Question / Help Studio uses too much cpu (solved)

About speedstep, cool'n'quiet and their successors. Try 'high performance' power plan in windows, if it is still exist.
 
I'm re-opening this thread. I still don't have a solution for this problem.
Here's a new log file of me recording Skyrim.

https://gist.github.com/cf0dbd996d26255b73320d3db28d5542

I know I used screen capture but I have the same problems with game capture. The application uses too much cpu while other recorders have no problems with the same or higher settings. I get extreme lag and sometimes audio starts making weird alien sounds instead of my voice, although that second problem happened with other recorders too. I'm not sure what's going on or what's causing any of it. With 30 FPS it works but considering other apps can get 60 without problem I would like to know why or at least report it so that you guys can try to find a solution.
 
Sorry some information is missing from my previous conversations. I'm an obsessive perfectionist and imperfection makes me want to destroy everything digital.
 
Suslik V said:
run CPU-Z and say, is your CPU freq lower than that what you are paid for?
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Niek Fasol said:
I'm not paid for anything. What are you talking about?
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I think what they meant was, "Run CPU-Z and tell us if your CPU frequency is lower than what you paid for it." Basically, is your CPU frequency running as high you expect it to run?


Suslik V said:
About speedstep, cool'n'quiet and their successors. Try 'high performance' power plan in windows, if it is still exist.
Click to expand...
You haven't addressed if you looked into this suggestion or not.


Niek Fasol said:
I'm re-opening this thread. I still don't have a solution for this problem.
Here's a new log file of me recording Skyrim.

https://gist.github.com/cf0dbd996d26255b73320d3db28d5542

I know I used screen capture but I have the same problems with game capture. The application uses too much cpu while other recorders have no problems with the same or higher settings. I get extreme lag and sometimes audio starts making weird alien sounds instead of my voice, although that second problem happened with other recorders too. I'm not sure what's going on or what's causing any of it. With 30 FPS it works but considering other apps can get 60 without problem I would like to know why or at least report it so that you guys can try to find a solution.
Click to expand...
What other recorders/applications are you using that do not have issues? Are they using exactly the same settings as OBS Studio?

Distorted audio can sometimes be a sign of an overtaxed CPU.

You have a GTX 960. Have you tried using NVENC as your encoder instead of x264? x264 runs on the CPU, but NVENC would run on a specialized chip on your graphics card. Check this guide for recommendations for NVENC settings.
 
I used loilo gamecapture with 80% original quality, 60 FPS, original window size and DirectX capturing. I used Nvidia Shadowplay with 5000 bitrate, 60 FPS and original window size.
I know OBS Studio causes an overtaxed CPU and last time this thread was open it wasn't really solved. I just felt I was bothering people with my problems so I closed it but OBS uses more than 20% of my CPU even when there's no source: https://gist.github.com/415f353200b03e0ef65483a670dbb250
I'm not sure if that's normal but it seems a bit much. I'm not sure how good my graphic card is supposed to be.
I have heard other people have problems with Windows 10 and OBS as well. I used to use Windows 8 on my laptop with OBS and the results were a lot better for no particular reason than when I used OBS on the same laptop with Windows 10 installed. I think that can't be a coincidence. Someone said previously that the other people with problems just had bad computers but the computer I'm using has problems and is not a laptop nor a very old computer. I haven't tested this computer with Windows 8 because I don't have a lincense to do so but I feel there has to be a connection.
 
I tried the Nvidia encoder and it seems to work but I still find it weird that I can't record Skyrim with the standard encoder. I'm not sure what encoder Loilo and Nvidia Shadowplay use exactly but I think my computer should be strong enough to use OBS the way other people do. I'm not even streaming. I'm just recording.
 
I installed CPU-Z and don't understand any of the values in the CPU tab. I'm not super technical. I don't even know what to expect. All I know is that the graphics card I'm using is not bad enough to get such horrible results with vanilla Skyrim Legendary Edition with nothing big running in the background. The only things running in the background are a few game clients that aren't even downloading anything. The CPU usage when trying to record Skyrim is around 70% for OBS alone according to task manager. And that's when the game is paused to look at task manager.
 
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Maybe screenshot what CPU-Z is showing and post it here? Other people may be able to help. Take the screenshot while OBS and Skyrim are running.

As a non-expert, my suggestion would be to use 30fps in OBS instead of 60, and to not use CBR, which is only useful for streaming. Chances are Skyrim's not hitting 60fps anyway.

As for Shadowplay, it uses NVENC, because it's Nvidia's recording software.
 
Niek Fasol said:
I tried the Nvidia encoder and it seems to work but I still find it weird that I can't record Skyrim with the standard encoder. I'm not sure what encoder Loilo and Nvidia Shadowplay use exactly but I think my computer should be strong enough to use OBS the way other people do. I'm not even streaming. I'm just recording.
Click to expand...
Niek Fasol said:
I installed CPU-Z and don't understand any of the values in the CPU tab. I'm not super technical. I don't even know what to expect. All I know is that the graphics card I'm using is not bad enough to get such horrible results with vanilla Skyrim Legendary Edition with nothing big running in the background. The only things running in the background are a few game clients that aren't even downloading anything. The CPU usage when trying to record Skyrim is around 70% for OBS alone according to task manager. And that's when the game is paused to look at task manager.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think part of your confusion about performance is because you think your graphics card is doing all or most of the work to run your games? If so, that's not true. Your games use your CPU as well. In fact, some games are quite CPU heavy, like Overwatch and Skyrim.

NVENC works better than x264 on your computer because x264 only uses your CPU, and so does almost everything else running on your computer, including games. I'm working on an i5-3570K, which is clocked at 3.4 GHz and is ranked faster/higher than your CPU in some benchmarks. Even so, I have issues doing live encoding and playing certain games at the same time.

Shadowplay uses NVENC, not x264, which is why that works well for you.

I'm not sure what LoiLo uses to encode, and I think I've given up on trying to find out. It caused huge performance drops in-game (lost 30-40 FPS) when I tested it, and it caused the rest of my system to lag as well.


Edit: @Simes brings up some good points above.
 
Okay it doesn't seem to be 70 FPS while paused but it still doesn't record well. I guess you must be right that I need to use Nvidia.
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More out of curiosity than anything else: why would CBR work for streaming but not for recording? Other than that bit of missing knowledge I think my problem is now really solved.
 
Using a constant bitrate when recording will make it so that, if your bitrate is too low, quality will suffer in higher detail/motion scenes.

When streaming you want the constant flow of a specific rate of data because streaming performs a LOT worse when the data being sent jitters all over the place in amount needed.

When recording, you don't care since you're recording to something that typically can keep up with speeds between 2 and 20 times faster than you're using and doesn't care about the variance in bitrate.
 
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