OBS preview stuttering

[Shiya]

Hello! first of all I'm sorry for my bad english it is not my first language. xD

So I have been troubling with OBS this past 2 weeks trying to stream for the first time but I cant get it to work well.... my main issues right now are:
1. A lot of stuttering, and this is not only when I'm live streaming or recording but also in the preview window of OBS, literally I just have OBS open while playing a game and there is a lot of stuttering or dropped frames (I really dont know how to describe it).
2. A lot of frames missed due to rendering lag, I have tried several things to prevent this, like lowering the resolution of the game, setting the textures to low (I usually play on high - medium), capping the FPS to 144 or even on heavier games (like Warzone) I limit the FPS to 80 with the same result

Also all this problems are only presented in OBS, I see the games fluid and with no lag on my monitor

My PC specs are:
i7 9700k
RTX 2070
16GB ram ddr4 2666mhz
QHD 144hz monitor

log file: https://obsproject.com/logs/SUwpWmeRTGRkLkO1

Also I recorded an example of what I mean playing NMS on high settings: https://youtu.be/Y6JCIz5MBII
As shown on the video most of the time when the dropped frames or stutter happens there are still resources for OBS to run smoothly!

Also quick notes of things I tried:
- Running OBS as admin (didnt improve anything)
- Disabled game mode
- Also tried streaming with 2 PCs using NDI but since the problem is not only when live streaming but also just having OBS opened, the streaming computer also receives the same lagged image

 

[Shiya]

03:34:05.894: output 0: pos={0, 0}, size={2560, 1440}, attached=true, refresh=144, name=ASUS MG278
set this display to 120hz in windows so he can grab every second frame !

03:34:05.894: output 1: pos={2560, 0}, size={2560, 1440}, attached=true, refresh=59, name=U28E590
set this to 60 hz

03:34:06.297: base resolution: 1280x720
set the base resolution to 2560x1440

03:34:05.649: Game Bar: Off
03:34:05.649: Game DVR: Off
03:34:05.649: Game DVR Background Recording: Off
03:34:05.649: Game Mode: Off

Set Gamemode on but gamebar and DVR things off

Thanks for your reply!

I made all those changes but I'm still having the same issues when trying to stream NMS, I dont know if there is some kind of bug with the game or something because what is really weird is that neither my GPU nor my CPU are being 100% used but still OBS is missing some frames. What I did notice after the changes is a decreased amount of frames missed due to rendering lag, so I guess that is fixed now. I still get some missed frames but not as much as before.

 

[fatmatrow]

Thanks for your reply!

I made all those changes but I'm still having the same issues when trying to stream NMS, I dont know if there is some kind of bug with the game or something because what is really weird is that neither my GPU nor my CPU are being 100% used but still OBS is missing some frames. What I did notice after the changes is a decreased amount of frames missed due to rendering lag, so I guess that is fixed now. I still get some missed frames but not as much as before.

Dude I'm having a persistent stutter no matter what, I've been working on it for 50 hours over the last couple of days and I'm stumped, the forums are stumped, the reddit is stumped. If I figure out a fix I'll let you know

 

[Shiya]

Dude I'm having a persistent stutter no matter what, I've been working on it for 50 hours over the last couple of days and I'm stumped, the forums are stumped, the reddit is stumped. If I figure out a fix I'll let you know

Omg I thought I was the only one having this problem!! I've been strugling a lot with this issue this past 2 weeks....

I have figured out what my main problem is, OBS is not getting enough resources to run smoothly. My stuttering is mainly caused due to rendering lag and what has worked the most for me to reduce it is streaming with 2 computers using NDI. My config of OBS on the main pc is the native resolution of the monitor as the base resolution as well as the output resolution (my guess about this configuration is resulting on a lower GPU usage from OBS allowing to reduce that rendering lag issue). This is what has worked the most for me, I was able to stream Warzone with almost no stuttering/dropped FPS (yesterday I was unable to do so), so my guess is that has somehow worked liked that. I still have problems streaming No Man's Sky, but I think that is a problem with the game or how OBS is capturing the desktop with that game specifically. All the other games I have tried are working fine now.

Also I did what cyclemat recomended in his past post... hope something of this can help you fix your stuttering! I know is a very frustrating problem to have

 

[fatmatrow]

I just got a 3700x with a good x570 board and I'm picking up a 3060ti tomorrow, I game in 1080@60 and all my monitors are 1080@60 and i stream in 720@60, and it happens with both x264 and nvenc, I shouldn't have a resource allocation issue. I really don't want to run a 2 pc setup. At all.

 

[fatmatrow]

Here's a regular clean log https://obsproject.com/logs/FYtjvk951SSYmyAT

 

[Kraezy]

I have figured out what my main problem is, OBS is not getting enough resources to run smoothly.

Glad you figured it out, but yes OBS requires enough free overhead on CPU /GPU load (depending on which Encoder you're using) in order to prevent rendering/encoding lag.

NDI still requires an overhead, so it's still not advisable to run uncapped frames in games.

 

[fatmatrow]

I upgraded my gpu and I'm still getting stutter even tho everything is at 60fps with an insane amount of overhead

 

[Kraezy]

I upgraded my gpu and I'm still getting stutter even tho everything is at 60fps with an insane amount of overhead

Is the stutter constant or every 20 secs or so (for like 3 seconds)

Is your stats dock reporting any dropped frames/rendering lag ?

 

[fatmatrow]

Is the stutter constant or every 20 secs or so (for like 3 seconds)

Is your stats dock reporting any dropped frames/rendering lag ?

Nope. Logs are always clean. And Now I'm at almost 200 hours of troubleshooting with zero leads. Its a stutter that starts anywhere between 20-50 minutes in, it happens even with no game, and there is no apparent cause, and it happens on two seperate computers. I can't even do a 2 pc stream because the stutter translates over NDI. It happens even when I'm not streaming or recording.

 

[lacie_mouse]

Same problem here been having this since november now... oh joy. I pinpointed a vsync problem I think.

Web browser "VSYNC synchronization", display Hz, and input lag tester

If you run the test you can clearly see vsync problem only in obs. Vsync should be gray on your monitor and flashing blue red on preview. Even with stream pc i’m having this. For me the stutter is really bad in preview and less bad in eventual stream that people see but if you know you can see it.

 

[d3ads1d3]

I been having issues with this for a looong time now, I am curious is there anyone in here with a Radeon card that has this same issue of stutter in OBS preview?

 

[Necril]

I been having issues with this for a looong time now, I am curious is there anyone in here with a Radeon card that has this same issue of stutter in OBS preview?

I have it both on my Radeon computer and my nvidia computer :( It's supper annoying and I've tried so many things already.

 

[Gucks]

Hey, i've been experiencing your problem and i fixed it by unabling preview and minimizing obs before playing game. Hope this helps

 

[mrstartipper]

Hey, i've been experiencing your problem and i fixed it by unabling preview and minimizing obs before playing game. Hope this helps

This issue started popping up for me the past few days. When I disable the Preview (what your stream looks like at the center of OBS Studio) the rendering frame drops (and subsequent FPS drops that seem to occur at the same time) disappear. I'm running this setup at 720p 60fps. If I drop down to 30fps I can enable the Preview.