Question / Help OBS makes my games lag heavily.

[dunzo]

I've recently decided to try streaming & recording with OBS, but the issue is that it makes my game lag a lot. This happens even when I am simply previewing my capture and not even actually streaming or recording, but it gets EVEN WORSE when I do stream or record. The game I have tested it with is 'osu!' and I could literally get 150+ fps on my moms laptop.

My upload speed is ~13mbps & I am using a bitrate of 2500. I'm also doing this @60fps, but setting it to 30fps didn't help.
If you want any more info to help me fix this, please ask.

My specs:
Video Card - GTX 980 ti
RAM - HyperX 16gb
CPU - Intel i7-4790k

Log link: https://gist.github.com/75c4867c9e2f66a362082ca75c2402a0

 

[RytoEX]

Since the lag happens before you even record or stream, your upstream speed doesn't play a part here.

Do you have OBS Studio and Osu! on different monitors? If so, what happens when you put them on the same monitor?

Is your graphics card in the correct slot on your motherboard? Is it operating at x16 when this lag happens? You can check the PCI-E speed with GPU-Z.

Are both of your monitors plugged into your Nvidia graphics card? If not, what happens when you plug them both into that card? I'm pretty sure they are (your log indicates this), but just double checking.

Is the FPS in your game capped? If not, cap your game FPS to something reasonable. If it's uncapped, it'll just eat resources trying to crank out as many FPS as possible.

Are you running Osu! in OpenGL mode? If so, have you tried running it in DirectX/Compatibility mode? I'm aware that Osu! was getting rid of DirectX support, so I'm not even sure if this is still possible (I don't play Osu!).

 

[dunzo]

Do you have OBS Studio and Osu! on different monitors? If so, what happens when you put them on the same monitor?

I do have OBS Studio and osu! on different monitors. When I put them on the same monitor, the lag is less consistent, but I still get frequent quick latency spikes.

Is your graphics card in the correct slot on your motherboard?

I didn't know there is a 'correct' slot for GPU; I've always just put it in the first one (closest to CPU.) My motherboard is the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 (just in case it helps.)

Is it operating at x16 when this lag happens? You can check the PCI-E speed with GPU-Z.

I downloaded GPU-Z and I assume you're talking about 'Bus Interface'. For that it says "PCI-E 3.0x16 @ x16 3.0".

Are both of your monitors plugged into your Nvidia graphics card? If not, what happens when you plug them both into that card? I'm pretty sure they are (your log indicates this), but just double checking.

Yes, both of my monitors are plugged into my 980ti.

Is the FPS in your game capped? If not, cap your game FPS to something reasonable. If it's uncapped, it'll just eat resources trying to crank out as many FPS as possible.

It is not capped, but even when I do cap, it doesn't seem do change anything.

Are you running Osu! in OpenGL mode? If so, have you tried running it in DirectX/Compatibility mode? I'm aware that Osu! was getting rid of DirectX support, so I'm not even sure if this is still possible (I don't play Osu!).

I tried running it in Compatibility mode, but I get the same results.

Also, I don't know if this is important, but I use a tablet when playing osu! and latency is something that you really don't want get too high. When I move around my mouse when testing with OBS, the latency becomes very bad & reaches up to 50ms. However, when I use my tablet to move around the cursor, it goes up to 20ms. 20ms is still really high since when I don't have OBS open, I get ~4.5ms and when playing I get <1.5ms.

 

[dunzo]

Solved.

I checked my temps and saw my CPU was overheating. Put in the stock cooler and all is fine now. My liquid cooler broke and was not cooling my CPU. Ordered a new one, but the stock cooler is doing fine since the game is not that intensive.

 

[RytoEX]

Solved.

I checked my temps and saw my CPU was overheating. Put in the stock cooler and all is fine now. My liquid cooler broke and was not cooling my CPU. Ordered a new one, but the stock cooler is doing fine since the game is not that intensive.

CPU overheating would also do it, but it is something I always forget about.