I've been recording footage in Valorant for about a week before I noticed it's practically unusable due to said footage looking choppy and lacking smoothness. I don't understand why it looks the way it does but no matter what settings I do, it ends up looking more or less the same while others with similar PCs stream or record much smoother footage at the same framerate.
Specs are: i7-13700KF, Z790 Tomahawk DDR4, 32GB manually tuned DDR4 4000, RTX 3080 12GB, all SSD storage, 1x 280Hz 1080p monitor, 1x 70hz 1440p monitor. An extra detail, the CPU is overclocked and it's locked with no power saving features enabled, so performance is permanently available and numbers wise it shows. OS is latest update Windows 11 Pro 23H2, latest drivers and OBS 30 with no plugins. I have HAGS disabled.
I have gone ahead and changed basically all output settings on Obs and have tried using a single monitor as well as dropping refresh rate to 240hz and 60hz on the second one (so there is parity between them) and the result? Pretty much the same. And I have even tried limiting fps in game as low as 60 just to see if it looks better and it does but it's still not as smooth as others. But it makes no sense because I saw multiple streams from single PCs with similar builds and multiple monitors and lo and behold, smooth looking video with unlocked fps. So what gives?
Here are stream examples of my footage:
Extra details: 1080P Base & Output, 60fps. Stream is NVENC H264, CBR, 6000KBPS, 0s keyframe interval, P6 preset, High quality tuning, Two passes quarter res multipass, profile high, enabled look ahead & psycho visual tuning, 2 b frames. Recording is NVENC HEVC with 3 audio tracks, CBR, 9000kbps, 0s keyframe, P6 preset, tuning low latency, Two passes quarter res multipass, main profile, disabled look-ahead & psycho visual tuning, 2 b frames.
Examples of streams that look visually appealing and are visibly smooth:
I don't know what else to test or do. I have tried so many setting combos that I just ended up making this post as well as a post on the official obs forums because I want to get other opinions and advice.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and thank you for any help offered. I will also try to reply to comments asap.
Specs are: i7-13700KF, Z790 Tomahawk DDR4, 32GB manually tuned DDR4 4000, RTX 3080 12GB, all SSD storage, 1x 280Hz 1080p monitor, 1x 70hz 1440p monitor. An extra detail, the CPU is overclocked and it's locked with no power saving features enabled, so performance is permanently available and numbers wise it shows. OS is latest update Windows 11 Pro 23H2, latest drivers and OBS 30 with no plugins. I have HAGS disabled.
I have gone ahead and changed basically all output settings on Obs and have tried using a single monitor as well as dropping refresh rate to 240hz and 60hz on the second one (so there is parity between them) and the result? Pretty much the same. And I have even tried limiting fps in game as low as 60 just to see if it looks better and it does but it's still not as smooth as others. But it makes no sense because I saw multiple streams from single PCs with similar builds and multiple monitors and lo and behold, smooth looking video with unlocked fps. So what gives?
Here are stream examples of my footage:
- NVENC 6P - 2 monitors - 280hz/70hz: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987684151
- NVENC 6P - 2 monitors - 240hz/60hz: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987688033
- NVENC 6P - 1 monitor - 280hz: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987698133
- NVENC 6P - 1 monitor - 240hz: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987692427
- X264 Medium - 1 monitor - 280hz: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1987701791
- NVENC HEVC Recording - 2 monitors - 280hz/70hz: https://we.tl/t-DFEaANPOPo
Extra details: 1080P Base & Output, 60fps. Stream is NVENC H264, CBR, 6000KBPS, 0s keyframe interval, P6 preset, High quality tuning, Two passes quarter res multipass, profile high, enabled look ahead & psycho visual tuning, 2 b frames. Recording is NVENC HEVC with 3 audio tracks, CBR, 9000kbps, 0s keyframe, P6 preset, tuning low latency, Two passes quarter res multipass, main profile, disabled look-ahead & psycho visual tuning, 2 b frames.
Examples of streams that look visually appealing and are visibly smooth:
- 1st Example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1985152459?t=0h58m48s - Confirmed with the streamer that he has simple output mode, 6000 kbps bitrate, 320kbps audio, NVENC H264, P6 preset. Specs: 12700K + 3070 Ti stock clocks, 1x 1440P 240hz + 1x 1080P 60hz.
- 2nd Example: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1982292760?t=0h36m40s - Confirmed with the streamer that he has simple output mode, 6000kbps bitrate, 160kbps audio, NVENC H264, P6 preset. Specs: 13700K + 2060 stock clocks, 1x 1080P 240hz, 1x 1080P 120hz.
I don't know what else to test or do. I have tried so many setting combos that I just ended up making this post as well as a post on the official obs forums because I want to get other opinions and advice.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and thank you for any help offered. I will also try to reply to comments asap.