OBS poor performance

[K2theC]

Hello all

I run a sort of podcast every month in my Company and use OBS to record the MS teams meeting with me and the guest.

OBS is running on a company provided HP EliteBook, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U, 8GB RAM.

According to my tests with my personal laptop (lower spec than this) OBS should be able to record at 1080p 60fps easily, yet it almost struggles at 1080p 30fps.

It struggles also based on the number of Video participants in the Teams call (fine at 2 video participants, struggles at 4).

Also to note is that at idle the laptop uses ~30% CPU and ~70% RAM, which I expect is because my Company has many background tasks for endpoint management, anti virus, real-time file compliance, azure AD etc.

 

If anyone knows why is this or how can I improve the performance please comment. I want to stay at 1080p but I experimented with 720p which also struggles beyond 30fps.

Or if any other software that is not so resource hungry...

 

Please note - Company provided laptop so getting additional software, drivers etc may be difficult.

[rcmaehl]

2 minutes ago, K2theC said:

Hello all

I run a sort of podcast every month in my Company and use OBS to record the MS teams meeting with me and the guest.

OBS is running on a company provided HP EliteBook, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U, 8GB RAM.

According to my tests with my personal laptop (lower spec than this) OBS should be able to record at 1080p 60fps easily, yet it almost struggles at 1080p 30fps.

It struggles also based on the number of Video participants in the Teams call (fine at 2 video participants, struggles at 4).

Also to note is that at idle the laptop uses ~30% CPU and ~70% RAM, which I expect is because my Company has many background tasks for endpoint management, anti virus, real-time file compliance, azure AD etc.

 

If anyone knows why is this or how can I improve the performance please comment. I want to stay at 1080p but I experimented with 720p which also struggles beyond 30fps.

Or if any other software that is not so resource hungry...

 

Please note - Company provided laptop so getting additional software, drivers etc may be difficult.

Have you tried disabling teams hardware acceleration in settings in case teams is being excessively taxing (wouldn't surprise me).

[K2theC]

3 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

Have you tried disabling teams hardware acceleration in settings in case teams is being excessively taxing (wouldn't surprise me).

Hey, will this not defeat the purpose, as I expect Teams performance to drastically reduce (for video participants atleast) if not hardware accelerated.
Correct me if I'm wrong - I've not tried it ever.

[Kilrah]

12 minutes ago, K2theC said:

my personal laptop (lower spec than this)

What laptop? If it has a GPU or even Intel Quicksync it can benefit from hardware accel that may not be available on the AMD machine.

[pcislocked]

Hi.

Sent me your logs using help > Log files > upload current log file, after attempting the record and stopping the recording etc. Then post the link here and we can take a look, starting from here.



Additionally, you can manually choose and attach a log file(optionally from the time of incident) from the folder after choosing Show log files option.

Edited March 23, 2023 by pcislocked

[AI_Must_Di3]

Heres the specs of your cpu: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-pro-3500u 

With those specs on a low energy laptop, even if plugged into wall wart, its going to have a bit of a struggle. Change your resolutions to 480p 24 or 30 fps, any lower and its going to be intolerable....this is as low as you can go within reason. The O/S usually needs 2gb, youre using onboard gpu, vega 8, so thats going to want half of what you got left i would assume, so you got 3gb for apps and if they over run its going to be using the page file on the HDD/SSD?M.2 whatever you got there which may be the slow down your seeing. The cpu has very little L1,2,3, caches but most likely thats cause its slow enough that it can deal with them that low, so good for cpu bad for you and working on stuff.

  Instead of trying to do this from that lappy, cant you bring in even a lower budget desktop or cobble one together for these harder tasks? A gpu card, like a nvidia 1660 so you can access the NVENC, would probably do wonders for you here.

  Obviously the owner of the company put tracking, AV, antimalware, keylogger, etc.. software on the lappy for a reason and hes not going to want to disable it, which stinks cause thats alot of resource hogging there on already low end hardware thats being taxed.

[K2theC]

2 hours ago, AI_Must_Di3 said:

Heres the specs of your cpu: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-pro-3500u 

With those specs on a low energy laptop, even if plugged into wall wart, its going to have a bit of a struggle. Change your resolutions to 480p 24 or 30 fps, any lower and its going to be intolerable....this is as low as you can go within reason. The O/S usually needs 2gb, youre using onboard gpu, vega 8, so thats going to want half of what you got left i would assume, so you got 3gb for apps and if they over run its going to be using the page file on the HDD/SSD?M.2 whatever you got there which may be the slow down your seeing. The cpu has very little L1,2,3, caches but most likely thats cause its slow enough that it can deal with them that low, so good for cpu bad for you and working on stuff.

  Instead of trying to do this from that lappy, cant you bring in even a lower budget desktop or cobble one together for these harder tasks? A gpu card, like a nvidia 1660 so you can access the NVENC, would probably do wonders for you here.

  Obviously the owner of the company put tracking, AV, antimalware, keylogger, etc.. software on the lappy for a reason and hes not going to want to disable it, which stinks cause thats alot of resource hogging there on already low end hardware thats being taxed.

@AI_Must_Di3 bringing a personal laptop/desktop is impossible in office, and the Podcast has not grown to an extent for me to request these types of hardware for my use.

3 hours ago, pcislocked said:

Hi.

Sent me your logs using help > Log files > upload current log file, after attempting the record and stopping the recording etc. Then post the link here and we can take a look, starting from here.



Additionally, you can manually choose and attach a log file(optionally from the time of incident) from the folder after choosing Show log files option.

 

3 hours ago, Kilrah said:

What laptop? If it has a GPU or even Intel Quicksync it can benefit from hardware accel that may not be available on the AMD machine.

I have multiple laptops with interesting results @Kilrah, see the table below please. Attaching logs for all @pcislocked. Log name corresponds to CPU. At max I can increase the RAM in my official laptop to 16GB but I doubt it helps.
 

Laptop Type CPU GPU RAM Recording Comments Recording Mode Additional Notes Official Ryzen 5 3500U Integrated 8GB Max Recorded at 1080p 30fps This stutters at the start but stabalizes Hardware H.264 Need to Record Podcast on this Personal i7 9750H RTX 2070 8GB Max-Q 32GB Max Recorded at 2160p (4K) 30fps Hardware H.264 (NVEnc - 2 Pass Quarter, quality level = 5)   Personal Ryzen 3 3300U Integrated 16GB Max Recorded at 1080p 60fps Hardware H.264 This laptop is Lower powered than my official laptop Personal i7 4600U Integrated 16GB DDR3 Did not test, should be at par or lower than Ryzen 3300U Personal i5 6200U Integrated 32GB Did not test, should be at par or lower than Ryzen 3300U

i7-9750H.txt Ryzen 3300u.txt Ryzen 3500u.txt

[pcislocked]

3 hours ago, K2theC said:

@AI_Must_Di3 bringing a personal laptop/desktop is impossible in office, and the Podcast has not grown to an extent for me to request these types of hardware for my use.

 

I have multiple laptops with interesting results @Kilrah, see the table below please. Attaching logs for all @pcislocked. Log name corresponds to CPU. At max I can increase the RAM in my official laptop to 16GB but I doubt it helps.
 

Laptop Type CPU GPU RAM Recording Comments Recording Mode Additional Notes Official Ryzen 5 3500U Integrated 8GB Max Recorded at 1080p 30fps This stutters at the start but stabalizes Hardware H.264 Need to Record Podcast on this Personal i7 9750H RTX 2070 8GB Max-Q 32GB Max Recorded at 2160p (4K) 30fps Hardware H.264 (NVEnc - 2 Pass Quarter, quality level = 5)   Personal Ryzen 3 3300U Integrated 16GB Max Recorded at 1080p 60fps Hardware H.264 This laptop is Lower powered than my official laptop Personal i7 4600U Integrated 16GB DDR3 Did not test, should be at par or lower than Ryzen 3300U Personal i5 6200U Integrated 32GB Did not test, should be at par or lower than Ryzen 3300U

i7-9750H.txt 21.72 kB · 1 download Ryzen 3300u.txt 36.02 kB · 1 download Ryzen 3500u.txt 16.61 kB · 1 download

Thanks, I will do some research and take a more detailed look at the possibilities and will let you know what we can do to best use what we have at hand. I have a 3500U laptop that I am currently using and I can record in 1080p60, no problem. Maybe if its an hp laptop or something, its tdp might be low. You might try one of those tdp tweaker software(like ryzencontroller) to increase your cpu/gpu power a bit, from my exprerience i can say that it definitely helps. It being a company laptop never helps though. I will come back here once I have some more to share.

[pcislocked]

In 3300U, something is extremely wrong with the CPU usage, audio is lagging so badly in every recording. You should dig more into that.

20:36:04.332: Max audio buffering reached!
20:42:18.346: Source Desktop Audio audio is lagging (over by 372209.34 ms) at max audio buffering. Restarting source audio.

Also, in the logs you tried to record at 4k60 and 1080p120. 1080p120 with 94.5 percent encoder skip:

20:48:43.255: ---------------------------------
20:48:43.255: video settings reset:
20:48:43.255: 	base resolution:   1920x1080
20:48:43.255: 	output resolution: 1920x1080
20:48:43.255: 	downscale filter:  Bicubic
20:48:43.255: 	fps:               120/1
20:48:43.255: 	format:            NV12
20:48:43.255: 	YUV mode:          Rec. 709/Partial
20:48:43.255: NV12 texture support enabled
20:48:43.256: P010 texture support not available
20:48:43.288: Settings changed (video)
20:48:43.288: ------------------------------------------------
20:48:49.711: [texture-amf-h264: 'advanced_video_recording'] settings:
20:48:49.711: 	rate_control: CQP
20:48:49.711: 	bitrate:      2500
20:48:49.711: 	cqp:          18
20:48:49.711: 	keyint:       250
20:48:49.711: 	preset:       balanced
20:48:49.711: 	profile:      high
20:48:49.711: 	b-frames:     0
20:48:49.711: 	width:        1920
20:48:49.711: 	height:       1080
20:48:49.711: 	params:       (none)
20:48:49.715: ---------------------------------
20:48:49.716: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track1'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:48:49.716: 
20:48:49.716: ---------------------------------
20:48:49.717: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track2'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:48:49.717: 
20:48:49.737: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:48:49.737: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-48-49.mkv'...
20:49:22.347: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-48-49.mkv' stopped
20:49:22.347: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:49:22.347: Output 'adv_file_output': Total frames output: 1821
20:49:22.347: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 3909 (3913 attempted)
20:49:22.347: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 4 (0.1%)
20:49:22.348: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
20:49:22.354: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1974/2089 (94.5%)

4k60 with 91.7% encoder skip:

20:39:36.940: ---------------------------------
20:39:36.940: video settings reset:
20:39:36.940: 	base resolution:   3840x2160
20:39:36.940: 	output resolution: 3840x2160
20:39:36.940: 	downscale filter:  Bicubic
20:39:36.940: 	fps:               60/1
20:39:36.940: 	format:            NV12
20:39:36.940: 	YUV mode:          Rec. 709/Partial
20:39:36.940: NV12 texture support enabled
20:39:36.940: P010 texture support not available
20:39:36.980: Settings changed (outputs, video)
20:39:36.980: ------------------------------------------------
20:39:52.589: [texture-amf-h264: 'advanced_video_recording'] settings:
20:39:52.589: 	rate_control: CQP
20:39:52.589: 	bitrate:      2500
20:39:52.589: 	cqp:          18
20:39:52.589: 	keyint:       250
20:39:52.589: 	preset:       balanced
20:39:52.589: 	profile:      high
20:39:52.589: 	b-frames:     0
20:39:52.589: 	width:        3840
20:39:52.589: 	height:       2160
20:39:52.589: 	params:       (none)
20:39:52.604: ---------------------------------
20:39:52.604: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track1'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:39:52.604: 
20:39:52.606: ---------------------------------
20:39:52.606: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track2'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:39:52.606: 
20:39:52.662: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:39:52.662: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-39-52.mkv'...
20:40:37.363: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-39-52.mkv' stopped
20:40:37.363: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:40:37.363: Output 'adv_file_output': Total frames output: 730
20:40:37.363: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 2212 (2682 attempted)
20:40:37.363: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 470 (17.5%)
20:40:37.364: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
20:40:37.365: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 688/750 (91.7%)

I know these are legit use cases you might need, but this is not something 3300U can handle with its integrated Vega 3 graphics running at mere 1.2ghz(or vega 6 i dont remember). Can you try 1080p30 and try again with this laptop? Also, it seems like you reset your settings before taking the log. You should restart OBS after running the auto configuration wizard for a clean log file. 

Quote

The log contains an Auto-Config Wizard run. Results of this analysis are therefore inaccurate. Please post a link to a clean log file.
To make a clean log file, please follow these steps:

1) Restart OBS.
2) Start your stream/recording for about 30 seconds. Make sure you replicate any issues as best you can, which means having any games/apps open and captured, etc.
3) Stop your stream/recording.
4) Select Help > Log Files > Upload Current Log File. Send that link via this troubleshooting tool or whichever support chat you are using.

Although you might not need to if you try 1080p30 recording. Because you did try 1080p60. And it did not drop a single frame (as far as I understood, due to lack of skipped frames info at the logs.)
 

20:44:55.650: Number of remaining views: 1
20:44:55.650: ---------------------------------
20:44:55.650: video settings reset:
20:44:55.650: 	base resolution:   1920x1080
20:44:55.650: 	output resolution: 1920x1080
20:44:55.650: 	downscale filter:  Bicubic
20:44:55.650: 	fps:               60/1
20:44:55.650: 	format:            NV12
20:44:55.650: 	YUV mode:          Rec. 709/Partial
20:44:55.650: NV12 texture support enabled
20:44:55.650: P010 texture support not available
20:44:55.681: Settings changed (outputs, video)
20:44:55.682: ------------------------------------------------
20:46:14.949: [texture-amf-h264: 'advanced_video_recording'] settings:
20:46:14.949: 	rate_control: CQP
20:46:14.949: 	bitrate:      2500
20:46:14.949: 	cqp:          18
20:46:14.949: 	keyint:       250
20:46:14.949: 	preset:       balanced
20:46:14.949: 	profile:      high
20:46:14.949: 	b-frames:     0
20:46:14.949: 	width:        1920
20:46:14.949: 	height:       1080
20:46:14.949: 	params:       (none)
20:46:14.953: ---------------------------------
20:46:14.953: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track1'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:46:14.953: 
20:46:14.954: ---------------------------------
20:46:14.954: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track2'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
20:46:14.954: 
20:46:14.973: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:46:14.973: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-46-14.mkv'...
20:46:55.529: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_20-46-14.mkv' stopped
20:46:55.529: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:46:55.529: Output 'adv_file_output': Total frames output: 2370
20:46:55.529: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 2433
20:46:55.530: ==== Recording Stop ================================================

The fact is, if you use your laptop ONLY for recording, you might be able to get away with 1080p60. but, your laptop is encoding your webcam, or your screenshare, or decoding other streams from teams WHILE recording in OBS. every process needs some resources.

I use my 3500U laptop for recording my lectures from teams in OBS. (1080p30 dual track audio, window capture, CQP20 H.265) and it is mostly fine with encoder usage around 30-40%.

I will check other files now. Please check analyzer output for the 3300u's log file here

PS: you can always try running OBS in administrator mode to force it to allocate some resources from your GPU, which will help but is no way a good permanent solution.

[pcislocked]

In 3500U, Xbox game bar DVR background recording is turned on. You should turn that off. Follow this instructions.

This might explain the encoder overload at 1080p30. I dont think background recording was actually recording during your OBS record, but give it a shot and then lets check the logs again. Also do not enter "250" as your key interval. thats a bit too much i think. Full analyzer results are here, but not much more is there.
 

20:33:22.909: ---------------------------------
20:33:22.909: video settings reset:
20:33:22.909: 	base resolution:   1920x1080
20:33:22.909: 	output resolution: 1920x1080
20:33:22.909: 	downscale filter:  Bicubic
20:33:22.909: 	fps:               30/1
20:33:22.909: 	format:            NV12
20:33:22.909: 	YUV mode:          Rec. 709/Partial
20:34:08.994: ------------------------------------------------
21:17:54.063: [texture-amf-h264: 'advanced_video_recording'] settings:
21:17:54.063: 	rate_control: CQP
21:17:54.063: 	bitrate:      2500
21:17:54.063: 	cqp:          20
21:17:54.063: 	keyint:       250
21:17:54.063: 	preset:       balanced
21:17:54.063: 	profile:      high
21:17:54.063: 	b-frames:     0
21:17:54.063: 	width:        1920
21:17:54.063: 	height:       1080
21:17:54.063: 	params:       (none)
21:17:54.084: ---------------------------------
21:17:54.085: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track1'] bitrate: 320, channels: 2, channel_layout: 3
21:17:57.593: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
21:17:57.593: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_21-17-53.mkv'...
21:18:24.061: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'C:/Users/User/Videos/2023-03-23_21-17-53.mkv' stopped
21:18:24.061: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
21:18:24.061: Output 'adv_file_output': Total frames output: 708
21:18:24.061: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 794
21:18:24.062: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
21:18:24.063: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 197/797 (24.7%)

 

[pcislocked]

as on the i7 laptop with 2070, i dont know honestly. you did 4k 60 it choked 72%, but it did just fine at 4k30. dont know the reason but i think it would be just fine at 1080p30. 

[K2theC]

@pcislockedThank you so much for the inputs, I'll go through all of your messages in detail in some time and I should be able to tweek out something.

I'll see all the analyser results and get back here.

if all else fails I think I'll stay home and record it on my i7 laptop with 2070. It should be able to record at 1080p 30 while encoding and decoding the Teams call in background

[LogicalDrm]

There are couple of key things missing. First, you state laptop CPU and RAM use idle, but not while recording. I stream from laptop with Ryzen mobile chip. I can go up to 6000kbps bitrate without CPU getting over 80% usage. Granted, I don't have Teams running while doing it.

 

Second is that you are stating resolution and target fps, but not bitrate. Bitrate is the key factor. I'm going to assume its around 3500-4000kbps and should not be issue.

 

Third, why are you using OBS overall? Teams has recording functionality for meetings and is quite capable unless you are looking for sharpest possible image quality. And if you are looking for that, Teams is not the best solution for you.