Question / Help Optimal Recording settings 2560x1440p

shr0udedshad0w

New Member
Hi OBS forum. I've seen this question asked a lot, but I've also seen about 100 different answers depending on pc specs and so forth, which is why I'm creating my own thread. I want to record my gameplay here are the req:
2560x1440p
60FPS
Extremely high quality, 50MB/s or lower pref.
These are my specs:
9700K Clocked at 5GHz on all cores.
MSI 2080ti
Recording to external 1TB harddisk.

I record First Person Shooters, meaning theres ALOT of movement.
I want settings that wont give me any stutters whatsoever, with really REALLY high quality, it shouldnt really be a problem considering my specs.
Any help is appreciated, thanks :D
 

bobalazs

New Member
I used to record at 50k bitrate @2560x1440 with NVENC codec.
the new nvenc codec supposed to be better, but for me it is choppy when gpu usage is on maximum.
 

shr0udedshad0w

New Member
After several hours of testing I came to a conclusion. The quality turned out being really high, while the storage space remained low. Here are the settings, and since I'm personally tired of people posting half of their settings, I'll make a dummy proof version.
Read it carefully, since I spent many hours researching different stuff so I could understand it. This is a lightning course:
Specs:
I7-9700K clocked at 5GHz on all 8 cores.
MSI RTX 2080 ti (only base overclock, since overclock makes some games unstable).
Corsair Vengeance CL16 3200MHz 16GB Ram
Recording storage entity (Where is the recording stored): HDD 7200RPM.

OBS Version: 23.1.0 64-Bit Windows. No mods/addons.
Settings:

Video:
Base: 2560x1440
Output (Scaled) Res: 2560x1440 (Which means no downscaling, larger file sizes, but it doesnt have to go through the downscale filter, saving a little cpu%).
Downscale filter: Irrelevant.
Commn FPS value: 60
Rest of the settings are irrelevant.

Advanced:
Process Priority: Normal
Renderer: Direct3D 11
Color Format: NV12YUV Color space: 601
YUV Color Range: Full.
Rest of the settings are irrelevant.

Output:
Output mode: Advanced
Recording:
Type: Standard
Recording Format: mkv (Best file extension to avoid corrupted mp4 files).
Audio Track: 1
Encoder: NVIDIA NVENC H.264 (new).
Custom Muxer settings: LEAVE THIS BLANK
Rate Control: VBR
Bitrate: 30000
Max Bitrate: 70000
Keyframe Interval: 0
Preset: Max Qality
Profile: High
Look Ahead: DISABLED / NO TICKER
Psycho Visual Tuning: ENABLE / TICKER
GPU: 0
Max B-frames: 1

I recorded 25 minutes and 15 seconds of gameplay and the file ended up taking up 5.27 GB of storage.
The equation for MB/s is as follows (GB*1024)/(MINUTES*60+SECONDS) = mb/s. This equation will tell you the average of how many megabytes per second the video was recorded in. So: (5.27*1024)/(25*60+15) = 3.56 MB/s
THIS IS A VERY GOOD OUTPUT FOR THE QUALITY PRODUCED.
Notes:
Make sure that your drive has a write speed higher than the video MB/s output, or it should cause problems with the video. I suggest starting a recording on an SSD, then on another drive, and comparing the results, this will show if the storage location makes any difference. These settings will only work with a monitor running 2560x1440 and NVENC New compatible GPU's.
If you watch a recording and notice that it becomes choppy sometimes, try making the Max Bitrate Higher. VBR only takes the storage needed, meaning that making the max bitrate higher doesn't necessarily mean larger files. If that doesnt work, try changing the output destination to a drive with higher write speeds.
These settings are geared towards really high quality for people with high-end PC's.
When Nvidia made NVENC new they outdid themselves. If the GPU isn't under 95%+ load you wont notice that you're recording. The fps output and image latency will be very close to identical when comparing to when you're not recording. So i think that NVENC is a must.
How did I come to these settings? Did I just copy some Redditors settings?:
No, I sat for hours taking notes every time i changed settings, named the output files to the according notes, and comparing them afterwards. And this is the shittiest part, but also the most important. ONLY CHANGE ONE SETTING AT A TIME. If you change more than one variable you wont know which had the effect on the output.
Why VBR?
I tried all the rate control settings. Some people say that the CQP setting is the way to go with recordings, what they fail to mention is that when you might get a SLIGHTLY, and i cannot emphasize slightly enough, better image quality, the file size is about 10 times larger. CBR is meant for streaming with constant bitrate. VBR produced the best overall output for recording.
 

koala

Active Member
I'm personally tired of people posting half of their settings, I'll make a dummy proof version.
There is no dummy proof version, because every single situation is different. Your settings are only good for your situation. For exactly your hardware, exactly the game you record, exactly the impact you allow recording to have on the game, exactly your quality requirements for the footage, and exactly what you want to do with the recordings afterwards. Because of that, you also didn't get any configuration proposals here: it's different for everyone.

In general, you posted no surprise configuration. But in some details, different to what others might want to use, and in that regard it is the expression of what I mean with "only good for exactly your situation".
 
hmm gonna go ahead and try these, though downscaled from 3440x1440 to your resolution, been recording with QCP since forever.

Figured your resolution wasn't ultrawide so i record in the next best from my resolution so far so good, a couple of skipped frames still.

Specs - gtx 1080TI
amd ryzen 2700x
32gb of ram
 
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