Question / Help OBS x264 Encoding Overloaded on Ryzen 9 3900x?

[madmudgen]

Hi All,

First off, here's the log file link: https://obsproject.com/logs/akpCnAQ2BWTXEHgT (EDIT: had posted wrong log file from last test, apparently. Thanks Narcogen for noticing!)

I recently got a new computer to try and use for a one-rig stream. However, I was still getting a lot of dropped frames and other issues--found out I was on NVENC encoding and swapped to x264 to use my CPU instead, and called Comcast to get some fixes on the network issues. It seems to be fairly stable at 720p60fps 2500 bitrate on veryfast encoding, but if I change output resolution for streaming to 1080p60fps, or alter the CPU usage preset to anything slower, I frequently get an error telling me encoding is overloaded despite my CPU usage in OBS showing at less than 6% peak. The log is provided on a test stream on just the lobby screen of the game I'm trying to stream (PUBG) but I can't actually play a game as I'm working right now. It's not experiencing any dropped frames (so no network issues), but I still see a lot of skipped frames (~16%) due to encoding lag, and I'm pretty sure OBS isn't using my CPU to anywhere close to its potential.

Any ideas on what's going on here? Is there a way to guarantee my OBS setup can and will use all cores of my CPU as needed? I'm assuming that's the issue, but I'm all ears as to any other checks I can do for other issues. Thanks!

 

[Narcogen]

According to this log, you are experiencing network issues:

23:30:59.732: Output 'simple_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 83618 (41.8%)

There's no encoding or rendering lag in this log, just network lag.

 

[madmudgen]

Hmm I think that's the wrong log then... that appears to be the log from before the network connections were fixed. Here's the log from the latest test I ran that only had the encoding issue, and the stats section of OBS showed 0% dropped frames. I think that was the link for the last log file, this one should be current test: https://obsproject.com/logs/akpCnAQ2BWTXEHgT

11:42:22.426: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 9430/89506 (10.5%)

I should probably also add--using Avast, and I do think there's some Razer game boost software that is installed on my CPU (Razer Cortex), since apparently users have had issues with those before.

 

[timtjcb]

Up on this thread. I'm having the same issue. We are using Ryzen 3700X on a 1080p60, slow setting, 4000kbps @34% CPU usage but having encoding overload. Encoding overload is eliminated after changing the setting to ultrafast. However the issue is we are only running @34% but having encoding overload. Whyyy? Can't OBS utilize at least 70 or 80% Haven't got the log file because it is our church's computer and i cant get back to church until saturday or sunday.

Did not have this problem when streaming 720p60.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Narcogen]

If you only eliminate the overload when changing to ultrafast then you shouldnt even be attempting slow.

Yes, you wouldn't have this problem doing 720p60 because that is much, much less work than 1080p60.

The relevant question is whether the OBS log shows encoding overload, not CPU utilization in task manager.