• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 20:52
CET 02:52
KST 10:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Rongyi Cup S3 - RO16 Preview1herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational10SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion8Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)17Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns7
StarCraft 2
General
Rongyi Cup S3 - RO16 Preview Starcraft 2 will not be in the Esports World Cup herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational PhD study /w SC2 - help with a survey! SC2 Spotted on the EWC 2026 list?
Tourneys
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) OSC Season 13 World Championship $70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open! SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone
Brood War
General
Which foreign pros are considered the best? [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates BW General Discussion BW AKA finder tool Gypsy to Korea
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 Small VOD Thread 2.0 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2
Strategy
Current Meta Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Game Theory for Starcraft
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason Awesome Games Done Quick 2026!
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread NASA and the Private Sector Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Navigating the Risks and Rew…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1254 users

OBS lowers encoded frames when I switch to SC2

Forum Index > Tech Support
Post a Reply
RyoNara
Profile Joined October 2011
Germany9 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-03-17 03:25:23
March 17 2014 03:23 GMT
#1
Hi,

I have recently upgraded my PC and finally have found some time to figure out
my stream settings. I have read on these and the OBS forums for guidance and
set up my stream accordingly - at least I believe so.

But I have a problem that is seemingly disconnected from bandwith and/or CPU usage.
If I am streaming (1600/900, 30fps) my stream looks fine, with minor stutters and/or
pixelation. Those I tribute to my amazing ~800kBit upload (thanks Germany!) and
are not the problem I want to solve here.

So stream is running fine as long as I do not have the game (SCII) in focus - as in I
have selected any other window (win7), OBS is claiming 0 dropped frames, 800kbit up
and 30 FPS. Great. CPU usage varies between 50% and 60% on the "veryfast" preset.
I can setup my windows so that I can see my, not yet focussed, SC2 fully and the OBS
FPS next to it. As soon as I click into the window - wich does not change my CPU usage
or my ingame FPS or anything that is displayed on my screen or on the resulting stream
- the FPS that OBS encodes drops to a whopping 8 FPS.

I have tried to change Bandwidth, Encoding preset, resolutions and FPS settings to all
possible extreme values - both high and low - and always hit the same result.
As soon as I switch to the game the encoded FPS drop drastically to around 8 FPS.

Now my only guess here was, that windows somehow throttles the process as soon
as it is considered in the background, but changing process priority or designating cores
does not have any significant impact too...

I am at a loss - can anyone help?

i5 4670k
8GB RAM
Windows 7

Thanks,
RyoNara
"I know you are out there. [...]" -Neo
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20323 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-03-17 08:54:02
March 17 2014 08:49 GMT
#2
Are you using Game Capture with nothing else in your sources?

CPU usage varies between 50% and 60% on the "veryfast" preset.


That's a lot, even for high resolutions

you should probably be using 2.0x resolution downscale with that limited bitrate (and ~medium preset, though you can adjust that after it works)
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
RyoNara
Profile Joined October 2011
Germany9 Posts
March 17 2014 18:57 GMT
#3
How is 50% a lot ?

Should I not aim to use way more than that while streaming and plaing? ~80% sounds like something i would aim for?

The OBS Forum is telling me, that my "terrible" graphics card is the issue - wich should not have anything to do with
the problem described. I tried XSplit today and had no such issues at all.
"I know you are out there. [...]" -Neo
R1CH
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Netherlands10341 Posts
March 17 2014 19:02 GMT
#4
On March 17 2014 17:49 Cyro wrote:
and ~medium preset, though you can adjust that after it works

Just... no.
AdministratorTwitter: @R1CH_TL
TL+ Member
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20323 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-03-17 19:22:43
March 17 2014 19:09 GMT
#5
On March 18 2014 04:02 R1CH wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 17 2014 17:49 Cyro wrote:
and ~medium preset, though you can adjust that after it works

Just... no.


What's wrong with medium preset 800x450, 30fps on a 4670k? At least provide reasoning.

Can't really do it @1080 (5.76x the resolution) but it's pretty laughable on even a stock Haswell cpu at 720p~30fps and cutting preset from veryfast to medium actually makes significant differences to encoding quality (below that not so much, medium is the "default" of x264)

I see no problem at all with suggesting to use 800x450@30fps@veryfast and then adjusting to 800x450@30fps@medium if stuff works good. Do you see one that needs pointing out?

I know there at least used to be a lot of people wildly changing presets at inappropriate times. 1.5 or 2x downscale from 1600x900 (~17-31% of 1080p) at 30fps and medium preset should be child's play for even a stock 4670k though. I've played with Haswell a lot, they're encoding monsters.
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20323 Posts
March 17 2014 19:15 GMT
#6
How is 50% a lot ?

Should I not aim to use way more than that while streaming and plaing? ~80% sounds like something i would aim for?


It's just quite high. Spikes in CPU load are way higher than average, if it read 80% you'd often spike to 100 most likely with stuff like fast camera pans. It seemed like a bit of a weird number to me because it's way higher than what i get with higher resolutions and framerates
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
RyoNara
Profile Joined October 2011
Germany9 Posts
March 26 2014 02:09 GMT
#7
I just want to confirm that this is a OBS specific problem.

Since my post I have switched to Xsplit and do not have a comparable problem
- although I have others that I will now try to solve
"I know you are out there. [...]" -Neo
herbalshotz
Profile Joined December 2023
1 Post
December 03 2023 10:51 GMT
#8
--- Nuked ---
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 9h 8m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft451
Nathanias 118
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 618
Shuttle 67
League of Legends
C9.Mang0385
Counter-Strike
taco 240
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1066
Other Games
summit1g7072
tarik_tv6702
KnowMe1594
shahzam636
JimRising 140
Maynarde118
ToD100
ViBE34
Liquid`Ken13
minikerr1
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1012
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 82
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 29
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21297
League of Legends
• Doublelift4615
Upcoming Events
RongYI Cup
9h 8m
ByuN vs TriGGeR
herO vs Rogue
OSC
9h 8m
herO vs Clem
Cure vs TBD
Solar vs TBD
Classic vs TBD
RongYI Cup
1d 9h
Clem vs ShoWTimE
Zoun vs Bunny
Big Brain Bouts
1d 15h
Serral vs TBD
RongYI Cup
2 days
SHIN vs Creator
Classic vs Percival
OSC
2 days
BSL 21
2 days
RongYI Cup
3 days
Maru vs Cyan
Solar vs Krystianer
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
BSL 21
3 days
[ Show More ]
Wardi Open
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
OSC
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-20
SC2 All-Star Inv. 2025
NA Kuram Kup

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Rongyi Cup S3
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W5
Acropolis #4 - TS4
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.