Trying to Record in 1080p60fps on MacBook Pro from 2018

[BoogieMJ]

Hi,

I'm having trouble keeping a smooth 60fps at 1080p on my Intel MacBook Pro.
In a previous recording I used for a YouTube video, it was smooth for the first 10 minutes but then lagged and stuttered randomly until it just chugged towards the end and eventually losing footage. I'm using an Elgato hd60s+ capture card to record ps5 gameplay.

Does anyone know a solution?

STATS:

Processor: 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
Memory: 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
OS: MacOS Sonoma

Audio Encoder: CoreAudi AAC
Video Encoder: Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder

Rate Control: ABR
Bitrate: 6000 Kbps
Keyframe Interval: 2 s
Profile: High
Use B-Frames: Checked

Audio Bitrate: 128

Most Recent Issue Log File: https://obsproject.com/logs/nVrxQYz61TubMjiQ

 

[AaronD]

What were your system temperatures? Did one of them reach a thermal throttling threshold at the same time that your recording fell apart?

Laptops are generally not good for media production. They might have awesome specs, but terrible cooling. The idea there is to be easily portable, and to load something quickly and be done with that. Then sit and do nothing while they cool off and the user looks at it.

If you must use a laptop, look at the "mobile workstation" class of laptop. I have one (running Linux), because that media rig really does need to be portable. Mobile Workstations are thick and heavy, because they actually do have a decent cooling system, and that allows them to do computationally demanding things continuously, instead of just briefly.

 

[BoogieMJ]

What were your system temperatures? Did one of them reach a thermal throttling threshold at the same time that your recording fell apart?

Laptops are generally not good for media production. They might have awesome specs, but terrible cooling. The idea there is to be easily portable, and to load something quickly and be done with that. Then sit and do nothing while they cool off and the user looks at it.

If you must use a laptop, look at the "mobile workstation" class of laptop. I have one (running Linux), because that media rig really does need to be portable. Mobile Workstations are thick and heavy, because they actually do have a decent cooling system, and that allows them to do computationally demanding things continuously, instead of just briefly.

System temperatures are around 70 deg celsius. Fan #1 is at 5927 RPM and fan #2 is at 5483. Currently getting around 20fps.

 

[BoogieMJ]

Does anyone know the best settings to record 1080p60fps on 2018 MacBook Pro 15"?

 

[AaronD]

System temperatures are around 70 deg celsius. Fan #1 is at 5927 RPM and fan #2 is at 5483. Currently getting around 20fps.

70degC seems high to me. I don't know where the throttling threshold is, but since a common maximum internal temperature for a chip itself is 85degC, I'd call it likely that you're throttling. Some chips are rated for 125degC, but that's usually for military and industrial stuff.

Does anyone know the best settings to record 1080p60fps on 2018 MacBook Pro 15"?

On the assumption that you *are* throttling, the "best" settings are those that assume much worse performance than published. Forget quality, just look at minimum computational effort. And you might not like the result.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

To Aaron's point,
1. either figure out how to identify Thermal Throttling on that specific system (unfortunately, I'm not aware of a consistent, end-user friendly, method of monitoring for thermal throttling.)
That said, you are asking for 60fps, with CPU intensive chromakeying and numerous audio filters/effects. all on a (very soon to be) 6 generation old CPU designed for moderate performance (the i7-8850H) optimized for battery life. . 60fps should be fine, but with all those CPU demanding extras... maybe not? What does System Monitor indicate? [beware when CPU is below 100%, but that is due to Thermal Throttling not due to available headroom. Sorry, MacOS is not my area of expertise, but if I remember correctly, System Monitor could indicate CPU at say 60% (or less) and still be maxed out due to thermal constraints imposed by CPU/BIOS]

Does anyone know the best settings to record 1080p60fps on 2018 MacBook Pro 15"?

There is no such thing. anyone who offers to answer your question as asked should be ignored as they don't know what they are talking about.
Optimal OBS Studio settings will depend on what else is going on at the Operating System level.
And an optimal setting for one circumstance may not work in another (ex different game, or resource change after OS or driver update, etc). And with OS changes over time, you may need to adjust as well
Further, do you want the "Easy Button" answer that works in most situations? if yes, it won't be 'best' settings ... just simple

sorry, this stuff quickly gets complicated.

The most likely root cause, is that your MacBook Pro is under-powered for your settings and EVERYTHING else also running at the same time.
So, you could shutdown unnecessary processes to free up CPU load. And then there is making compromises in resource demand of OBS Itself, starting with 60fps vs filters/effects?

{looking at your log further}... sorry, not sure, but is that using a CPU H.264 encoder, is it using GPU encode offload? if using CPU encoder, then I'd definitely look into GPU encode offload option for your system model before doing anything else

 

[MichielV]

What were your system temperatures? Did one of them reach a thermal throttling threshold at the same time that your recording fell apart?

Laptops are generally not good for media production. They might have awesome specs, but terrible cooling. The idea there is to be easily portable, and to load something quickly and be done with that. Then sit and do nothing while they cool off and the user looks at it.

If you must use a laptop, look at the "mobile workstation" class of laptop. I have one (running Linux), because that media rig really does need to be portable. Mobile Workstations are thick and heavy, because they actually do have a decent cooling system, and that allows them to do computationally demanding things continuously, instead of just briefly.

Same Here. OBS worked excellent om my MacBook Pro Intel i9 (2019) so it should do the job. Since my update to Sonoma 14.5 and OBS 30.1.2 (intel version) after a few minutes my MacBook struggles. All 8 cores are overloaded (16 cores with HT) and streaming fails after a few minutes.