Adjusting frame rate in-game while using OBS
Adjusting frame rate in-game while using OBS
I've been thinking about recording my gameplay lately. After setting up OBS for a while, I finally got it ready. My rig includes an R5 3600, an RX 5500x, and 16GB of 3200MHz RAM. It's not the top-tier setup, but it works fine and delivers smooth 144fps in Valorant. When I start recording, though, my in-game FPS fluctuates between 120 and 144. I understand recording uses system resources, yet nothing seems to be at full capacity. My GPU is around 70% busy, CPU about 60%, and RAM sits at 9.5 out of 16GB. Temperatures are good too. Why does my game drop FPS even though it has plenty of room?
The issue lies with AMD's hardware encoding being quite low quality compared to Nvidia's NVENC. My 6800M has trouble recording when using its own encoder in most games, so I often rely on X264 encoding instead. If you have extra CPU power available, it might be worth switching to X264.
I can verify this. AMD's hardware setup is far beyond garbage. My RX480 couldn't even record at 720p 30fps without causing extreme input lag and FPS drops, which it shouldn't have been able to do. Later I moved to x264 and could push it up to 1080p 60fps with no lag or drops. I even considered switching to NVIDIA for a while since my 480 barely performed compared to something like a GTX 780.
Consider removing frames at 480 and try a 6800M. The game drops from 90-100 FPS to just 45 FPS with lots of stutters. When I switched to x264 encoding, my unused 5900HX finally brought the FPS back up to about 85. It's really frustrating how poor AMD hardware encoding performs.
I'm also reducing frames with the x264 encoder, but not at full capacity.