Stutters in OBS preview and recording, nothing in the log file

[Dyliardos]

Hi everyone,
so I've been dealing with this issue since forever, and nothing seems to be helping out. At one point in the recording, 30 mins in, 15 mins in, or even instantly after the recording starts, weird stutters may be observed on OBS preview and some, or all, can also be seen later on in the recording. The only way to 'fix' this is to repeatedly restart OBS until the issue disappears, for the time being. The issue does not seem to be related to hardware limitations as nothing is ever maxed out during recording; the stutters also show up on simple and not demanding games. I have experienced this issue on multiple OBS versions, with multiple launch parameters; tested out different encoders and capture methods.

Links to two separate YT videos showing the stutters from different games:
https://youtu.be/-nksx9iPUwA
https://youtu.be/acMNDkdu5do

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing it? Thanks in advance!

 

[Andu64]

I've had the exact same issue for years now. The preview stutters and it's the same stutter in the recording. (There's no dropped frames or overload in the stats.)

Here's what I've found though.

The stutter only occurs when using game capture and window capture. There's NO stutter when using display capture! I've been using display capture for a while now with no issues, however you may not want to record or stream your entire display.

I've tried every possible combination of settings with game capture but the preview lags, always. I can't figure it out.

(The preview stutters without recording too!)

 

[Dyliardos]

I guess I've experimented the least with display capture, so I will give it another round of tests, but I remember it producing stutters too. Over the time, I had a hard time recreating the issue, but Elden Ring for whatever reason produces the stutters rather consistently. I' ve also experienced the preview stuttering without recording, ridiculous!

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it!

 

[Dyliardos]

Performed a quick test with display capture, stutters appeared 15 mins in :(

 

[Suslik V]

There are related threads about the "stutters" in preview. For example (it is about imperfect clocks/frequency between the display device and the main PC):

I've been facing an issue for over two months and haven't found a solution: dropped frames in the recorded video.

I've been facing a problem for over two months and haven’t found a solution yet. When I record gameplay, there’s no frame drop — the game runs smoothly, and even CPU and GPU usage doesn’t exceed 50%. However, after I finish recording and watch the recorded video, I notice that in some scenes...

obsproject.com

Maybe there you'll find the answers. The header may be misleading, but the problem, in my opinion, is the same.

 

[rockbottom]

It could just be the source. Elden Ring is known for sub-par frame pacing.

 

[qhobbes]

1. You are running an old version of OBS Studio (31.0.3). Please update to the latest version by going to Help -> Check for updates in OBS or by downloading the latest installer from the downloads page and running it.
2. Remove Window and Display Capture, add Game Capture and then try to capture your game. If that doesn't work, remove game cap and try with Win cap with game running in window mode.
3. Multipass, Look-ahead and AQ all use additional GPU. Disable those in the output settings.
4. To add to what rockbottom said, find the settings where the game runs consistently at 90 FPS and then enable G\V-sync\cap game at 60 FPS.

 

[Andu64]

I guess I've experimented the least with display capture, so I will give it another round of tests, but I remember it producing stutters too. Over the time, I had a hard time recreating the issue, but Elden Ring for whatever reason produces the stutters rather consistently. I' ve also experienced the preview stuttering without recording, ridiculous!

Thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it!

Are you recording to an SSD?

I remember in the past, my recordings stuttered because I was recording to a HDD. It couldn’t keep up with the bitrate.

Look to your worst pc component and it could be that. For me it was the hard drive.