OBS Studio causes Gsync stutter

[Mr Technician]

I recently got a gsync 144hz monitor and am experiencing the classic issue that occurs when running a game on the 144hz display and another application that uses the 3d engine on a 60hz display. The result is gsync is disabled on the 144hz display, which means there is a lot of stuttering. This occurs when OBS is open which means I can't record gameplay in OBS which is very frustrating. Is there any fix for this stuttering issue?

 

Monitor: Dell s2716dg

GPU: GTX 1080 Ti

[Mick Naughty]

Can’t you use an igpu for the other monitor?

 

So it stutters with just the program running, not doing anything with it?

[jasonvp]

17 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Can’t you use an igpu for the other monitor?

No, he can't.  OBS will fault if you try to run it on a display that ISN'T connected to the same GPU as the thing it's trying to record.

 

OP: try disabling the preview completely.  I've never once had this issue and have been recording with OBS since the original PG278Q was launched years ago.

[Mick Naughty]

10 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

No, he can't.  OBS will fault if you try to run it on a display that ISN'T connected to the same GPU as the thing it's trying to record.

 

OP: try disabling the preview completely.  I've never once had this issue and have been recording with OBS since the original PG278Q was launched years ago.

So you can’t just add a video capture like normal? I don’t even use the same pc to capture so I don’t have that issue. Figured it would work as intended. 

[jasonvp]

3 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

So you can’t just add a video capture like normal?

What do you mean "add a video capture"?  Do you mean a capture card?

[Mick Naughty]

4 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

What do you mean "add a video capture"?  Do you mean a capture card?

As in add something to the scene. As in screen capture or video capture. 

[jasonvp]

Just now, Mick Naughty said:

As in add something to the scene. As in screen capture or video capture. 

Well that's what he's doing.  He's game-capturing with OBS and is claiming (I'm skeptical of it) that it causes GSync to disable.  There's a running theory (again: I don't believe it) that if you're running displays with two different refresh rates (eg: 144 and 60), AND you run an accelerated application on the slower refresh screen, it'll screw up the refresh rate on the faster one.  This due to some ... thing ... in Windows 10.

 

I've not experienced this at all.  I've been running 144Hz primary and two 60Hz secondary displays since whenever the PG278Q came out.  I'm now doing it with three 4K panels as well.  No issues whatsoever.  But a work-around that's been suggested is to stop running accelerated apps on the slower displays.

 

OBS uses the acceleration for the preview.  So my suggestion: disable the preview and see if that helps.

[Mick Naughty]

1 minute ago, jasonvp said:

Well that's what he's doing.  He's game-capturing with OBS and is claiming (I'm skeptical of it) that it causes GSync to disable.  There's a running theory (again: I don't believe it) that if you're running displays with two different refresh rates (eg: 144 and 60), AND you run an accelerated application on the slower refresh screen, it'll screw up the refresh rate on the faster one.  This due to some ... thing ... in Windows 10.

 

I've not experienced this at all.  I've been running 144Hz primary and two 60Hz secondary displays since whenever the PG278Q came out.  I'm now doing it with three 4K panels as well.  No issues whatsoever.  But a work-around that's been suggested is to stop running accelerated apps on the slower displays.

 

OBS uses the acceleration for the preview.  So my suggestion: disable the preview and see if that helps.

Well he said the issue is running a 60hz montor along with it. It wouldn’t be with it if it’s on the igpu. Which is my suggestion. 

[jasonvp]

2 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well he said the issue is running a 60hz montor along with it. It wouldn’t be with it if it’s on the igpu. Which is my suggestion. 

Again: that won't work.  OBS has to be running on a display that is powered by the same GPU that the thing it's recording is.  Otherwise, OBS will fault and crash.  There's no way around that.

[Velcade]

Buy a second 144hz monitor.  Should solve your problem.  Or let OBS run in the background of your game on the 144hz monitor.

 

I run a PG279Q and a MG248QR with no issues.

 

 

Alternatively stop using OBS and try NVidia Shadowplay

[Frankenburger]

39 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

Again: that won't work.  OBS has to be running on a display that is powered by the same GPU that the thing it's recording is.  Otherwise, OBS will fault and crash.  There's no way around that. 

No it doesn't. When I'm streaming from my gaming rig, I have my secondary 1080Ti handling the encode while my primary 1080Ti displays the game I'm streaming. Zero issue. Also, it's been proven to work numerous times. When Ryzen first came out, Linus did a video testing Quick Sync capture from a dedicated GPU vs Ryzen and vs NVENC. Also zero issue.

[jasonvp]

Just now, Frankenburger said:

No it doesn't. When I'm streaming from my gaming rig, I have my secondary 1080Ti handling the encode while my primary 1080Ti displays the game I'm streaming. Zero issue.

I'm not talking about the encoding.  There's a big difference between the rendering (which is done on the game GPU) and the encoding.  Two different things.

[Frankenburger]

9 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

I'm not talking about the encoding.  There's a big difference between the rendering (which is done on the game GPU) and the encoding.  Two different things.

I know what you're talking about.

 

 

Game running on GPU 2, OBS running on GPU 1 and encoding using GPU 1

[Mr Technician]

4 hours ago, jasonvp said:

OBS uses the acceleration for the preview.  So my suggestion: disable the preview and see if that helps.

I will try that. And I am definitely experiencing the 144hz and 60hz issue. It's not a myth unfortunately...

5 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

Can’t you use an igpu for the other monitor?

 

So it stutters with just the program running, not doing anything with it?

I don't have an iGPU. Yes, it's stuttering just when it's running.

4 hours ago, Velcade said:

Buy a second 144hz monitor.  Should solve your problem.  Or let OBS run in the background of your game on the 144hz monitor.

 

I run a PG279Q and a MG248QR with no issues.

 

 

Alternatively stop using OBS and try NVidia Shadowplay

That's expensive though... I have no reason to upgrade my two 60hz displays to 144hz.

 

I strongly dislike geforce experience because of their "optimizations" in games. There is also the variable framerate recording issue when editing shadowplay recorded footage (though I could transcode with handbrake if necessary). I'd try it if I could get it without geforce experience.

3 hours ago, Frankenburger said:

Game running on GPU 2, OBS running on GPU 1 and encoding using GPU 1

I wish I had two 1080Tis.

[Frankenburger]

One thing you can probably try is setting your monitor to 120hz. I've noticed encodes straight from my gaming rig being quite stuttery when the refresh rate and FPS isn't set to a multiple of 60 on a 60 FPS encode. It could be somewhat related to the issue you're seeing.

[Mr Technician]

1 minute ago, Frankenburger said:

One thing you can probably try is setting your monitor to 120hz. I've noticed encodes straight from my gaming rig being quite stuttery when the refresh rate and FPS isn't set to a multiple of 60 on a 60 FPS encode.

That's a thought. I doubt I'll notice much difference and it's not like I run 144 fps consistently anyway.

[Velcade]

1 hour ago, ThatFlashCat said:

I strongly dislike geforce experience because of their "optimizations" in games. There is also the variable framerate recording issue when editing shadowplay recorded footage (though I could transcode with handbrake if necessary). I'd try it if I could get it without geforce experience.

Just turn that shit off.  I use shadowplay but don't allow GeForce Exp to optimize my games.