Question Fast PC is incapable of smooth recordings and capture

Aug 8, 2022
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I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out why every game I try to record has stutter and choppiness. I would like to share my findings here in the hopes of finally reaching some kind of answer or solution:

  • I have tested with both OBS and Nvidia Geforce Experience. Both exhibit the stutter, regardless of what settings I change in their programs. This includes changing the encoding from a GPU oriented one to a CPU oriented one, and everything in between that is available in these programs. This has led me to assume that this is an issue with the computer itself, not these programs or their settings.
  • OBS reports that there is not any encoding or rendering lag when recording. This leads me to assume that it is not a bottleneck or performance related issue with my PC. It's also worth noting that even outside of recording, even the preview itself stutters.
  • This stutter happens even outside of running games, for example when I have tried to do a Display Capture of https://www.testufo.com/frameskipping, the issue still persisted here as well.
  • To add to that, the nature of the stutter is interesting and peculiar, it is not a traditional lag with variable framerates, but more of what looks to be a sync-related stutter. I record at 60FPS and every time this happens, it feels as if the framerate is being dropped to 30, or in other words, as if the frames are being held for one frame too long. This has led me to assume that this might be a V-sync related issue, but nothing I change in the Nvidia Control Panel regarding this has fixed anything.
  • The stutter is seemingly random to me, but in one test that I do, I can recreate it and have it persist at a specific location in-game every time. This makes me think it may or may not still be hardware related in some way.
  • I have done brief testing with a capture card that I own and this stuttering does not occur when capturing from an external device.

Here are two clips that show the issue, and I have found other very detailed posts in forums that also describe the issue that I am having verbatim which I can post here, and yet nobody has found a solution:

(starts 47 seconds into this video) (make sure it's HD so you can see it in 60FPS)
View: https://youtu.be/cYMuflcSatk

View: https://youtu.be/TS9fk8p-9jw



Other things worth noting:
  • I have 3 displays connected to my computer, including one that is 120hz G-sync capable, but these problems occur even when I disconnect the extra displays and only attempt on 1.
  • I have uninstalled and reinstalled my GPU drivers and tried different versions from different points in time, and the problem continues.
  • I have uninstalled and reinstalled clean versions of Windows, and tried multiple different versions of Windows 10, and 11, and the problem continues.
  • I have swapped out the GPU for a different Nvidia GPU and the problem continues.
  • I have recorded to both an SSD and an HDD. Although since the stuttering occurs even in preview window, I suspect that this is not related to the issue.

Specs:
  • i9-10900K
  • RTX 3080ti
  • Z-590E Motherboard
  • 64GB of 2133mhz DDR4 RAM

Please let me know any other information I can provide that would be helpful, and I thank you in advance for helping me with this issue that has me at my wit's end.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Use Task Manager and Resource Monitor to observe system performance. Use both tools but only one tool at a time.

Objective being to discover what, if anything, happens just before or at the time of the stutters.

Observe the system when it does not or normally does not stutter. Then game or run applications that cause stutter.

What changes: Resources being used, to what extent (%), what is using any given resource.....
 
Aug 8, 2022
7
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10
PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Use Task Manager and Resource Monitor to observe system performance. Use both tools but only one tool at a time.

Objective being to discover what, if anything, happens just before or at the time of the stutters.

Observe the system when it does not or normally does not stutter. Then game or run applications that cause stutter.

What changes: Resources being used, to what extent (%), what is using any given resource.....
PSU: EVGA 850W Supernova G3 80+ Gold, I have owned it for a few years but I bought it new.

Disk Drives: I have one Samsung 970 Pro for my boot and programs drive. On top of this, I have 5 HDD's in my system for my miscellaneous storage, files, and recordings. They are generally in the 10-16TB size, and run at 5400RPM. The SSD has been wiped multiple times during this process to test for issues while reinstalling Windows 10 so it is practically empty. The other HDD's are various levels of full, but the most full one still has 2TB of storage available. I have tried recording and even setting the record path to both the HDD's and SSD, and it exhibits problems either way.

Task Manager: On that note, I have also observed Task Manager and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary while looking at the disk usage while recording, same with just previewing (which also exhibits the issue). My GPU and CPU are also performing at a consistent even line while the stuttering occurs. As an example, while testing Dolphin with this stuttering occurring, my GPU 3D utilization is at about 30% without any fluctuations, and my CPU utilization is at 10% no fluctuations.
 
and my CPU utilization is at 10% no fluctuations.
On a 10 core CPU 10% is one full core.
You can use process hacker double click on a running process go to the threads tab and look at individual threads, if the largest one maxes out a full core it could be an issue.
Doubt it though.

OBS on the advanced tab has the option to change the priority put that to maximum so that windows knows that you would like the recording to get as much processing time as it needs.
You can also use process hacker to change the I/O priority of the streaming exe to the highest for the same reasons.
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Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Take a look at the following link from within this Forum:

Best Power Supplies of 2022 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

Not with the immediate intent that you need to go out and purchase a new PSU.

Just try some of the calculators and get a sense of how much power your system and all of its' current components may be demanding.

Especially at peak demands.

Then consider that EVGA 850 watt PSU may be nearing its' designed in EOL (End of Life) and starting to falter and fail.

Do you have another known working PSU that you can install for testing purposes?
 
Aug 8, 2022
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Do you have another known working PSU that you can install for testing purposes?
I do not, but I just bought a new one so I'll keep you updated on if swapping them out does the trick. Part of me wonders how hardware related this is though or if it's something that needs to be resolved in Windows itself. I did brief testing on a laptop of mine and obviously while I couldn't match the settings because of the laptop being underpowered, I ran into the exact same issue with preview/recording stutter while the games and software showed no indication of dropped frames.
 
Aug 8, 2022
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On a 10 core CPU 10% is one full core.
You can use process hacker double click on a running process go to the threads tab and look at individual threads, if the largest one maxes out a full core it could be an issue.
Doubt it though.
I will look into this as soon as I can but yeah, I don't think this is the issue because task manager showed an overall low CPU usage among the cores. I have however set OBS's priority to high and that didn't appear to change anything.
 
Aug 8, 2022
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Blackink

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