Strange FPS Stutter/Slowdowns

[JeytXD]

Hey!

I've been using OBS for years, and never have I ran into a problem like this one. I used to record PSX videos years ago, and everything seemed perfectly fine. There were absolutely no issues. But very recently I decided to get back into it again, until I ran into the strangest issue that I have been unable to resolve for days.

I've been having these strange and unusual FPS drops, or stutters, I don't even know how to describe it. Sometimes they are very minor and you couldn't tell they were there, and sometimes they are very noticeable. It happens in both of my PS1 emulators, so it can't be a singular emulator issue. Below I linked a video of some generic emulation gameplay, just notice the very random stutters, or slowdowns.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

(It's very noticeable at 0:09, 0:20, and 1:04)

Before you question it, only the OBS preview/recording output has this lag. The emulation itself is perfectly smooth. Here are my PC specs:

RTX 3090
i9-10900KF
64GB RAM

Here's a log file, I restarted OBS as an administrator and took a 30 second recording:

https://obsproject.com/logs/zCeNIMm8rqekCMwT

Here are my OBS settings:

imgur.com

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

imgur.com

Incase you needed my emulator settings, here they are:

imgur.com

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

imgur.com

 

[PaiSand]

Analyzer | OBS

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.

obsproject.com

It's recommended to use simple output mode and select one of the presets quality options in recording settings.
The best way is to use the Auto-configuration Wizard (tools menu) with focus on recording if you aim to record or streaming if you want to stream, and apply the settings it gives. Restart OBS. Yes, restart OBS. Don't skip restarting OBS. Now test.

 

[JeytXD]

Analyzer | OBS

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.

obsproject.com

It's recommended to use simple output mode and select one of the presets quality options in recording settings.
The best way is to use the Auto-configuration Wizard (tools menu) with focus on recording if you aim to record or streaming if you want to stream, and apply the settings it gives. Restart OBS. Yes, restart OBS. Don't skip restarting OBS. Now test.

I did more testing, this doesn't only occur in OBS, but many other recording software and even screen sharing in Discord! I think this is more a Windows related problem rather than OBS. Thanks for the help though :)

 

[qhobbes]

0. Record to FLV or MKV. If you record to MP4 or MOV and the recording is interrupted, the file will be corrupted and unrecoverable.

If you require MP4 files for some other purpose like editing, remux them afterwards by selecting File > Remux Recordings in the main OBS Studio window.
1. Display and Game Capture Sources interfere with each other. Never put them in the same scene. Only use Display Capture if you need to capture your desktop.
2. If that doesn't fix it, make sure your Game Capture is on a 60 Hz screen or set your 144 Hz to 120 Hz.
3. Turn off Game DVR.

 

[JeytXD]

0. Record to FLV or MKV. If you record to MP4 or MOV and the recording is interrupted, the file will be corrupted and unrecoverable.

If you require MP4 files for some other purpose like editing, remux them afterwards by selecting File > Remux Recordings in the main OBS Studio window.
1. Display and Game Capture Sources interfere with each other. Never put them in the same scene. Only use Display Capture if you need to capture your desktop.
2. If that doesn't fix it, make sure your Game Capture is on a 60 Hz screen or set your 144 Hz to 120 Hz.
3. Turn off Game DVR.

I tried all of that, sadly the issue still persists.

I think it has something to do with my games running at 30FPS. I did a recording test, between 120FPS/30FPS on Minecraft. Both were recorded at 30fps. When the game was running at 120FPS, there was no lag. But when I switched over to 30FPS, that lag was occurring. I'm not sure if it's my eyes acting up or not, so I linked a video of it below, you be the judge:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[JeytXD]

UPDATE:

So I tried using RetroArch for my emulation, the recording lag continues. HOWEVER, I think I may have found the issue!

It's my monitor. I have triple monitors, my main being 144hz and the others being 60hz. I took 3 videos, each with my monitor running at 144hz, 120hz, and 60hz, and you can blatantly see the progression of that weird lag going away:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

However, it still continues with 60hz, but it's almost gone as you can clearly see. I'm going to assume there wouldn't be any lag if I set my monitor to 30hz, since that's what PSX games run at. But my monitor is unable to run at 30hz, as I'm restricted to only 50hz.

But I think this information alone is enough for someone to find a full solution for this issue.