Bug Report Win 7 performance issues while having the software open at all.

[Tivan]

Hey, just wanted to report a somewhat relevant performance issue, occuring across OBS studio and classic, in all games, noticable to more or less of an extent (more when baseline performance is worse. Just using Path of Exile because it has nice inbuilt graph).

OBS Studio open (in background or minimized), previewing the game capture: http://puu.sh/sO5Ml/7a8ee26349.jpg
OBS Studio recording game, no cam engaged on second one (Latest AMF plugin): http://puu.sh/sO4Ws/b8719d403f.jpg http://puu.sh/sO77B/1a730f8605.jpg
OBS Studio previewing the above, no cam enaged: http://puu.sh/sO74I/766f58a1ab.jpg
OBS Studio previewing a completely black scene, no camera engaged: http://puu.sh/sO5Zb/fcf165ddc0.jpg
OBS Studio closed: http://puu.sh/sO5VK/be9e7b10dd.jpg http://puu.sh/sO7bL/d542cc1a2e.jpg
OBS Classic previewing a black scene, preview view disabled, minimized: http://puu.sh/sO5ms/6a8a2f7b1a.jpg
AMD ReLive impact: http://puu.sh/sO6nz/ed310690cc.jpg http://puu.sh/sO70y/31f4a5916c.jpg

Sorry for some pictures not having the full image, took forever to take these anyway! ohwell.

OBS Studio version is 0.16.6 (64-bit), AMD 16.12.1 drivers, Direct3D 11 (openGL behaves about the same), AMD AMF plugin 1.4.3.3

Curious if this is fixable or present on further platforms!

edit: The game is on the Dx9 (ex) mode. Borderless, for taking screenshots easier. But the behavior was identical when I initially tested performance in real fullscreen.

And on the bright side, I only decided to look into this due to a much worse issue that went away with clean install of the gpu driver. The issue as it is is really rather subtle.

edit: this is all with aero theme engaged as some games run better with that in some circumstances, I'll test without and see if the general pattern persists.
edit: basic win 7 theme (should have aero disabled?), single monitor, true full screen: http://puu.sh/sO7sn/6f4cfc5fdb.jpg

Still getting these recurring valleys/mountains depending on how you look at it, with OBS Studio started up.

Here's with OBS Studio turned off, same situation: http://puu.sh/sO7xT/26f2cb929d.jpg

edit: just for good measure, OpenGL renderer with basic theme/single monitor/no cam, previewing game: http://puu.sh/sO7OH/7fd5eb5fd2.jpg

edit: Another thing to note, OBS classic is fine when it's not engaged in the preview/record/stream mode at all.

 

[Suslik V]

I can believe that you forget to cap the fps in the game. Any limiter available in the game? If yes - enable it (30 or 60 on your wish).

The Preview Stream mode in OBS Classic and Preview window in OBS Studio are different things.

Last, the performance compare (Classic vs Studio) was mentioned there: OBS Studio too heavy compared to OBS / QuickSync problems / Multi adapter problems possibly

The only issue I met before with win7 and display capture source was caused by Aero theme, more info: massive fps drop with obs open (no recording or streaming)

 

[Tivan]

If I were to cap the framerate, the issue would not be noticable in the testing environment.

edit: Also note that this issue is not at all related to encoding seemingly, it's equally present while previewing (and previewing a black screen at that), or just being open, and while recording, to the same extent.

Here's another with OBS Studio preview window disabled, but open, not recording: http://puu.sh/sOc0M/8ca01cd65a.jpg
OBS Studio closed: http://puu.sh/sObW8/1ba5201358.jpg

Also there's no massive framedrops, just relatively reduced peak game performance, periodically, every couple seconds, related to OBS Studio simply being open, or in case of the classic version, slightly more random performance fluctuations, if it's engaged in any of the modes (Preview, recording, or streaming).

edit: But yeah the issue as it is, is subtle enough to be better to have, than if I were to cap the framerate with or without vsync. The question is, do other people experience similar issues and it is solvable from the side of GPU drivers or from the side of program development.

edit: on that note, I just subitted a ticket to AMD with the issue and steps how to recreate it, as minor as it might be. If it's cosistently recreateable, fixing it might be a good idea anyway.

 

[Tivan]

So I did some further testing and the frametime variance is also present in graphically more intensive situations, still only as long as OBS Studio is open, and it is quite to the detriment of sustained framerate and vsync stability unless I maintain some extra 30%-40% performance window above framerate target where I'd otherwise be constantly at the framerate target.

Basically should be a good idea to fix this, if the goal is to provide people with a usable gameplay framerate boost (stability wise) while running the software.

 

[Osiris]

Where are the logfiles?

 

[Tivan]

Here's a log file with the issue present. https://gist.github.com/ecfc4aa477eaf6b2d2fc63a9f17743c8

Nothing recording because there's no difference between just having the program open and recording, with regard to this issue. The issue is present regardless of priority in advanced settings, and equally so with dx11 and opengl renderer there. also with NV12/601/Partial in there, just gave the other things a quick test.

another one, with all sources in the scene hidden on startup: https://gist.github.com/2c5613f23e67aa63bca97b99f36d052f

another one with all audio sources disabled in the audio settings, issue remains as described as long as OBS Studio is open: https://gist.github.com/8f437a2d52d33b7ba086f0a469325d65 (edit: actually disabled all audio sources)

edit: same as above but dx11 renderer, same black scene and audio inputs disabled. https://gist.github.com/b0c45472960e0a849dfd20c736701dbc

 

[OG See OH Zee]

I don't see any recording attempt from the log.

EDIT: Neither did the second log.

 

[Tivan]

Of course not, it's not a recording issue. The issue is present while the program is open. Be it minimized, with preview disabled, hidden behind the game app, aero theme disabled, with the game in exclusive full screen, with the game in dx 9 or dx11 mode. It goes away swiftly when closing OBS Studio, or in the case of OBS classic, when not engaged in preview/record/stream mode.

edit: also to note is that actually recording with AMD's ReLive thing does not impact the performance much at all. This issue seems to be related to the way the OBS Studio window interacts with the GPU/the OS, or something strange like that. The weirdest part is that OBS classic can be open, as long as it's not engaged in one of the 3 modes (preview/recording/streaming). While enabling/disabling the actual preview view changes nothing.

Maybe as a workaround, a GUI-less mode might work? I could imagine that that might fix the issue.

 

[Osiris]

Please upload using "last log", these logs don't contain any profiling information.
Also, you really need to limit the fps in your games, the fps shown in those graphs is totally unreasonable. OBS also needs some GPU power, if everything is being used to render the game, they will compete for resources.

 

[Tivan]

Here's a previous log uploaded that featured the issue. https://gist.github.com/0ed745606c40b4e4d92e933b8473912d

edit: Thanks for the tip by the way, though for now, the fps is where it is for easy reproduction of the issue. It's also reproducable at fps values below 100, though involving some setup, to have actual action going on. (using the same skill repeatedly which takes mana and refilling that is a chore. Though seeing the issue similarly there, just at lower fps all around.)


edit: But yeah, I am kinda curious if this issue is consistently reproducable for people with AMD GPUs on windows 7 (and maybe for further people). To observe it, it's as simple as starting up path of exile, making a character, and standing around with the fps/frametime log open (gotten by pressing F1), vsync turned off. And having OBS Studio open or closed. At least as far as I am aware. Though maybe there's some weird stuff going on on my system that introduces conflicts while a game (I've vaguely noticed the issue in other games, too, though I tend to aim for relatively high framerates to begin with) and OBS Studio are open that would lead to the issue.

edit: maybe minimizing OBS Studio to the tray might work too? I'm not sure. Is that possible? I'll try third party software to achieve that and report back. Though maybe the methods used by third party software might not be sufficient.

edit: it appears that the 'hide' function when right clicking the OBS Studio tray icon is not enough to fix the issue for me.

 

[Osiris]

Please post a log from a session with the game running at 60fps or w/e your monitor's refresh rate is.

 

[Tivan]

Here you go, from low'ish workload scenario where I have vsync engaged (no issues maintaining it there.): https://gist.github.com/b273266cf527275acc44bc4a8dc433e3

If this is related to the way OBS Studio requires resources from the GPU, I sure wonder why it's causing periodic micro valleys in peak FPS every couple of seconds in high workload situations. Any way to smooth that out?

 

[Tivan]

Just meant to add that this seems to happen in GPU bound (or at least not CPU bound) situations mainly.
Another pair of screenshots at a lower fps level: http://puu.sh/t1A5i/25a8df3880.jpg http://puu.sh/t1A76/91367b58bf.jpg (uploading something on the side so latency is a bit all over the place. PoE Dx11 client this time around.)

Just seems a little funky that merely having the software open changes a roughly stable ~7ms frametime to a fluctuating one between 7ms and 8.5ms or more, and this is hardly the most demanding situation where there's a similar impact. Not ideal, though can live with that, but yeah.

I wouldn't mind if anyone felt so free to test the game (or other games) with OBS Studio open and OBS Studio closed, to confirm if this is related to my machine, GPU, OS, or something else.

edit: curiously, opening AMD's wattman and tabbing back to the game also causes this behavior, I'll definitely report this back to AMD. Screenshots with wattman open, not minimized but behind the game (no OBS Studio open in either; PoE in Dx9ex mode, GPU clock locked to 300 for testing that for once. memory at stock 1250.): http://puu.sh/t1BhO/d30c4c59f9.jpg ; without: http://puu.sh/t1BlJ/557b50c2e6.jpg

edit: maybe something to do with graphical features of the OBS Studio window updating periodically like the wattman clock/temperature graphs? Though the amd crimson wattman thing is drastically different from OBS Studio, so this is pretty odd.