Windows 10: latest Windows 10 builds overwrite the selection you make in the NVIDIA Control Panel. The setting is now accessible in the main Settings app (cog icon in the start menu) > System > Display > Graphics settings (small link at the bottom) > Browse.
When using OBS on a laptop or multi-GPU system, you may run into performance issues or issues using a specific capture type (i.e. Game or Window capture). This can be very frustrating. The reason this happens is because most modern laptops will come with two GPUs:
OBS can only run on one of these GPUs, but your open applications and games could be running on either. For example, if OBS is running on the Intel GPU, you will not be able to use Game Capture for your games running on the discrete (NVIDIA or AMD) GPU. Additionally, if OBS is not running on the discrete GPU, you might run into performance issues. In rare cases, trying to capture a game running on a different GPU than OBS can cause the game to crash. This is not really an issue with OBS, but rather a design choice by laptop manufacturers in order to save power and there's little that can be done on our side. However, we do have several troubleshooting suggestions to try and assist with any issues.
It is applicable if you are running Windows 10 version 1903 or newer.
C:\Program Files\obs-studio\bin\64bit\obs64.exe
Then follow the steps below, depending on which mode you need.
In OBS Studio v22 and upwards, there is an updated version of the browser source that comes with hardware acceleration on by default. This means that browser sources will be rendered on the GPU. However, on laptops or multi-GPU systems, it may not always run on the same GPU that OBS is running on, and tends to favor the high performance GPU.
You can manually select the GPU that the browser source is run on by following the appropriate instructions for your version of Windows (follow the guide specific to your GPU if you have Windows 10 1809 or older), and adjusting the settings for obs-browser-page.exe
. By default, OBS Studio's installation of obs-browser-page will be at either C:\Program Files\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit\obs-browser-page.exe
or C:\Program Files (x86)\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit\obs-browser-page.exe
.
If you're still having difficulty getting browser sources to render on a laptop or multi-GPU system, you can disable the new hardware acceleration feature. In OBS Studio, go to File > Settings > Advanced, and uncheck the "Enable Browser Source Hardware Acceleration" option.
I know it's annoying. I'm not happy that this is the case either. Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can really do about it. This is just the way laptops are designed in order to save power and battery life.