Streaming/Recording in 1440p vs downscaling to 1080p?

[Zeionn]

Hello OBS Community!

I've been streaming using OBS for a few years now but am struggling to find a balance for what my computer can handle with streaming and recording at the same time. I have a 3060ti FE plus AMD Ryzen 5600X and stream on YouTube at 1080p currently. I've had some issues pop up recently where my stream completely feezes or crashes and also get recording errors. I don't have a log file that I can currently post while writing this but can follow up with one later. I'm wondering if I'm overloading my CPU or GPU with gaming at 1440p and also trying to stream and record at these high resolutions?

I have my base canvas resolution set to 1440p but then downscale my stream to 1080p 60 but still record in 1440p at 60fps. I have a couple of questions and if anyone else also streams/records in this method I would appreciate any feedback!

1. Is downscaling my stream to 1080p causing more load than if I keep it at the native resolution of 1440p?

2. Should I pull down my base resolution to 1080p and stream/record at this resolution even if I still play at 1440p?

3. Is there any way to tell from a crash/freeze if it was my GPU or CPU causing the error?

4. Has anyone else found a sweet spot with gaming at 1440p while also streaming/recording that doesn't then overload or make their OBS crash?

Thanks!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

1. unfortunately, I believe it depends. downscaling does take more work. but it also means less data to work with. Sorry, I don't know enough to be more specific. I know I did better on my older system when I stopped trying to downscale on the canvas
2. Personally, I'd try other things before dropping resolution. I work at native resolution where possible, and focus on OS and OBS optimizations. Only if that fails, would I lower base canvas... but that is just me. ymmv
3. Have you checked the OBS log analyzer? see my .sig

The issue, I suspect, is that OBS is a very powerful, flexible tool, that can be very efficient, or very taxing on a system, depending on what you set up. So, what are you doing for real-time system monitoring of hardware resource (CPU, GPU, RAM, Disk I/O, etc) utilization [for ex. using Task manager’s Performance tab and/or Resource Monitor] to see if/where your system is being maxed out with your settings
Then you may need to disable a few default settings like

​

Disable Psychovisual Tuning. It's currently on. It, along with Lookahead and the Max Quality preset, can cause massive amounts of rendering and encoding lag even on systems that should not otherwise experience them.​

...snip..​

I would also recommend uninstalling the StreamElements OBS.Live plugin. It makes several changes to core OBS Studio files and replaces them with inferior versions, along with (as Lawrence noted) puking all over the log and making it hard to diagnose. All SE OBS.Live functionality can be added to base OBS Studio via Custom Docks.​

So, with that in mind, beware various plugins... some of them are VERY poorly written. Some are great. it depends
From a testing perspective, I'd recommend a clean OBS setup (minimal plugins, if any) and see with a few tweaks if you can get your system working as desired, then add on and find your system's overload point, and back off a bit for a safety buffer

 

[Zeionn]

1. unfortunately, I believe it depends. downscaling does take more work. but it also means less data to work with. Sorry, I don't know enough to be more specific. I know I did better on my older system when I stopped trying to downscale on the canvas
2. Personally, I'd try other things before dropping resolution. I work at native resolution where possible, and focus on OS and OBS optimizations. Only if that fails, would I lower base canvas... but that is just me. ymmv
3. Have you checked the OBS log analyzer? see my .sig

The issue, I suspect, is that OBS is a very powerful, flexible tool, that can be very efficient, or very taxing on a system, depending on what you set up. So, what are you doing for real-time system monitoring of hardware resource (CPU, GPU, RAM, Disk I/O, etc) utilization [for ex. using Task manager’s Performance tab and/or Resource Monitor] to see if/where your system is being maxed out with your settings
Then you may need to disable a few default settings like

​

So, with that in mind, beware various plugins... some of them are VERY poorly written. Some are great. it depends
From a testing perspective, I'd recommend a clean OBS setup (minimal plugins, if any) and see with a few tweaks if you can get your system working as desired, then add on and find your system's overload point, and back off a bit for a safety buffer

Thank you for all this valuable information! I do currently have OBS.Live installed so might check that and the Psychovisual Tuning to see if anything changes.