Choppy Streams
So I have been having a problem with choppy streams. I have excellent internet, I've tried lowing the quality, I've tried changing the encoders on OBS to fastest performance, I'm on the right server and I've tried lowering my bitrate. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
37 Replies
What CPU/GPU do you have?
What is your upload speed?
What settings have you tried?
Ryzen 5 3600 with a geforce 1660 super
I average around 3.38 upload
and I'm not sure what you mean for settings.
It use to not be this bad. I'm honestly getting to the point I'm just going to quit streaming.
What bitrates have you tried? Based on your upload speed your bitrate should be a max of 3000kbps, more like 2500kbps to be safe.
When I say settings, I mean, what encoder settings. Open OBS > Settings > Output > Streaming > Encoder Settings. You can share a screenshot if that's easier than typing them all out
I was told that bitrate should be around the upload speed times 1000 so it's set at 3800 right now. I have set it to 2000 and I'm still dropping frames. The encoder is set the lowest quality and fastest speeds.
I just changed them but here are the setting currently.
That would be the max, yes, but bitrate is never a stable figure. If your stable upload speed is, for example, 3.5mbps, you wouldn't want to set your bitrate to 3500kbps because bitrate can spike up to 500+ the max at times meaning your bitrate might spike to 4000kbps which will cause frame drops. So giving yourself approx. 500 headroom is good, therefore a bitrate of 3000kbps is recommended.
Are you certain your upload speed is stable at 3.8? Or does it occasionally drop below that? A stable upload speed is ideal for streaming, try using ethernet over wifi if you can.
There are other reasons why you might be dropping frames. Such as, your GPU might not be able to handle the encoding (for streaming) and rendering (for gaming) simultaneously. To test this, are you able to stream just your desktop with no GPU intensive applications other than OBS running? Are you able to play your games at a reasonable framerate (60fps for example)?
I would monitor your upload speed while doing these tests. You should always have at least 0.5mbps free, if you do a speed test while streaming and see the upload speed at like 0.1 or 0.0, then you know your internet is the likely culprit.
Those settings look reasonable to me. I would definitely try what I mentioned above and see if you still drop frames.
3.8 is around average.
Right, but is that stable? Does it sometimes drop below that? If it does then that would be an issue
yeah. I do also use ethernet
Yeah so if your bitrate is 3000kbps and your upload speed dips to 2.5mbps, then you're going to get dropped frames. You need a stable connection at 3.5mbps+
How do I get a stable connection?
You would need to speak to your ISP about that. Likely pay for a better plan, consider changing ISPs, or could be the area you live that doesn't have great internet
But before that, I would do those tests I mentioned above
I do also get pretty good frames while playing games.
but even when I stream nothing like I'm just sitting on my desktop with nother open the stream drops frames.
That is good then. I would say your internet is the culprit. 3.8mbps is considered poor for streaming. 5mbps would be the lowest I'd use. 7mbps would be ideal for Twitch (and also the max I believe)
Yep, as I said, "I would monitor your upload speed while doing these tests. You should always have at least 0.5mbps free, if you do a speed test while streaming and see the upload speed at like 0.1 or 0.0, then you know your internet is the likely culprit."
If that isn't the issue, then it might be hardware related. You can keep Task Manager open and see if anything is using more system resources than it should be
only thing I saw when I did that was antimalware service executable.
Besides the GPU, do any of them hit 100%?
while I'm streaming?
Yeah
no. CPU is at around 19% and Memory is at 33%
I'm going to say it's definitely your internet then mate
well I can't afford anything better so it looks like I am no longer a streamer
Might also be worth testing that while streaming and running your game. See if the results are different. But I'm like 99% positive it's your internet lol sorry to hear it bud
okay so once I open my browser to go view my stream my cpu just to 100%
Does it stay pinged at 100% or does it drop down again? Browsers can be pretty resource intensive, especially when first opened
it's staying at a constant 100%
That could also be an issue than
So how do I resolve that?
Only really 2 options. Limit whatever background tasks you have running that use a lot of CPU. Buy a better CPU. You definitely want some headroom on your CPU when streaming, as a lot of the pre-rendering stuff is done on the CPU before it's sent to the GPU. If your CPU can't render stuff in time you'll drop frames
Might be worth doing a fresh install of windows, don't install any junk programs
Curious. What is your CPU % at when your PC is just idle? Nothing running
And I'm testing a game right now and the cpu is sitting at around 35-40%
memory is at 44%
That should be fine then in terms of resource usage
But is that while streaming or just playing?
Streaming is also really resource intensive
while streaming.
Ok so yeah, I would go back to thinking it's your internet again
well I'm monitoring the stream on my phone and it seems as long as I dont open opera gx I'm fine.
That's good news then. Yeah, limiting background tasks could definitely help. Hopefully it stays stable for you 👌🏽
I guess I'll just use obs to monitor my stream and stuff.
Is there a reason why my web browser is using so much cpu because now I can't even use my web browser
Could be a few reasons. Lots of extension, hardware acceleration turned on, malware/adware, lots of open tabs, the content rendered in the tabs (video players use more resources for example)
Could try a different browser like Chrome, Vivaldi, or Edge instead, and see if you have the same issue
Yeah edge works fine
Alright so it seems uninstalling then reinstalling the browser fixed my issue.