The culprits often boil down to network latency or graphics-related problems such as GPU overload. If you're plagued by OBS lagging, fret not – your pain is shared by many other users; more importantly, it's a fixable issue.
How Much CPU Usage is Normal? Normal CPU usage is 2-4% at idle, 10% to 30% when playing less demanding games, up to 70% for more demanding ones, and up to 100% for rendering work. When watching YouTube it should be around 5% up to 15% (total), depending on your CPU, browser and video quality.
Change the CPU Usage PresetThe usage preset refers to how fast the CPU encodes video. The faster it encodes, the less CPU it uses. By default, this is set to “Very Fastâ€, which provides the best balance between performance and quality.
If the CPU usage is around 100%, this means that your computer is trying to do more work than it has the capacity for. This is usually OK, but it means that programs may slow down a little. Computers tend to use close to 100% of the CPU when they are doing computationally-intensive things like running games.
"Why does OBS even need to use the GPU?" OBS needs GPU time and resources because it has to composite and render a scene. If you want OBS to require less resources, you must construct additional pylons you'll have to build simpler scenes and scene collections.
To put it simply, the encoder you choose will decide which piece of hardware is going to render your video. If you choose NVENC or AMF, you're telling OBS to use your graphics processing unit (GPU), or if you choose x264 you're telling it to use your central processing unit (CPU).
Methods to fix lagging in OBS
- Check your network connection.
- Use Stellar Repair to fix lagging in videos.
- Stream on a wired connection.
- Lower bitrate.
- Fix hardware issues.
- Change OBS setting as per your computer.
- Check your firewall and security software.
- Update Network Adapter Driver.
One common culprit for CPU spikes is a virus, spyware or other form of harmful software that is busy using your CPU. This might be the case if you see a process on the Processes tab in the Task Manager that you don't recognize. The bug might be new and undetectable, so your anti-virus software needs time to catch up.
Hardware encoding has been available on Nvidia cards since early 2012, so if you have a modern Nvidia GPU, you can likely enable it.
- Go to settings. Go to 'settings', then select 'output' from the side menu.
- Enable hardware encoding. Under the 'encoder' drop down select 'NVENC H. 264'.
CPU usage goes down because with a capture card, the encoding is done on an entirely separate computer. The gaming computer only has to run the game, not encode the video. If you're using the capture card in the same computer you're playing the game on, you're doing it wrong.
As a rule of thumb streaming full HD video, depending on the framerate, lands between 3500 and 6000 kbps. 720p HD is more forgiving to an entry-level streaming setup, starting at about a 2500 kbps bitrate and capping at 4000.
Low latency will sacrifice quality for exactly what the name says, lower latency, meaning your stream delay will not be as bad. This can be another option if you have encoding overload.
Most people should use High, which will allow you to use full hardware acceleration for better encoding. If you notice your stream is lagging or dropping frames, kick it down to Main, which is less taxing on your PC but won't give you an image as sharp as High. This is where to find your 'Profile' options in OBS.
Streamlabs OBS is ultimately an advancement of OBS with increased functionality. Streamlabs OBS is essentially the same OBS code revamped with a better user experience. This software is also free and offers an even easier installation process than OBS.
NVENC or x264x264 provides quality preset settings from ultrafast to veryslow/placebo. On Turing-based NVIDIA GeForce GPUs (ex: RTX 20-Series and GTX 1660/Ti), NVENC produces an image quality comparable to the x264 medium preset. Older Pascal and Kepler GPUs produce an image comparable to x264 veryfast.
10 Ways to Fix the OBS CPU Usage too High
- Downscale your output resolution.
- Use your Graphics Card for Encoding.
- Lower Frame Rate.
- Change your x264 preset.
- Check your sources.
- Close Extra Applications.
- Run all audio sources at the same frequency.
- Free Disk Space.
The reason the Ryzen 5 3600 is so much better for gaming and streaming though, is its support for simultaneous multithreading. That means that even though the CPU has six cores, it can actually address 12 threads at one time.
Illustrious. Shouldn't need to overclock anything, you have plenty of grunt to stream, it's your upstream broadband connection that dictates how well you stream.
You'll have to do your own inferencing, but it looks like at least 6 cores for streaming/recording gameplay is a good idea, and 8 wouldn't hurt.
Streaming through software encoding is CPU intensive, where streaming through hardware encoding is more GPU intensive. Both streaming options offer benefits and drawbacks depending on the games you plan to stream as well as your computer budget.
OBS has the following system requirements: Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. AMD FX series or Intel i5 2000-series processor (dual or 4-core preferable) or higher DirectX 10 capable graphics card. At least 4 GB of RAM (recommended, but not necessary)
Similarly, the Intel Core i5-8600K and i5-9600K are mid-range chips that will handle the demands of streaming – both have six cores. If you can afford a CPU with even more cores – like an AMD Threadripper or a Core i9 chip – then go for it, especially if you want to run particularly demanding games and streams.
A modern gaming PC should be enough to broadcast your gameplay to the internet, but a second computer can help create a smoother streaming experience. You can even repurpose old hardware to achieve this, assuming it meets the minimum specs for the streaming platform of your choice.
Best answer: Yes, as long as you're streaming console games or the 3400G is in a dedicated stream PC, you'll be able to encode a great looking stream with one.
How to Stop Dropped Frames in OBS
- Reduce the resolution of your streams. In general, the higher the stream resolution, the higher the CPU usage.
- Reduce the bitrate of your streams.
- If live streaming over WiFi try using an ethernet cable.
- Check your firewall settings.
- Broadcast to a server that is closest to you.
Active Member. OBS is a compositor and video switch. It uses GPU resources in ways that QuickTime does not. Any framerate you are able to hold in Minecraft without running OBS will be reduced when you launch OBS, unless you are already capping Minecraft's frame rate below that level before opening OBS.
The GPU priorization of Windows will prioritize your game, therefore it's not the game that is reducing FPS, it's the rendering process of OBS that also uses your GPU and that is crippled by the high GPU load of your game.
Configure computer and OBS settingsTurn all video settings from your game to their lowest. Reduce recording resolution for OBS to 16:9 720p (1280×720) or 480p (854×480). Use the Bicubic downscale filter. Verify the OBS FPS and reduce them to 24 or 30.
