GPU-Based Streaming Now Dropping Frames (GTX 1070 FTW)

[The_Rat_Boy]

Greetings!! I am new here and I have a question. I have had my EVGA GTX 1070 FTW Edition card for a while now as an upgrade from a temporary 950ti and have been using it to stream games and record them simultaneously using OBS Studio. I use the NVENC h.264 encoder for it because the games I am playing and streaming aren't usually the most demanding (Dota 2, Overwatch, etc.) and for the longest time upon buying the card I would stream for hours without any dropped frames. In the past few weeks though I have noticed that I will sometimes hit spikes of frames dropping and it is very evident in the stream playback but not the recordings. I will paste below my stream settings and system specs (copied from my youtube):

---System Specs---
CPU: Intel i7-6700k @4GHz
GPU: EVGA GTX 1070
MoBo: GIGABYTE LGA1151 Intel Z170 ATX
RAM: 16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengance @2666Mhz
Case: NZXT S340 Elite Mid-Tower Chassis (flat black)
Storage: 240GB PNY SSD, 1TB Wd Black, 2TB WD Black, 1TB laptop drive internal, and 3 280GB laptop drive
Heat Sink: Thermaltake Riing RGB 240mm Water Cooling

---Peripherals---
Mouse: Steelseries Rival 100 @2000 DPI
Keyboard: Steelseries M500 Mechanical Keyboard
Headset: Steelseries 3H v2 Gaming Headset
Audio Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 2nd Generation
Microphone: MXL 990 Blizzard Limited Edition Condenser Microphone
Monitor: -Main-Acer 24" 1080p Monitor @144Hz 1ms response time (forgot the exact name)
-secondary-Acer 21" 1080p Monitor @60hz 1ms response time (also forgot the exact name)

---OBS Studio Settings For Streaming---
//Output//
-Encoder: NVENC H.264
-Rate Control: CQP
----CQP: 5
-Keyframe Interval: 0 (auto)
-Preset: High Quality
-Profile: High
-Level: 5.1
''2-pass encoding'' enabled
-GPU: 0
-B-Frames: 4

//Audio//
44.1khz, Stereo, 192 bitrate

//Video//
-Base: 1920x1080
-Output: 1920x1080
-Downscale Filter: Lanczos
-FPS: 60

//Advanced//
-Process Priority: Normal
-YUV Color Space: 709
-YUV Color Range: Full

Any other unmentioned settings are at the default, the uploaded videos with intros are from simultaneous recordings which use CBR at 20,000 bitrate, Bluray preset, main profile, and auto level.

Even without recording simultaneously I will still get dropped frames during streaming, usually scattered around during moments with little graphical movement or intensity as well. The dropped frames usually get into the thousands but percentage-wise will eventually bottom out to less that 1% of total frames produced, but is still annoying to have happening throughout the stream as I am planning to do more with it and do not want any problems in the future. If there are any ideas or solutions to this it would be much appreciated!!

***edit: if it matters, the 2TB WD Black is only for recordings and the games run off of the 1TB WD Black. Also, the Upload Bitrate is usually around 5,000 and my internet can handle it.

 

[TerryLaze]

-Process Priority: Normal
Put that to high again,normal means to not give that process cpu power if there is another process that needs cpu power (the game)
If high still gives you some drops then use task manager to put the recording process to real-time,if you use process hacker to do this you can even save the setting so it will always be used,even when process hacker isn't running.


(Or it's your internet,even if it's generally capable of coping with the bandwidth, there are other programs that use the upload as well and could be causing it to bottleneck)

 

[The_Rat_Boy]

I will give that a shot tonight after work and see if it fixes it up, thanks!!

 

[The_Rat_Boy]

After many trials and changing settings I figured out how to stop dropping the frames and keep the 1080p 60Hz constant!

I will paste the new settings from my twitch after I explain what changed.

The things that changed were:
-Output-
profile from High ---> Main
-Advanced-
Process Priority from Normal ---> Above Normal
YUV Color Space from 709 ---> 601
YUV Color Range from Full ---> Partial

In changing the color settings I also have a lighter color coming through the stream rather than how it has been relatively darker, so it now resembles better exactly what I see while playing.

Below are the complete settings fixed.

---OBS Studio Streaming Settings---
//Output//
-Encoder: NVENC H.264
-Rate Control: CQP
----CQP: 5
-Keyframe Interval: 0 (auto)
-Preset: High Quality
-Profile: Main
-Level: 5.1
''2-pass encoding'' enabled
-GPU: 0
-B-Frames: 4

//Audio//
44.1khz, Stereo, 192 bitrate

//Video//
-Base: 1920x1080
-Output: 1920x1080
-Downscale Filter: Lanczos
-FPS: 60

//Advanced//
-Process Priority: Above Normal
-YUV Color Space: 601
-YUV Color Range: Partial

Any other unmentioned settings are at the default, the uploaded videos with intros are from simultaneous recordings which use CBR at 20,000 bitrate, Bluray preset, main profile, and auto level.

 

[The_Rat_Boy]

After many trials and changing settings I figured out how to stop dropping the frames and keep the 1080p 60Hz constant!

I will paste the new settings from my twitch after I explain what changed.

The things that changed were:
-Output-
profile from High ---> Main
-Advanced-
Process Priority from Normal ---> Above Normal
YUV Color Space from 709 ---> 601
YUV Color Range from Full ---> Partial

In changing the color settings I also have a lighter color coming through the stream rather than how it has been relatively darker, so it now resembles better exactly what I see while playing.

Below are the complete settings fixed.

---OBS Studio Streaming Settings---
//Output//
-Encoder: NVENC H.264
-Rate Control: CQP
----CQP: 5
-Keyframe Interval: 0 (auto)
-Preset: High Quality
-Profile: Main
-Level: 5.1
''2-pass encoding'' enabled
-GPU: 0
-B-Frames: 4

//Audio//
44.1khz, Stereo, 192 bitrate

//Video//
-Base: 1920x1080
-Output: 1920x1080
-Downscale Filter: Lanczos
-FPS: 60

//Advanced//
-Process Priority: Above Normal
-YUV Color Space: 601
-YUV Color Range: Partial

Any other unmentioned settings are at the default, the uploaded videos with intros are from simultaneous recordings which use CBR at 20,000 bitrate, Bluray preset, main profile, and auto level.

I know it has been a while since any posts on this have been made but for anyone who may stumble across it with the same problem there will be a solution here for em!