Question / Help OBS reducing monitor's refresh rate when streaming turned on, very noticeable

[XIIGage]

As the title suggests, I am having a weird issue with my refresh rate being dropped down when OBS is in use. I noticed it in games and then tried a few other tests and noticed it as well. My monitor is at 100hz normally. After noticing the refresh rate drop I went to testufo.com to check the refresh rate. It is normal while OBS is idle, but as soon as I start streaming, recording, or even previewing the stream, it causes the refresh rate to stutter badly and jumps between 60 and 75hz. It would not normally be an issue, but it is not constant and the refresh rate is constantly jumping around, causing weird stuttering. OBS shows a solid 60fps while streaming with no dropped frames and the game shows 90- 120 fps (depending on the game). Even with constant framerates according to the programs, the stuttering is still there while OBS is on.

My specs:

Windows 10
i7-4770k
GTX 980ti
16GB RAM
Game and OBS on SSD.
1440p Main Monitor, 2 x 1080p secondary monitors
150mb down / 25mb up connection

I have tried adjusting all settings in OBS and still nothing. Current bitrate is at 3500, video stream quality is 1440p down sampled to 720p at 60fps. I tried 30fps, downsampling all the way down to the lowest video settings, different capture modes, and it still does it no matter what.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[XIIGage]

Bump. Still having it, haven't found a solution yet =(

 

[Boildown]

OBS has costs on the CPU and GPU. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch and all that.

Post an OBS log file from an at-least five minute encode of high action content. Maybe you can adjust some settings to make it use less resources, leaving more available for your game.

 

[XIIGage]

OBS has costs on the CPU and GPU. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch and all that.

Post an OBS log file from an at-least five minute encode of high action content. Maybe you can adjust some settings to make it use less resources, leaving more available for your game.

I tried reducing everything to lowest quality and still did not improve. Here is Dota 2 streaming at 720p: https://www.twitch.tv/xiigage/v/64460666

I chose dota 2 because it is not too graphic intensive and you can see my FPS in the corner. I am getting around 100 fps in game, but the video is terribly choppy. On my hardware I should not be getting this, so something is amiss.

I added an OBS log and some pictures of my settings.

Sorry, that log is from the other day, here is a piece of the most recent stream (around 2 hours, playing overwatch and streaming at 480p):

20:34:27: =====Stream Start: 2016-05-04, 20:34:27===============================================
20:34:27: Multithreaded optimizations: On
20:34:27: Base resolution: 2560x1440
20:34:27: Output resolution: 852x480
20:34:27: ------------------------------------------
20:34:27: Loading up D3D10 on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (Adapter 1)...
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Audio Format: 48000 Hz
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Audio Channels: 2 Ch
20:34:28: Playback device Default
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Using desktop audio input: Headphones (2- High Definition Audio Device)
20:34:28: Global Audio time adjust: 0
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Using auxilary audio input: Microphone (2- High Definition Audio Device)
20:34:28: Mic time offset: 0
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Audio Encoding: AAC
20:34:28: bitrate: 128
20:34:28: Using graphics capture
20:34:28: Trying to hook process: Overwatch.exe
20:34:28: Scene buffering time set to 400
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: Video Encoding: x264
20:34:28: fps: 30
20:34:28: width: 852, height: 480
20:34:28: preset: faster
20:34:28: profile: main
20:34:28: keyint: 60
20:34:28: CBR: yes
20:34:28: CFR: yes
20:34:28: max bitrate: 3500
20:34:28: buffer size: 3500
20:34:28: ------------------------------------------
20:34:28: SharedTexCapture hooked
20:34:29: Using RTMP service: Twitch
20:34:29: Server selection: rtmp://live-dfw.twitch.tv/app
20:34:29: Interface: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-V (ethernet, 100 mbps)
20:34:30: Completed handshake with rtmp://live-dfw.twitch.tv/app in 156 ms.
20:34:30: SO_SNDBUF was at 65536
21:33:10: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2268 ms to write 463649 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
21:33:11: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1660 ms to write 462541 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:57:54: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1968 ms to write 461332 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:00: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1761 ms to write 463739 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:02: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2306 ms to write 461415 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:04: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1597 ms to write 462648 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:11: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 3302 ms to write 460936 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:13: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1643 ms to write 463857 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:32: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2636 ms to write 463341 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:58:41: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1644 ms to write 461118 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
22:59:10: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1738 ms to write 461997 bytes (buffer: 0 / 463872), unstable connection?
23:09:21: Total frames encoded: 278794, total frames duplicated: 55065 (19.75%)
23:09:21: Total frames rendered: 235010, number of late frames: 23295 (9.91%) (it's okay for some frames to be late)
23:09:21:
23:09:21: Profiler time results:
23:09:21:
23:09:21: ==============================================================
23:09:21: video thread frame - [100%] [avg time: 15.985 ms] [children: 92.7%] [unaccounted: 7.28%]
23:09:21: | scene->Preprocess - [0.00626%] [avg time: 0.001 ms]
23:09:21: | GPU download and conversion - [92.7%] [avg time: 14.821 ms] [children: 1.13%] [unaccounted: 91.6%]
23:09:21: | | flush - [1.06%] [avg time: 0.169 ms]
23:09:21: | | CopyResource - [0.05%] [avg time: 0.008 ms]
23:09:21: | | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.025%] [avg time: 0.004 ms]
23:09:21: Convert444Threads - [100%] [avg time: 0.228 ms] [children: 97.8%] [unaccounted: 2.19%]
23:09:21: | Convert444toNV12 - [97.8%] [avg time: 0.223 ms]
23:09:21: encoder thread frame - [100%] [avg time: 0.521 ms] [children: 6.91%] [unaccounted: 93.1%]
23:09:21: | sending stuff out - [6.91%] [avg time: 0.036 ms]
23:09:21: ==============================================================
23:09:21:
23:09:21:
23:09:21: Profiler CPU results:
23:09:21:
23:09:21: ==============================================================
23:09:21: video thread frame - [cpu time: avg 0.225 ms, total 53015.6 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | scene->Preprocess - [cpu time: avg 0 ms, total 156.25 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | GPU download and conversion - [cpu time: avg 0.079 ms, total 18609.4 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | | flush - [cpu time: avg 0.053 ms, total 12656.3 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | | CopyResource - [cpu time: avg 0.007 ms, total 1875 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | | conversion to 4:2:0 - [cpu time: avg 0.004 ms, total 1015.63 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: Convert444Threads - [cpu time: avg 0.27 ms, total 127094 ms] [avg calls per frame: 2]
23:09:21: | Convert444toNV12 - [cpu time: avg 0.268 ms, total 125969 ms] [avg calls per frame: 2]
23:09:21: encoder thread frame - [cpu time: avg 0.16 ms, total 44765.6 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: | sending stuff out - [cpu time: avg 0.029 ms, total 8359.38 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
23:09:21: ==============================================================
23:09:21:
23:09:21: =====Stream End: 2016-05-04, 23:09:21=================================================

 

[Boildown]

I was going to say that something with Overwatch seems to not be playing nice with game capture. But you're getting this on DOTA too? You have an i7 4770, so the performance should be way better.

Is your CPU overheating/throttling? Maybe your heatsink and fan has failed or is incorrectly mounted.

 

[XIIGage]

CPU only at 40% usage while in game and temps are low. Fan is working properly and is cooled by a hyper 212. I am just as baffled as you are. You can see in that VOD that even dota 2 is very choppy.

 

[Boildown]

You looked at temperature monitoring software? Everything can look installed right, but the 40% CPU usage can be explained by the game not using all the cores and hyperthreading, and the the fans working properly might not matter if the heatsink isn't mounted properly. You should check it with temp monitoring software.

If that checks out (actually, in any case), I'd make sure all your drivers are up to date. If that doesn't help or they are already, try window or monitor capture instead of game capture. Otherwise I have no idea. You could try OBS Studio and if it has problems there, that version has more visibility with the OBS developers, and they might know the fix.

 

[XIIGage]

Yep, temperatures are at 45 degrees under load so it's not that. I tried OBS studio and have the same issue =(