Question / Help Regular stutterings on preview & recorded videos

[Kapu]

Hello,

I already posted in another thread (Random stuttering in preview which goes into recorded videos.) but I'm not sure if I have the same problem since my stutterings are not random at all.

As you can see on my last log, I get zero frame drop, zero rendering lag/stalls, my GPU and CPU are far from being overloaded (both being at around 50%), and yet you can see the regular stutterings (they occur every ~14 minutes) on my OBS preview and recorded local videos.

https://youtu.be/91oxBNL2sFs (stutterings at 14:55-15:30 and 28:55-29:30)

Troubleshooting :
I reinstalled both Windows 7 and 10 on different SSDs, tried another GPU (GTX 570), reseated the RAM modules, disconnected all drives (except system), used my 60Hz TV instead of my 144Hz monitor, updated all drivers (chipset, LAN, USB, SATA, GPU...), updated the BIOS firmware, tried different OBS classic & studio versions (and XSplit), tweaked OBS settings (encoded with nvenc, x264, display/windows/game capture, changed bitrate, CPU usage preset, profile, recording location, deleted all scenes, disabled preview...), loaded the BIOS optimal default configuration, tried different games like PES 2018/Rocket League/BIT TRIP RUNNER (vsync on & off), used RTSS frame limiter, checked background processes & services but didn't find anything suspicious...

My specs :
mb : ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming
cpu : I7 6700K 4.5Ghz (I tried without OC, it doesn't help)
gpu : MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G
ram : 2x8GB G.Skill DDR4-3200Mhz (I tried without XMP profile as well)
power : Corsair AX 650W
ssd : Samsung 850 EVO 500GB / Crucial MX300 750GB

I've had this frustrating problem for months now and I still don't know what's going on (hardware or software issue ?).
Thanks for your help.

 

[Kapu]

Bump. I removed the Avermedia capture card set up in my computer but it doesn't change anything.

Anyone ?

 

[Lapppy]

I've also been observing this issue on two different computers one of which is a laptop.

PC
MSI B350M Gaming Pro
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (OC to 3.6GHz)
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB
16GB GSkill DDR4 2800Mhz
EVGA Supernova G2 550W
Samsung 850 EVO m.2 250GB / WD Blue 1TB 7200rpm
Acer G226HQL monitor 60hz (The monitor is connected to the PC via HDMI-DVI connector)

Laptop
MSI GE72-2QD Apache Pro
Intel i7-5700HQ 2.7GHz
MSI GTX 960M 2GB / Intel HD Graphics 5600
12GB Kingston DDR3 1800MHz
1TB 7200rpm
Built in monitor

1. All of our PCs have NVIDIA graphics cards. Is there anyone out there who has this specific issue (stuttering every 15 or so minutes) on an AMD graphics card? If not, then it is very likely that the problem has something to do with NVIDIA cards or drivers.
2. You mentioned that you had tried XSplit and had the same issue. Interestingly I have also seen this issue in other programs such as Bandicam. Meaning that this isn't limited to only OBS and that there is a much bigger issue.

 

[Kapu]

Bump. Encoding with QuickSync gives the same stutterings.

At this point, I'm not sure it's related to the graphics card. I mean, QuickSync should not use the GPU, and even with an old GTX 570 I still got the stutterings.

Could it be the power supply ? Mine is 7 years old (Corsair AX 650W), so maybe it doesn't provide enough juice ?

Or maybe all computers have this issue and only some of us have spotted it ? Would be nice to hear from other people recording/streaming with a single PC setup. :)

 

[Stimpaddle]

I'm new here and recently posted about a similar issue. You have a much higher hardware spec than do I, but, have you tried running OBS Studio using the Task Scheduler? If you use Process Explorer from the 'Sysinternals' suite, you can see there are two separate areas set up by Windows in which to run programs. This is, undoubtedly, one of the useful aspects of multi-core processor platforms. All the operating system routines seem to be run in their own 'virtual' hosted streams, whereas, any user software runs in another area where the only thing that seems to run concurrently with it is Windows Explorer. This may be because Windows Explorer is the GUI equivalent of the OS Task Scheduler. If you have a shortcut on your desktop to run OBS, chances are it is going to run in the same area as your game or whatever it is you are screen capturing. This is not good. Your capture software and OBS Studio will be competing within the same user virtual machine space, which will be broken down into logical processors and their threads. By starting OBS using the Task Scheduler there will be a partition between the program generating the screen you are trying to capture and OBS itself. What is the downside of using the Task Scheduler? Well, there are a lot of 'Services' components running there too, however, none of them should be interacting with what's on the screen, so theoretically, stutter should be reduced. Now I can't say this is the ultimate solution because I tend to shut down lots of services willy-nilly and there is still some stutter, though, I'd say it's been reduced by about one half. If you're already familiar with this, sorry for rambling.

 

[Kapu]

Don't worry about rambling, your help is much appreciated ! Thanks !

So I tried running OBS Studio using the Task Scheduler (opening it on Windows startup), unfortunately it still gets choppy after a few minutes...

One thing I should have mentioned is that I feel like the "Average time to render frame" grows over time (from 0.2ms to 0.7ms) and when it's around 0.5-0.7ms it gets choppy for around 30 seconds and then the time to render frames decreases. Not sure if that's a symptom but it could be a lead.

 

[Stimpaddle]

Kapu - my specs are Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Intel i7-3770 (overclocked on Gigabyte motherboard to 4.1Ghz) with 16gb memory, EVGA Geforce 660 Ti sc with standard Nvidia drivers. The OS is on a Samsung SSD, but all user stuff is on a standard HD. I hopped through the soccer match on YT, but the quality looks pretty consistent at the points where you say stutter is occurring. The quality of the image becomes clearer at about 7:56. The only thing which seems consistently regular to me is some screen tearing made apparent by the white pitch boundary markings as the viewpoint tracks left/right ... forwards/backwards, etc (as rendered by YT). Is there any quality reduction after upload to the YT platform, as I've never actually done that myself?

Have you used the Mark Russinovich Sysinternals, Process Explorer? I don't pretend to know how to use it competently, but, it is one very capable piece of kit - I find it much more useful than the default OS Task Manager, since you can see the minutiae of just about everything in real time. How do you track Service components as they kick in and out of usage by the OS? I'm so suspicious of my system, I shut down anything I can just to eliminate it as a possible source of interruption between OBS Studio and the target program. I could ramble on, however, I'm truly wondering if it is some OS background process causing your problem, especially since it pops up with such regularity. By the way, I'm not averse to shooting from the hip and 'pressing buttons' with Process Explorer. Some may think this is akin to holding a fuse bomb with an unreliable fuse length - indeed often times the system hangs, but if it does, there's always the reset button. For instance, I have shut down the Windows Explorer module so that it can't possibly interfere with the target program just started with it, and leave Process explorer itself running, with a reset priority of 4 (idle) - that does actually give an improvement in response. There's no limit to the permutations of onNess and offNess with this, that and the other, in the search for the most stutter free method I can find.

I use the Replay buffer exclusively, with a buffer size of 6144s. When recording in 'game' mode I only have 3 control button combinations: one to start the buffer, one to save the content, and the other to stop the replay buffer. Simplicity itself. With Windows Explorer shut down, I use OBS Studio's own browse function to navigate to the standard recordings directory to instantly check what I've just captured. If it doesn't pass muster I'll delete it instantly and control-tab alternately into Process Explorer, the target program and OBS, as required. And so, the whole sorry mess goes on.

One more thing. I noticed from your YT recording the run bar shows Chrome (and other processes) apparently running cocurrently with OBS. In my book, this is a no-no. If I'm recording, the machine is completely standalone - no internet attached, in fact, no nothing. Anything, which most users would accept without question as being normal in the usual context of using a computer, has the rug pulled out from under it. To use OBS, and expect anything like optimal performance, the machine has to run in absolute 'threadbare' mode.

 

[Kapu]

I watched the YT video on my monitor, my TV and my phone : stutterings always occur at 14:55 and 28:55.

You're right, there is a noticeable quality reduction after you upload a video on YT. Especially when you tweak the OBS settings as much as I did. ;)

What I wanted to highlight are the severe stutterings. I don't know what is provoking them yet (I tried Process Monitor from Sysinternals but I don't know how it works and what I should look at), but from what I see they are exactly like screen tearing !

I checked one of my previous YT videos, and paused it when there were stutterings : https://tof.cx/image/xkWUd.
You can clearly see the screen tearing in the middle of the screenshot.

 

[Stimpaddle]

We could go round and round in circles till our shoes wear out on this particular 'sticking' point. Man hours have been poured in to sort out a problem that shouldn't really be an issue at all. What was on my mind is the partitioning of processors with virtual coupling to keep the OS processing separate from user initiated applications, whatever they may be. Either this helps, or, it doesn't. The main idea is to keep process A out of the hair of process B.

For what it's worth, Kapu, the soccer match is 'watchable' as it is. Most YT presentations have 'lumpiness' problems written all over them anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you. Funny, isn't it, since we're both here because of those very problems. However, there are many conscientious respondents on this forum attempting to get to the bottom of it and it seems the goalposts keep on moving (ever so sorry!)

Do you put parameters into Nvidia Inspector for the express purpose of correctly initialising OBS Studio? You know, just for the simple case of a single graphics card locked into the system. Is there such a thing as a formally acknowledged profile 'state' for OBS to run with respect to Nvidia driven hardware? And what happens if, say, a watched game is given one set of parameters whilst OBS is given conflicting parameters with that very same game?

 

[Kapu]

Well it didn't solve the issue but it was worth giving it a shot. Thanks again for your support Stimpaddle !

I agree with you, it's watchable as it is but for me that's not acceptable. Yesterday I tried to record on a less capable computer (I5 2500k, GTX 780) and I had zero stuttering. So I won't give up until I find the guilty one and manage to get flawless recordings on my rig.

Nope, I didn't install Nvidia Inspector on any computer. The thing is, I shouldn't have to ! It is just as you said, it should not be an issue at all... Here is to hoping more people will contribute to this thread, especially those who have similar specs. ;)

 

[Stimpaddle]

Reciprocated. Nice talking to you. I don't get it, you recorded on a less capable computer with zero screen glitching? How can this be? What is so different and superior on an older machine that an up-to-date model can't replicate? Does the (presumably) older computer have updated drivers or are they not so recent, for example? I mean, that is a very interesting predicament.

 

[Kapu]

All I know is that it's not superior, it's just different AND working as it should.

Concerning drivers, no they were not so recent.

I don't know, it could be a hardware issue. I said it could be the power supply... Well, maybe the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming has a problem with encoding after all ? Hard to say.

 

[Stimpaddle]

I've actually been following you and others on the other feeds. Getting used to the place a bit better. Let me embellish a bit without hogging space. My 'attempted' recording is for flight simulators - namely FS9, the early (2004 ish) Sturmovik series and the Orbiter simulator. FS9 stutters aperiodically in both simple and advanced modes. My testing is to show 360 deg rotational movements in-cockpit and focusing on the exterior view rotations. Sometimes it's clean and then the . . . happens. It's like a regular 'tick'. I can't get Orbiter to hook in game (full screen) mode for some reason. I know that it was written for the DirectX 7 API/runtime, so maybe that explains why - I don't really know that for sure. Orbiter runs, instead, within a window because it is the only way I've been able to get it to work at all, although, when you see the recording it occupies the same space as full-screen does. Now, Orbiter works a little better than FS9 - I keep getting horizontal striation lines during fast panning. The Sturmovik series appears to have been written using OpenGL and it records much, much better than the DirectX programs, although, I haven't a clue how or why this is the case - there is still annoying stutter every now and then. All these recordings are at 60 FPS (4:3 aspect). That's basically, my story.

 

[pixeltwitch]

I just wanted to point out that I have been having the exact same problem. Mine is on 2 separate streaming PC's one being an i9 7900x and the other being a Ryzen 1700 both with Nvidia GPUS (980 and 1080ti). Here is an example just so we can see if we are talking about the same kinda stutter...
https://youtu.be/S7jTiO2ibAY

 

[Kapu]

It's similar but yours last longer than mine. :/

After having upgraded my Windows to 1703, I made another video on Rocket League. It stutters a few seconds at 03:38 and 15:48 (https://youtu.be/mz-aVKoSTss).

I'm uploading my log as well (lagged frames must not be taken into account, they just add up when I alt-tab).