Question / Help Stutter in stream/preview. No rendering/encoding lag.

RockinX

New Member
So... Is there any way I can contact the developers directly so they can look into the problem, even if I have to donate/pay for the problem to be fixed? Sometimes OBS will start up with the framerate stutter, and I have to close it, then open it again for it to give me a smooth framerate, even. Sometimes I think it starts to happen after a while. I'm this close to changing my motherboard to the other one I had before it broke, so I don't have to experience this stutter.
 

Giovanni1

New Member
So... Is there any way I can contact the developers directly so they can look into the problem, even if I have to donate/pay for the problem to be fixed? Sometimes OBS will start up with the framerate stutter, and I have to close it, then open it again for it to give me a smooth framerate, even. Sometimes I think it starts to happen after a while. I'm this close to changing my motherboard to the other one I had before it broke, so I don't have to experience this stutter.
Mate, I've been having the exact same issue as of late. Literally. OBS sometimes starts with a frame stutter. Need to close and reopen to get rid of it. Sometimes it works perfectly. Sometimes I need to do it multiple times. And in long records, sometimes the stutter appears randomly.

I'm losing my mind.
 

Kraezy

Member
Hi everyone,


What fixed it for me was dealing with vsync, windows game mode and fps inside OBS

I have a dual PC setup, I play in 100,120, 144fps depending on the game. I have a 4K capture card sending my exact fps to OBS because I'm duplicating my screen.I was having lots os stuttering on OBS preview but my stream was quite good and recording was also ok, but when I looked to the preview I was always insecure if my stream was ok or if people was havinf fps drops or screen tearing...

I did the following:
On Gaming PC I disabled vsync ingame, and turned it on on NVCP

On Stream PC I turned it completely off and set low latency mode to ultra, so I have 0 frames waiting to be shown. I also disabled game mode and anythng that could possibly interfere with OBS, anything that could put some overlay or something like that.Now my preview works fine.
I can play in high fps while streaming in a solid 60fps. It's also important to set the capture card to capture only 60fps. If you allow Highest Fps, the preview will show screan tearing.

I tried many things... many, for months and I was having this exact same issue even when I was using a 1080p60 capture card...
This fixed the things for me, and I hope it helps someone else

As the community may have seen from my previous posts, this has been an issue that has plagued myself for numerous years also and I've tried pretty much everything to remedy it, from fresh windows installs to completely new hardware.

At various point I thought I had solved the issue but alas over time it would rear it's head again and never being able to narrow down the cause. Thus, I decided to leave streaming/recording for a while as I'd previously said, it had consumed the last few years of my life trying to resolve the issue and I just wanted to focus on actually playing some games.

I got the itch again to stream/record and figured, "hey, it's been almost 12 months" surely if the issue was software related it'd be fixed by now. So installed OBS and stutters were still present. I felt deflated but wanted to see if there was any new user suggested fixes that I may of not tried previously.

This thread itself is a thread that I have previously kept up to date on as it's one of the most active on here for user suggestions etc and for whatever reason I decided to read the thread from the beginning in case I had missed anything.

I came across the above post and realised this user had the same idea as myself previously with the notion that it was something to do with Vsync / Gsync and OBS frame timing BUT I had not tried the combination in which the above user had

After following the above users' fix, translating the suggestion to a 1 pc setup also, (as below) I have to say 90% of the preview stutter has disappeared, though is still somewhat present in "some" titles, so it got me thinking what haven't I done in comparison to what my original self diagnosed fix was previously, previously I had changed a few settings in my bios to compensate for certain performance issues in games (i.e micro stutter when loading assets / new areas in games) and it seemed that when I received the asset loading micro stutter it would ultimately cause the desync and preview stutters in OBS.

FYI I'm currently using Windows 10
Version 21H2
OS Build 19044.1288

OBS Studio 27.2.4 (will test later versions also)
Nvidia Driver 516.94

Build from last year and I've yet to update as I prefer to work off a clean install, I will fully upgrade to 21H2 in the next few days now that I'm confident I can replicate the fix as it sits currently and will report back if 21H2 is stutter free.

So the FIX (for me at least)

I changed the following in bios

4g Encoding = Enabled
Resizable Bar = Enabled / Auto
PCIex16 = Gen4
PCIe = Gen 4
AMD CPU FTPM = Disabled

In windows, I changed the following

Start > Settings > Gaming
Turn off Xbox Game Bar
Turn off Game Mode

Start > Settings > Gaming > Graphics
Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling = Disabled
Variable Frame Rate = Disabled (though this option will dissapear when you disable G-Sync in NVCP)
Add OBS studio with the drop-down option and set preference to High Performance
Do this with each game you play also.

Nvidia Control Panel Settings
> Managed 3d Settings > Global Settings
Shader Cache Size = 100gb (I have enough space, but 10gb is generally considered sufficient)

> Change Resolution
1440p Gaming monitor set to 120hz (from 144hz)
1080p Monitor that OBS sits on set to 60hz (from 165hz)
1080p 3rd monitor set to 60hz native

> Setup G-Sync
Untick Enable G-Sync, G-Sync Compatible
By disabling G-Sync it will set your Global Monitor Technology to FIXED Refresh

> Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings
Click ADD , add each game with the below changes
Max Frame Rate: 60 FPS (or an FPS value multiplicative of 60)
Monitor Technology will now read: Fixed Refresh
Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
Vertical Sync: ON

Click ADD for OBS Studio
And only change Low Latency Mode : Ultra

INGAME
Turn off Vsync and FPS Limiters


I have been able to enjoy Preview free stuttering since yesterday
Have recorded lengthy sessions in WOW, Sons of the Forest, Returnal and the only issues I have are when there are FPS drops ingame, so ideally ensure your game can hold a solid 60 / 120 / 180 or whatever you've set the FPS cap to in NVCP.
 
Last edited:

CrowsSunset

New Member
As the community may have seen from my previous posts, this has been an issue that has plagued myself for numerous years also and I've tried pretty much everything to remedy it, from fresh windows installs to completely new hardware.

At various point I thought I had solved the issue but alas over time it would rear it's head again and never being able to narrow down the cause. Thus, I decided to leave streaming/recording for a while as I'd previously said, it had consumed the last few years of my life trying to resolve the issue and I just wanted to focus on actually playing some games.

I got the itch again to stream/record and figured, "hey, it's been almost 12 months" surely if the issue was software related it'd be fixed by now. So installed OBS and stutters were still present. I felt deflated but wanted to see if there was any new user suggested fixes that I may of not tried previously.

This thread itself is a thread that I have previously kept up to date on as it's one of the most active on here for user suggestions etc and for whatever reason I decided to read the thread from the beginning in case I had missed anything.

I came across the above post and realised this user had the same idea as myself previously with the notion that it was something to do with Vsync / Gsync and OBS frame timing BUT I had not tried the combination in which the above user had

After following the above users' fix, translating the suggestion to a 1 pc setup also, (as below) I have to say 90% of the preview stutter has disappeared, though is still somewhat present in "some" titles, so it got me thinking what haven't I done in comparison to what my original self diagnosed fix was previously, previously I had changed a few settings in my bios to compensate for certain performance issues in games (i.e micro stutter when loading assets / new areas in games) and it seemed that when I received the asset loading micro stutter it would ultimately cause the desync and preview stutters in OBS.

FYI I'm currently using Windows 10
Version 21H2
OS Build 19044.1288

OBS Studio 27.2.4 (will test later versions also)
Nvidia Driver 516.94

Build from last year and I've yet to update as I prefer to work off a clean install, I will fully upgrade to 21H2 in the next few days now that I'm confident I can replicate the fix as it sits currently and will report back if 21H2 is stutter free.

So the FIX (for me at least)

I changed the following in bios

4g Encoding = Enabled
Resizable Bar = Enabled / Auto
PCIex16 = Gen4
PCIe = Gen 4
AMD CPU FTPM = Disabled

In windows, I changed the following

Start > Settings > Gaming
Turn off Xbox Game Bar
Turn off Game Mode

Start > Settings > Gaming > Graphics
Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling = Disabled
Variable Frame Rate = Disabled (though this option will dissapear when you disable G-Sync in NVCP)
Add OBS studio with the drop-down option and set preference to High Performance
Do this with each game you play also.

Nvidia Control Panel Settings
> Managed 3d Settings > Global Settings
Shader Cache Size = 100gb (I have enough space, but 10gb is generally considered sufficient)

> Change Resolution
1440p Gaming monitor set to 120hz (from 144hz)
1080p Monitor that OBS sits on set to 60hz (from 165hz)
1080p 3rd monitor set to 60hz native

> Setup G-Sync
Untick Enable G-Sync, G-Sync Compatible
By disabling G-Sync it will set your Global Monitor Technology to FIXED Refresh

> Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings
Click ADD , add each game with the below changes
Max Frame Rate: 60 FPS (or an FPS value multiplicative of 60)
Monitor Technology will now read: Fixed Refresh
Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance
Vertical Sync: ON

Click ADD for OBS Studio
And only change Low Latency Mode : Ultra

INGAME
Turn off Vsync and FPS Limiters


I have been able to enjoy Preview free stuttering since yesterday
Have recorded lengthy sessions in WOW, Sons of the Forest, Returnal and the only issues I have are when there are FPS drops ingame, so ideally ensure your game can hold a solid 60 / 120 / 180 or whatever you've set the FPS cap to in NVCP.
Hey there, I've been following this post closely as it's helped me over the last few months in trying to solve my own stutter issues. I think I've narrowed my issues down to my monitors natural hz frequency being incompatible with OBS encoding, so I'm curious, what monitor(s) are you using? I'm using a vg259qm.
 

LeoGeo

New Member
Hey there, I've been following this post closely as it's helped me over the last few months in trying to solve my own stutter issues. I think I've narrowed my issues down to my monitors natural hz frequency being incompatible with OBS encoding, so I'm curious, what monitor(s) are you using? I'm using a vg259qm.
Hey there :) I'm using an MSI MAG281URF as my main monitor and an ASUS VP278 as my control monitor.
With @Kraezy's settings, I get the best but not perfect result via game capture. This means that the stuttering occurs occasionally, but disappears again without OBS restart.

Capturing without a lot of stuttering with my Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 is currently almost impossible.

__

Has anyone with the stuttering problem tried another broadcast software ?

__

What about the stuttering when going to a setup with one PC and the same "not sync compatible" monitor twice?

Kind regards
 

RockinX

New Member
Hey there :) I'm using an MSI MAG281URF as my main monitor and an ASUS VP278 as my control monitor.
With @Kraezy's settings, I get the best but not perfect result via game capture. This means that the stuttering occurs occasionally, but disappears again without OBS restart.

Capturing without a lot of stuttering with my Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 is currently almost impossible.

__

Has anyone with the stuttering problem tried another broadcast software ?

__

What about the stuttering when going to a setup with one PC and the same "not sync compatible" monitor twice?

Kind regards
I tried Avermedia's proprietary software, RECentral, which doesn't have any stuttering, and with the settings the people in this thread have provided, no audio delay at all. I still get stuttering on OBS from time to time, so when I want to play, I just use RECentral, and when I need to record, I use OBS.
 

LeoGeo

New Member
I don`t read this Stutter-Fix-Attempt in this thread. So if anyone wants to try it out. My first test-record make some hope. No stuttering preview after 5min. Will make more tests later.

Have a nice weekend.

___

So after a lot of tweakings and experiments, I fixed it doing this:
  1. Open Nvidea Control Panel.
  2. Look for the option: "Adjust Image Settings with Preview". (Its the one that has the rendering of the Nvidea logo spinning)
  3. Under the image you will locate three options.
  4. Click on the third option "Use my preference emphasizing:..."
  5. Turn down the knob to "Balanced". I think the default position here is "Quality". I am no tech, but I have found out that turning it down won´t affect how the resources of your GPU are used, most importantly if you have a good or beefy video card.
___

Source: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...ggy-with-my-rtx-2070-super.126062/post-514585
 

Situkka

New Member
I don`t read this Stutter-Fix-Attempt in this thread. So if anyone wants to try it out. My first test-record make some hope. No stuttering preview after 5min. Will make more tests later.

Have a nice weekend.

___

So after a lot of tweakings and experiments, I fixed it doing this:
  1. Open Nvidea Control Panel.
  2. Look for the option: "Adjust Image Settings with Preview". (Its the one that has the rendering of the Nvidea logo spinning)
  3. Under the image you will locate three options.
  4. Click on the third option "Use my preference emphasizing:..."
  5. Turn down the knob to "Balanced". I think the default position here is "Quality". I am no tech, but I have found out that turning it down won´t affect how the resources of your GPU are used, most importantly if you have a good or beefy video card.
___

Source: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...ggy-with-my-rtx-2070-super.126062/post-514585
This worked for me. But why obs preview stutters with other settings, this "balanced" is only way to get smooth preview on OBS
 

LeoGeo

New Member
Try this ->

It is not a perfect solution, but a solid fix till the developer fix the random stutter issue. It helps me to record for my daily video routine since 3 months.
The guy who makes the guide is even here in the forum, but his post, with the linked video get drown.
 

Kraezy

Member
Hey all, thought I'd return to this thread after a few months of stutter free recordings/streams and report my best setup for doing so.
This required a full clean install and let me preface this by saying "this isn't necessarily a FIX for YOU, this is what I found to be best for ME" take what info you can from it if it helps you.

TLDR: Install Windows 10 19045 Build
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREINSTALL THINGS TO DO
Download drivers to a safe storage that you're not going to be wiping
Download Drivers from Motherboard website DONOT Allow windows to update drivers (we'll configure this later)
Download latest Nvidia / AMD driver (time of writing this I was using 537.34)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WINDOWS 10 INSTALL
Clean install of Windows 10 Pro / Version 22H2 / OS Build 19045.2006
Version 22H2, November 2021 Update (Build number 19045)

Do not have your Ethernet cable plugged in whilst installing Windows
Click Yes to everything (except Setup Network-we'll do this later)

When you eventually boot to Windows
Hit Windows Key+R
> Type Gpedit.msc
> Go to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
Set the following
Configure Automatic Updates = Disabled
Do not Include Drivers with Windows Updates = Enabled

Now proceed with installing your
Chipset Drivers > Audio Driver > GPU Driver > LAN Driver

Once you've installed your base motherboard drivers, reboot as necessary, then feel free to connect your Ethernet cable
You'll be prompted with the option to make the PC Network discoverable, click yes.

So basically we've now installed windows, your base mobo drivers, gpu and audio.

I'd suggest at this point you hold off on installing anything else, i.e. other software or drivers for other peripherals, your mouse and keyboard should work off Generic Windows drivers for now.

Essentially what we have done is installed the core version of 19045 Windows 10, told Windows not to automatically update and not to automatically install drivers (has a habit of installing GPU and Chipset without authorisation)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WINDOWS SETTINGS
Start > Settings > System > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Balanced (Recommended)
Start > Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar > Turn Off
Start > Settings > Gaming > Captures > Background Recording > Turn Off
Start > Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > Turn On
Start > Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > Graphics Settings > Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling > On
Start > Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > Graphics Settings > Variable refresh rate > On
Start > Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > Graphics Settings > Add your Gamins to the Graphics Performance Preference list and set them to high performance,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL
Go to NVIDIA Control Panel
Adjust image settings with preview > Let the 3D Application decide
Change Resolution > Change refresh rate to 120 or 60
Set up G-SYNC > Tick Box - Enable G-SYNC > Tick Box Enabled for Windows and full screen mode
Tick Box 3. Display Specific Settings > Enable settings for Selected display Model

I haven't touched any other setting in Nvidia Control Panel, I do everything I need to in Nvidia Profile Inspector in terms of any Limiters etc that you want to enable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NVIDIA PROFILE INSPECTOR
I've attached the "Base Profile" if you wish to test
Import the Profile with Nvidia Profile Inspector

For me personally it's a mix of Windows 10 Build Version (19045), if I update past this build, OBS goes to crap again. So there's something Windows has done past this, either with WDM again or how OBS/Windows interact when compositing.

Keeping NVCP setting to letting the 3D App decide, I tried BALANCE and whilst it did work for a bit, I was getting stuttering within the recordings not long after, letting the 3D App Decide for me gives the best results. I turn on VSYNC with the game if tearing becomes an issue.

That video that @LeoGeo has posted, does KINDA work, it takes a lot of messing about to get your settling refresh rate, then finding the divisible number for you to enter into OBS's Fractional FPS value (using excel and calculating formulas). Trouble is, the refresh rate even on a fixed fresh rate doesn't settle at the same number EVERY time, so whilst you may find it working one day, it won't work the next (at least for me anyway)

My above write has guaranteed a stable recording/stream , even after multiple reinstalls (to test).
Again, can't guarantee it's going to help you and apologies it's not a 100% FIX, READ NOW Post.
Good luck and I'll still be around to try and assist where I can but enjoying stutter free recording/streams so hard to drag myself away :)
 

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LeoGeo

New Member
That's right. Personally, my refresh rate has a wide range from day to day. However, for a period of normal recording it is almost stable. So I decided to save a "fractional" OBS profile for every 0.000025 Hz within the span of my gaming monitor and check my refresh rate for 10 minutes before each recording-session.

1699813358966.png

^^ This is just an cutting. There are 30 profiles in total.

0.000025 Hz is not as accurate as it could be, but it is accurate enough for a normal length recording session (3-4 hours) before the stuttering would return.

Ps.: OBS 30.0 still stutter in preview.

That video that @LeoGeo has posted, does KINDA work, it takes a lot of messing about to get your settling refresh rate, then finding the divisible number for you to enter into OBS's Fractional FPS value (using excel and calculating formulas). Trouble is, the refresh rate even on a fixed fresh rate doesn't settle at the same number EVERY time, so whilst you may find it working one day, it won't work the next (at least for me anyway)
 
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crisvsv

New Member
For me the fix was to untick "limit capture framerate" in game capture. I had it on thinking it helped, but just made things damn choppy I realized after testing a lot.. Running one pc setup ( a laptop actually). Even on nvenc level 7 things are still smooth no matter gpu usage.
 
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