seems OBS drains my CPU all on it's own because everything else takes 2 procent max. Here's a log of me recording for six minutes: https://gist.github.com/a2bf45f669dda7698d61

 

[dping]

My CPU switches from 20 to a 100 procent from one moment to the next. It's likely why I thought I'd fixed it before. The computer gets hotter over time. It seems OBS drains my CPU all on it's own because everything else takes 2 procent max. Here's a log of me recording for six minutes: https://gist.github.com/a2bf45f669dda7698d61

set your preset to superfast like I said before, but I also said your source video is 720@30. You will get almost no advantage from recording at 1080@30.


your CPU is not fast enough for 1080@30 with veryfast preset.

 

[dping]

Drivers are good to get. windows 8.1 is decent with driver but the best are from the manufacturer's website. Mainly chipset drivers. reboot and test again.

heat can be an issue, I use a few programs to monitor temps. one of them is realtemp which has a couple of utilities, but mainly is tells me how close I am to tjmax which is the terminal junction max temps for each core.
total frames duplicated: 11 (3.86%) with 720@30 seems like you should be able to do with without an issue. what other programs do you have running? even web browsers, etc.

 

[Niek Fasol]

It doesn't even seem my laptop gets very hot. My room is very hot so I opened the door to let in fresh air from outside just to be sure but OBS shows no difference. I've installed all the HP drivers but aside from some weird side effects nothing has changed. The weird side effects have nothing to do with the lag. They're things like OBS now saying I have two of the same Nvidia video cards even though it didn't before and a Microsoft video driver which apparently counts as a video card. Oh, nevermind. It now says I only have one Nvidia video card and nothing else. I'm starting to think OBS doesn't support my laptop.

 

[Niek Fasol]

I tried monitor recording to see if it finally worked again now that I use the HP versions of the Intel and Nvidia drivers instead of the normal ones and it crashed. Maybe this can tell what the problem is.

 

[Niek Fasol]

Apparently the HP Support Assistent didn't install the chipset driver so I'm going to do manually and see if that helps.