Question / Help Smoothness/Screen tearing when streaming + gaming.

kozeetje

Member
Hello,

I keep getting problems with streaming + gaming on my setup.
If I play cs:go without streaming it runs perfect, high fps, no screen tearing, just smooth.

As soon as I start obs & start the stream and go in cs:go again, the screen is like tearing, smoothness away, its like im not playing at 144hz anymore, like im losing some hz, very weird.

I've tried every setting possible, bios everything checks, temps are good so I'm really out of ideas.

Ofcourse streaming asks more performance and like fps drop, but it cant remove the smoothness, screen tearing.


Fixxing this for already 2 months, no fix.
Only fix my friend said was to upgrade to sixcore 5820k.

Current setup:

i7 47970K 4.5ghz
960 gtx 2gb
8gb ram 1600
psu 700 bronze
128gb ssd

logfile: https://gist.github.com/7466dae74359a01cb772

anyalyse https://obsproject.com/analyzer?url=https://gist.github.com/anonymous/e4472292091d45930ff2
 
Last edited:

dping

Active Member
Hello,

I keep getting problems with streaming + gaming on my setup.
If I play cs:go without streaming it runs perfect, high fps, no screen tearing, just smooth.

As soon as I start obs & start the stream and go in cs:go again, the screen is like tearing, smoothness away, its like im not playing at 144hz anymore, like im losing some hz, very weird.

I've tried every setting possible, bios everything checks, temps are good so I'm really out of ideas.

Ofcourse streaming asks more performance and like fps drop, but it cant remove the smoothness, screen tearing.


Fixxing this for already 2 months, no fix.
Only fix my friend said was to upgrade to sixcore 5820k.

Current setup:

i7 47970K 4.5ghz
960 gtx 2gb
8gb ram 1600
psu 700 bronze
128gb ssd

logfile: https://gist.github.com/7466dae74359a01cb772

anyalyse https://obsproject.com/analyzer?url=https://gist.github.com/anonymous/e4472292091d45930ff2
your frame-times look great and under 1% of dropped frames, so that part is fine.

Lets run a few tests,
1. Remove all the other sources in your capture but CS:GO
2. disable the OBS preview window (right click on the preview window, click preview again, uncheck "enable view"
3. maybe even set your streaming resolution to 1024x768, which is honestly what your game is using anyway. OBS is having to upscale your game then downscale it again. It will have black bars on twitch, but that will look the best since that is your native resolution. rescaling is done in the GPU so just keep that in mind.
 

kozeetje

Member
your frame-times look great and under 1% of dropped frames, so that part is fine.

Lets run a few tests,
1. Remove all the other sources in your capture but CS:GO
2. disable the OBS preview window (right click on the preview window, click preview again, uncheck "enable view"
3. maybe even set your streaming resolution to 1024x768, which is honestly what your game is using anyway. OBS is having to upscale your game then downscale it again. It will have black bars on twitch, but that will look the best since that is your native resolution. rescaling is done in the GPU so just keep that in mind.

1. Remove or disable? Because its alot of work to add them all again.
2. did it already
3. I dont want blackbars on stream.
 

dping

Active Member
1. Remove or disable? Because its alot of work to add them all again.
2. did it already
3. I dont want blackbars on stream.


If you like, make a new profile in OBS and customize that with just CS:GO and all the settings I recommend.

Remember, this is just a test. After the test, feel free to see if you can get it to your liking.
 

kozeetje

Member
If you like, make a new profile in OBS and customize that with just CS:GO and all the settings I recommend.

Remember, this is just a test. After the test, feel free to see if you can get it to your liking.

No improvement spotted.
 

dping

Active Member
No improvement spotted.
Just for clarity, do you have anything else open? browser, game etc.

Do you have any software that could also "hook" your game like with an overlay such as geforce experience, overwolf, mumble overlay, gaming evolved (aka raptr), Razer Synapse, etc...
 

kozeetje

Member
Just for clarity, do you have anything else open? browser, game etc.

Do you have any software that could also "hook" your game like with an overlay such as geforce experience, overwolf, mumble overlay, gaming evolved (aka raptr), Razer Synapse, etc...
Nothing open,

Nope no geforce exp, overwolf, mumble, razer shit, - Just did a clean install so ;)
 

dping

Active Member
Are you using any launch options with CS:GO? if so post them here.

Other than isolating CS:GO to certain cores and OBS to others, I dont know what else I could have you try. Ideally, since CS:GO uses CPU0 and possibly CPU1, you could set OBS to something like cores 2-7.Note that this isn't a recommended practice, but considering you seem like your really looking for something to gain that last little bit, its worth a shot.
 

kozeetje

Member
Are you using any launch options with CS:GO? if so post them here.

Other than isolating CS:GO to certain cores and OBS to others, I dont know what else I could have you try. Ideally, since CS:GO uses CPU0 and possibly CPU1, you could set OBS to something like cores 2-7.Note that this isn't a recommended practice, but considering you seem like your really looking for something to gain that last little bit, its worth a shot.
-refresh 144 -novid -nojoy -high -tickrate 128 -threads 8
 

kozeetje

Member
Are you using any launch options with CS:GO? if so post them here.

Other than isolating CS:GO to certain cores and OBS to others, I dont know what else I could have you try. Ideally, since CS:GO uses CPU0 and possibly CPU1, you could set OBS to something like cores 2-7.Note that this isn't a recommended practice, but considering you seem like your really looking for something to gain that last little bit, its worth a shot.
I already tried that and everytime I have to set the affinity again and was not a real solution.
 

dping

Active Member
cs:go runs on all my cores do dont know if thats a solution.
After some thought, if you were to stream at the absolute minimum resolution like 360@25fps, does the stutter still happen? Remember, this is just a test. The idea behind this test is finding out of something is being bottlenecked in the CPU or GPU area. If the problem persists, try changing your game to windowed-noborder then removing the game capture and trying Window capture and post the results, log as well.

lastly, can you uncheck "Use fixed low latency mode"


EDIT: Last but not least are you running beta drivers or the normal release ones?
 

kozeetje

Member
After some thought, if you were to stream at the absolute minimum resolution like 360@25fps, does the stutter still happen? Remember, this is just a test. The idea behind this test is finding out of something is being bottlenecked in the CPU or GPU area. If the problem persists, try changing your game to windowed-noborder then removing the game capture and trying Window capture and post the results, log as well.

lastly, can you uncheck "Use fixed low latency mode"


EDIT: Last but not least are you running beta drivers or the normal release ones?

Only the last one is not used much, all the rest is used alot.
2laet8g.jpg


I'll do the tests now. I'll get you updated
Btw I really dont have low latency mode on... Dont know why its in the logs but its not ON ;)

2w4mlbl.jpg



update 1: cant see a difference at 360p/25fps.
update 2: windowed mode causes screen tearing & stuttering.
 
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dping

Active Member
Only the last one is not used much, all the rest is used alot.
2laet8g.jpg


I'll do the tests now. I'll get you updated
Btw I really dont have low latency mode on... Dont know why its in the logs but its not ON ;)

Hmmm, Another test. feel free to go back to your normal resolution, but set your CPU process priority to below normal. From what I've read, lower reolutions can some times take up more CPU usage than higher ones; I dont know if OBS is fighting CG:GO for CPU time which could be the issue. It seems like the issue at least.
 

kozeetje

Member
Hmmm, Another test. feel free to go back to your normal resolution, but set your CPU process priority to below normal. From what I've read, lower reolutions can some times take up more CPU usage than higher ones; I dont know if OBS is fighting CG:GO for CPU time which could be the issue. It seems like the issue at least.
Priority of OSB you mean? Cause I only see High - Above Normal - Normal - Idle
I really doubt if this is a "fix" because with this setup... I would be able to stream without problems right?
 
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dping

Active Member
Priority of OSB you mean? Cause I only see High - Above Normal - Normal - Idle
I really doubt if this is a "fix" because with this setup... I would be able to stream without problems right?
try it and see. I am relying on you to tell me what works. I am here to give you ideas and things to try to maybe isolate this truely odd issue.
 

kozeetje

Member
try it and see. I am relying on you to tell me what works. I am here to give you ideas and things to try to maybe isolate this truely odd issue.
Below normal doesnt work, also tried 30-45-60 fps = same problem. Could it be the GPU ?
 

dping

Active Member
edit: GPU could not be the problem for streaming + cs:go I've been told.
well, I guess you know that OBS hooks scenes and downscales them in the GPU, so no, you're right, that couldn't be the problem. Its either a CPU bottleneck or a GPU one. If you go back to 1080 (and again, just a test) and the problem is gone, then its CPU is have to prioritize OBS and the game. the GPU is sort of an educated guess, I'm not nocking your hardware, by GPU, it could be drivers for all I know.
 
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