Performance drop in fresh install

[MichielV]

Today I Installed macOS Sonoma 14.5 on a 4 year old Mac (intel i9, 32GB, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB)). There is a lot space on the SSD Since this install, +/- 3-5 minutes after starting OBS, OBS is very slow. I have tried OBS studio 2.9.0.2 and the latest version 3.1.2 (both intel based).

use case:
Just 1 simple scene, 1 source (ATEM Mini Extreme ISO 9.5 via UBB) video at 1080p25 results in dropping frames and heavy CPU Load). The fans are blowing as hell.

I never head issue's on this Mac before when I was using macOS Monterey.

 

[MichielV]

This is a screenshot of the CPU usage.

 

[MichielV]

Anyone?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Numerous threads in this forum on recent MacOS changes and implications with OBS Studio. I'm NOT a MacOS person, so I can't answer more specifically, but pay attention to the Encoder selected, and ensure it is the appropriate one for your system. Also, be aware of security changes at Operating System level, including potentially needing to explicitly grant OBS Studio access to certain Sources (like webcam & mic)
sorry, this will get technical and specifics matter.

In your case, I'm suspecting OBS Studio defaulted to a CPU encoder instead of a GPU offload based one

 

[MichielV]

Thanks Lawrence for your reply. There are a lot threads indeed, but unfortunately I didn't find the answer yet. I also tried all the encore options, but no success. I'm looking to all the (hidden) security or access settings, but it seems a bit complicated and I am not that technical. It's also hard to determine what exactly is the trigger that caused the cpu/gpu overload. Sometimes it already starts even without any inputs connected. Sometimes only when I start streaming to YouTube. Reproducing is not easy.

I am afraid that the combi Sonoma / IntelMac and OBS is not a good combination.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

see pinned thread in this forum on posting OBS Studio log... read the details.... needs to include Streaming/Recording session.. link in my .sig to Windows pinned post is more descriptive, if I recall correctly

Beware plugins which may or may not be compatible.
Beware background processes which may be pushing system 'over the edge'

Not sure exactly which Encode options you tried, but going through recent forums posts from others on same issue should point you in the right direction

 

[MichielV]

Thanks Lawrence, for the links and tips. I did use the Log analyser as well. Most critical was the 96.5% CPU encoder overload, even when I did try the hardware acceleration. I am afraid MacOS Sonoma (14) doesn't make use of the AMD Pro 5500M GPU and is only optimised for the M1,2,3 internal GPU's (that's an assumption).

There not many threads including Intel based Macs combined with Sonoma and OBS. My experience with macOS Monterey (12) on the Intel machine and OBS was excellent, even with a lot of other apps open. The difference is too big. The only active application is OBS and one browser tap for YouTube. Connection is 50Mbit down/up (stable).

I will give it a try now with reinstall the MacBook Pro with Ventura (MacOS 13). To be continued...

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Good luck, and for the community, please post what you find

A quick google search pulled up an Adobe article and reference to needing to disable the Intel iGPU to have the Radeon work as expected ... maybe something to look into... sounds like an Operating System /driver bug

 

[MichielV]

Well, I just take one step between for testing the situation.
In stead of going back to MacOS Ventura I gave it one more change with a clean install of Sonoma without any application on it. So, no dropbox, no office, no adobe cloud and no FCPX and Motion, no stream deck etc.

First of all, I started OBS, WITHOUT the ATEM connected. I only used the webcam as a video source. Yes, just a 720p stream to Youtube.
after 15 minutes tere is a CPU overload already. I used all the video encoder options. The streaming fails again and again and again.
results were the same for OBS Studio 29.0.2 and version 3.1.2

From here I could decide to stop the test, but I was just to curious and continue with the ATEM at 1080p and 8.000kbps. No surprise the cpu overload occurs very fast. Fan noise is loud!!

Oh, and one more thing: Using OBS Stats Tool of monitoring?... that results in compleet crash foor the MBP. Same thing by the second attempt: again a crash of the MBP (and very hot computer).

CONCLUSION: OBS Studio on a Intel-base Mac with macOS Sonoma is a big NO GO!!!!!!!!

Next week, I make a clean install with macOS Ventura and start over the test. On a Mac mini M2, it works excellent. Let's see what how an Intel-based MBP will handel this:
MacbookPro model 2019, INTEL i9 8-core (16 cores with HT).
32GB internal memory
1TB SSD (+/- 940MB free)

to be continued...

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

What you listed doesn't address my last post... which may or may not be relevant to your situation.
but *if* what I came across is relevant, all of your testing was probably invalid/meaningless.

You MUST make sure you are actually using the Radeon for encoding. I do NOT just mean choosing amongst available encoding options per the OBS Studio drop down. you have to know which encoding option you should be using (figure it out if you don't know already), and make sure it appears, select it, and then confirm GPU utilization corresponds to the encoding. full stop.
- if you don't do that, most anything else you do probably won't mean what you think it does ... like your conclusion

As of OBS Stats - I use it (on Windows OS) for monitoring encoding details, but that is all. Its CPU usage info is misleading at best. I use Operating System tools as it is overall usage, not OBS Studio process(es) that is important. I suspect CPU encoding, overloaded CPU, and system instability as a result. In which case Stats Tool issue is simply an additional symptom... but I could also be wrong in my guess

 

[MichielV]

I monitored the GPU load and tried to figure out which encoder takes advantage to the AMD 5500M 8GB. In all different (encoder) options the 5500M load was about 20-25% (average). The iGPU is 0%. In MacOS I don't have an option to turn the GPU on or off. In OBS I can't find any option to make more use of the GPU and less of the CPU. The only option I now is the video encoder.

In an older thread (2019) I found this: "OBS on MacOS cannot make use of the encoder hardware in Nvidia and AMD discrete GPUs because the necessary APIs do not exist for MacOS"

I think quick sync (Intels CPU encoder) and is listed as: "Apple VT 264 Hardware Encoder" should do the job. But also this setting didn't help.

Let's see what the previous MacOS Venture brings.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

In MacOS I don't have an option to turn the GPU on or off.

I would expect disabling the iGPU per that Adobe post I referenced had to do with disabling at BIOS level, not OS ... and I'm not suggesting it is the right thing to do. sorry, not my area of expertise... just trying to provide potential pointers in the right direction