• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:42
CEST 01:42
KST 08:42
  • 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
[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies18Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)5Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview5[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !18Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0
StarCraft 2
General
herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists
Tourneys
Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 527 Hell Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune
Brood War
General
25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 (Spoiler) ASL21 Winner's Interview vespene.gg — BW replays in browser [ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies UA StarCraft: Mawin (T) vs hanniGan (P) Showmatch
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV ZeroSpace Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
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 TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software)
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esports Organizations: Raisi…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1360 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 Kingdom20328 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
Netherlands10342 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 Kingdom20328 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 Kingdom20328 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
Patches Events
19:30
Patches' Patch Clash #7
RotterdaM615
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 615
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 10334
Artosis 671
Zeus 96
NaDa 39
Terrorterran 2
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm162
League of Legends
JimRising 642
Other Games
gofns17124
summit1g13789
tarik_tv12656
Liquid`RaSZi2335
shahzam451
kaitlyn59
RuFF_SC233
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1035
BasetradeTV94
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 71
• musti20045 35
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• Scarra3737
• imaqtpie1386
• WagamamaTV352
• tFFMrPink 11
Upcoming Events
OSC
18m
Universe Titan Cup
11h 18m
Rogue vs Percival
Wardi Open
12h 18m
Monday Night Weeklies
16h 18m
Replay Cast
1d
Kung Fu Cup
1d 11h
GSL
2 days
herO vs Classic
Cure vs Clem
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
GSL
3 days
Maru vs SHIN
Zoun vs Rogue
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
SKillous vs Strange
Lambo vs Strange
Ryung vs Strange
Lambo vs Ryung
Ryung vs SKillous
Lambo vs SKillous
Replay Cast
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
TBD vs SHIN
TBD vs Rogue
IPSL
5 days
ZZZero vs WorsT
Julia vs eOnzErG
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
BSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W8
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

2026 KK StarCraft Pro League
BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
KK 2v2 League Season 1
YSL S3
Acropolis #4
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals

Upcoming

CSCL: Masked Kings S4
Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
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.