I've been facing an issue for over two months and haven't found a solution: dropped frames in the recorded video.

[Baqer]

I've been facing a problem for over two months and haven’t found a solution yet. When I record gameplay, there’s no frame drop — the game runs smoothly, and even CPU and GPU usage doesn’t exceed 50%. However, after I finish recording and watch the recorded video, I notice that in some scenes there are frame drops or stuttering, which then disappears.

I’ve tried many solutions, but none of them worked.

Here are the solutions I tried that didn’t work:

• Capping the game at 60 FPS and setting the monitor to 60Hz.
• Capping the game at 60 FPS and setting the monitor to 120Hz.
• Capping the game at 120 FPS and setting the monitor to 120Hz.
• Enabling/disabling VSync.
• Changing the recording settings, including setting CQP to 30.
• Enabling/disabling HAGS.
• Rolling back to an older GPU driver.
• Installing an older version of OBS.
• Switching the recording format from MP4 to MKV and vice versa.
• Playing the recorded video in VLC and Media Player Classic.

 

[Baqer]

Even with such low settings I get drop frames.

codec: H264
rate_control: CQP
cqp: 30
keyint: 120
preset: p1
tuning: ull
multipass: disabled
profile: high
width: 1920
height: 1080
b-frames: 0
b-ref-mode: 0
lookahead: false (0 frames)
aq: true

 

[Suslik V]

Some useful thought about display "stutters" can be read in these threads (imperfect clocks between the display devices and the main PC):

Interval stutter / jitter / duplicated frames bug - workarounds

I've lost a lot of time trying to find a solution for this weird bug so below I will dump everything I know including some workarounds for people who are also plagued with it. What is interval stutter it's a very common bug that is plaguing OBS users for many years that is NOT related to...

obsproject.com

I have finally fix the legendary INTERVAL STUTTER issue, and I wish OBS would integrate it within the setting.

For years I have been frustrated by the random stutters that appear every few minutes or so, using both of my PC (old and new). So after spending weeks of trials and errors, I have finally able to fix it 100% (at least for the recording), and I can even manipulate the stutters, and predict when...

obsproject.com

 

[Baqer]

Some useful thought about display "stutters" can be read in these threads (imperfect clocks between the display devices and the main PC):

Interval stutter / jitter / duplicated frames bug - workarounds

I've lost a lot of time trying to find a solution for this weird bug so below I will dump everything I know including some workarounds for people who are also plagued with it. What is interval stutter it's a very common bug that is plaguing OBS users for many years that is NOT related to...

obsproject.com

I have finally fix the legendary INTERVAL STUTTER issue, and I wish OBS would integrate it within the setting.

For years I have been frustrated by the random stutters that appear every few minutes or so, using both of my PC (old and new). So after spending weeks of trials and errors, I have finally able to fix it 100% (at least for the recording), and I can even manipulate the stutters, and predict when...

obsproject.com

The problem is not solved, I record in Shadowplay and the recorded video is smooth, but when I record in OBS the recorded video has stuttering or frame drops

 

[rockbottom]

Your OBS set-up is fairly decent & there is no rendering or encoding lag in either log but your CPU is on the weak side to be playin' around with hi-refresh/frame-rates. Try a test with your monitor set @ 60HZ & see if things improve.

From the end of your log, your audio is a bit on the slow side, especially when compared to the other parts being composted. This indicates that your CPU might be getting overloaded at times, reducing that refresh rate should help. Another thing you may want to check is the support page for your mobo. There may be a newer audio driver available that helps speed things up.

16:15:35.469: audio_thread(Audio): min=0.015 ms, median=0.774 ms, max=47.384 ms, 99th percentile=7.982 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗receive_audio: min=0.008 ms, median=0.749 ms, max=47.343 ms, 99th percentile=8.332 ms, 0.891954 calls per parent call
16:15:35.469: ┣buffer_audio: min=0.001 ms, median=0.002 ms, max=0.05 ms, 99th percentile=0.003 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗do_encode: min=0.042 ms, median=0.743 ms, max=47.338 ms, 99th percentile=8.344 ms
16:15:35.469: ┣encode(Track1): min=0.037 ms, median=0.676 ms, max=47.27 ms, 99th percentile=8.272 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗send_packet: min=0.001 ms, median=0.061 ms, max=7.603 ms, 99th percentile=0.133 ms

 

[rockbottom]

Max Payne 3, on your set-up @ 1080p. I would try running it in Low or Medium quality setting with a cap of 70FPS. Your system should be able to maintain a consistent 70 FPS @ either setting. High might work too but you'll need to test. Avoid Ultra, a consistent 60FPS may be unobtainium.

 

[Baqer]

Max Payne 3, on your set-up @ 1080p. I would try running it in Low or Medium quality setting with a cap of 70FPS. Your system should be able to maintain a consistent 70 FPS @ either setting. High might work too but you'll need to test. Avoid Ultra, a consistent 60FPS may be unobtainium.

I changed the CPU to Ryzen 5 5600X and the game without locking the frames reaches 180 frames, but I still suffer from frame drops in the recorded video it happens once in the video in one shot and disappears.

 

[CoryL]

Your OBS set-up is fairly decent & there is no rendering or encoding lag in either log but your CPU is on the weak side to be playin' around with hi-refresh/frame-rates. Try a test with your monitor set @ 60HZ & see if things improve.

From the end of your log, your audio is a bit on the slow side, especially when compared to the other parts being composted. This indicates that your CPU might be getting overloaded at times, reducing that refresh rate should help. Another thing you may want to check is the support page for your mobo. There may be a newer audio driver available that helps speed things up.

16:15:35.469: audio_thread(Audio): min=0.015 ms, median=0.774 ms, max=47.384 ms, 99th percentile=7.982 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗receive_audio: min=0.008 ms, median=0.749 ms, max=47.343 ms, 99th percentile=8.332 ms, 0.891954 calls per parent call
16:15:35.469: ┣buffer_audio: min=0.001 ms, median=0.002 ms, max=0.05 ms, 99th percentile=0.003 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗do_encode: min=0.042 ms, median=0.743 ms, max=47.338 ms, 99th percentile=8.344 ms
16:15:35.469: ┣encode(Track1): min=0.037 ms, median=0.676 ms, max=47.27 ms, 99th percentile=8.272 ms
16:15:35.469: ┗send_packet: min=0.001 ms, median=0.061 ms, max=7.603 ms, 99th percentile=0.133 ms
A high-quality website - https://oceanspin-italy.net/ where you can record good content while playing games and communicating with viewers.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation! I honestly didn’t expect the monitor refresh rate to have such a noticeable impact on OBS performance. I’ll definitely try locking it to 60Hz and see if that helps stabilize things a bit. I’ll also check for any updated audio drivers on my motherboard’s support page — that’s a solid suggestion I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Appreciate the help!

 

[Baqer]

After trying all possible solutions — including capping the monitor refresh rate at 60Hz — and none of them worked, I finally found the solution.

It doesn't matter what your monitor's refresh rate is; mine was set to 180Hz, and the recorded video was completely smooth.

The solution is:

Open RTSS and cap the frame rate at 60.00200.
Then open OBS, go to Settings > Video, and enable Fractional FPS Value.
Set the Numerator to 600200 and the Denominator to 10000.

This completely fixed the issue — no more stuttering, tearing, or frame drops in the recorded video.

 

[Suslik V]

...capping the monitor refresh rate at 60Hz — and none of them worked

should be done together with the VSync ON. And still you should have in mind that some video drivers + games has mistakes.

The next two:

...GPU usage doesn’t exceed 50%.

Open RTSS and cap the frame rate at 60.00200...

are very strange. If the game's rendering was uncapped - where was a bottle neck for the GPU load, so it didn't reach 100%?

 

[Baqer]

should be done together with the VSync ON. And still you should have in mind that some video drivers + games has mistakes.

The next two:


are very strange. If the game's rendering was uncapped - where was a bottle neck for the GPU load, so it didn't reach 100%?

I tried capping the game at 60 FPS and setting the monitor to 60Hz, but it didn’t work at all. And I also tried setting the monitor to 120Hz and capping the game at 120 FPS, but that didn’t work either.

These are all the solutions I tried:

• Capping the game at 60 FPS and setting the monitor to 60Hz.
• Capping the game at 60 FPS and setting the monitor to 120Hz.
• Capping the game at 120 FPS and setting the monitor to 120Hz.
• Enabling/disabling VSync.
• Changing the recording settings, including setting CQP to 30.
• Enabling/disabling HAGS.
• Rolling back to an older GPU driver.
• Installing an older version of OBS.
• Switching the recording format from MP4 to MKV and vice versa.
• Playing the recorded video in VLC and Media Player Classic.

 

[Suslik V]

Just for the test, can you capture something simple, for example "fr-043" (rove by Farbrausch) demo from Breakpoint 2010?

 

[Baqer]

Just for the test, can you capture something simple, for example "fr-043" (rove by Farbrausch) demo from Breakpoint 2010?

I didn't understand what you mean?

 

[Suslik V]

I mean, uninstall Riva Tuner and try to record mentioned demo. And to compare the results you need frame by frame comparison, because Riva Tuner sets global capping - it is active even for the media player (because highly likely your player uses 3D accelerated output).

 

[Baqer]

I mean, uninstall Riva Tuner and try to record mentioned demo. And to compare the results you need frame by frame comparison, because Riva Tuner sets global capping - it is active even for the media player (because highly likely your player uses 3D accelerated output).

All the tests in which frame drops occurred in the recorded video were conducted without using RTSS.

 

[Baqer]

All I did was go to displayhz.com and see that my monitor’s refresh rate is 180.0065 Hz. I divided that by 3, which gave me 60.0021. Then I simply entered this value in RTSS and OBS, and the recorded video was perfectly smooth with no drop frames or stuttering. I even bumped the value up to 60.0200 in both RTSS and OBS, and the recording remained smooth with zero drop frames or stuttering.