Question / Help "Warning High CPU Usage" Laggy video.

ChocoQ

Member
Alright, so here's the story.

A few weeks ago, and back for a few months, I was able to locally record 1080p 60fps videos with ease, great quality, never lagged.
I had a memory leak, and it was bad,
Re-formated, re-installed windows everythings fine
I go and record my first video today, (after weeks of not recording coz I have alot of videos recorded)
And I get this "Warning: High CPU Usage" error in red on OBS.
And my video stuttered a bit at a few parts, for the most part it was smooth.

I have an Nvidia 680m 2gb dedicated memory
3rd gen i7 2.4 GHz quadcore

Idk how to get the log for the file that I recorded, but here are my settings. (These are what I've found over the past few months to be the perfect video settings for me, they worked perfectly fine until today, idk why.)

Encode: x264
Bitrate: 25,000
Quality Balance: 10
Codec: AAC
Format: 48KHz
Bitrate (Audio): 192
Channel: Stereo
Video Adapter: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M
1920 x1080 resolution no downscale
60FPS
Disable Aero: Unchecked
Desktop Boost: 2
Mic/Aux Boost: 1
(I use a Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma headset)
Process Priority Class: Above Normal
Scene Buffering Time: 700
x264 CPU Preset: Very Fast
Encoding Profile: High
Use CFR: Checked


I don't use Monitor Capture. I would imagine if I tried to "Disable Aero" have checked, it might solve my problem,
Will keep you updated.

Also worth mentioning, back in June - July I had these same settings applied, and I recorded with a 50,000 KB/s bitrate. Everything else was the same, (I matched Shadowplays quality as far as Bitrate. Noticed that 25,000 is the same quality for most games, and half the file size.)
 
This is all I could get from a log file, from 9 different recordings. They aren't making themselves, but I lowered the bit-rate and still getting lag.

Keep in mind I used these same settings for awhile (with a higher bitrate) and it was perfectly fine. I don't understand why OBS is now using all of my CPU power.

Edit: I also just tried to record with Nvidia NVenc and it gives me a High CPU Usage warning still. Which makes no sense because it uses the GPU, right?

+ Nvenc doesn't record at 60fps, it records at 40-60 and the video is choppy.

For the most part x264 records at a 60fps, it just occasionally goes into High Usage in some games. But if I play a game such as Advanced Warfare, it uses 100% of my CPU, while Advanced Warfare only uses 25-35% of it. Which means that OBS is using 60-75% of my CPU now.
 

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I don't think your system is capable of 1080p60 with the games you're playing on it.
I've recorded all of my videos at 1080p 60 fps with OBS. So your statement is false. I could just overclock my CPU to 3.5 GHz and test it, but I see no point in that as it worked fine before.

Worse comes to worse I can just use Shadow Play and get Audacity again.
 
For recording, you are actually using the wrong settings.

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/ with the ultrafast x264 preset.

Using the bitrate selection you're using, you're actually going to hit bitrate limits at 25mbit
Again, you must think I'm a noob when it comes to OBS.

If i use the CRF options, my video size is quite large, larger than that of Shadow play. (And Shadowplay uses a huge file size.)

As I said, I matched Shadow Plays quality inside of OBS for almost all of my recordings before, using 50,000 for my bitrate to encode.
at 60 FPS.
CRF Not used. For lossless quality, and it matches Shadowplay perfectly, with an almost identical file size. With no motion blur I might add.

Using the CRF Option causes a larger file size, and at some points causes some motion blur, though I don't know why.

If i use Super Fast preset, or Ultra Fast preset, my videos have an extensive amount of blur, Very Fast and Faster are the 2 presets that actually show my video without any blur.

As I said in the original post. I recorded videos with the settings said above for quite some time, with no perfomance issues.

These issues just started happening yesterday.

Granted I haven't recorded a video in a few weeks, but a few weeks and a fresh install of Windows should have better performance, not worse.

Telling me that I'm not using the right settings to record my videos, is just plain mean. I've done a-lot of Trial and Error. This issue literally just started happening.


Edit: And for future reference, I've used CRF=15 for a decent amount of recordings, that's how I know what I said.
 
if you set your preset to ultrafast you might be able to record 1080p60
I've tried Ultra Fast before, it causes a-lot of blur inside of my videos. (Specifically motion blur, I'm a perfectionist ;D)
I guess the idea of humoring us is beyond you.
Not really "beyond" me, I've played around with every setting to find the perfect one. I've literally tried everything on the forums before, and I've tested literally everything before. It's not a "You need to turn it down" issue, it's a "It was working fine, now I'm having issues" issue.

Suggesting to lower the quality of my videos, while being an obvious answer, isn't a solution for me. As I recorded perfectly fine with more bitrate before, with the same settings. I'm not meaning to come off as mean, I'm just trying to find a solution as to why it's having an issue.

OBS is a great software, I love all of the technical stuff about it, I like the fact I can play with the settings.

Shadowplay limits me, and the microphone quality is garbage for some reason. OBS Made it easy for me to have a loud video, and a decently loud microphone.


Edit: Also, whenever I open or close OBS, my screen flickers black, this just started happening today. >_>
 
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The most recent nvidia drivers have been reportedly causing some problems. If you've updated to those, try the immediate previous release version
 
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