How to Eliminate Screen Tearing on a Dual PC Stream

A Dual PC setup’s biggest advantage is not having to sacrifice the quality or performance of your gameplay while you stream. Especially if you use a high refresh rate monitor, the last thing you want to do is limit your frames per second. This comes at a cost, as it could cause screen tearing and will impact your overall quality. In this guide we plan on showing you exactly how to eliminate screen tearing on a dual PC stream setup. 

This guide is aimed at specifically Dual PC setups. Some of the other options may help fix the issue for single PC setups, but will be less ideal as you have limited options.

Do you have an HD60s but don’t know how to set it up for a dual PC stream?
Check out our tutorial on “How to Setup a Dual PC Stream – Elgato HD60s”

Best Method to Eliminate Screen Tearing – Dual PC Setup

The OBS Fullscreen Projector method is hands down the best way to eliminate screen tearing and comes at no sacrifice! With the only minor drawback is that it requires some additional setup before each streaming/recording session. Which is well worth it as it yields the best results of all other methods.

Nothing needs to be done on the Streaming PC, all of this will be done on the Gaming PC.

Step 1: Open Nvidia Control Panel and go to “Setup Multiple Displays”. In option 2 Right Click on your cloned sources (the circled 1 & 2) and hit “Extend” and assign your monitor as the primary display.

With the sources split now the capture card is being registered as if it were an actual monitor.

Step 2: Offset display 2 (capture card) as pictured below and hit Apply.

This will prevent the mouse cursor from going off screen.

Step 3: Open OBS on the Gaming PC. Create a new Scene, name it if needed. (To make this work OBS MUST be installed on your Gaming PC)

Step 4: Add a new source as “Display Capture”.

Make sure the capture method is set to “Automatic” and “Display” is set to your primary monitor.

Step 5: Right click in the OBS preview window and highlight “Fullscreen Projector Preview”, should have an extended window that shows both the primary monitor and capture card.

Select the capture card, as it’s now being treated by OBS as a stand alone monitor.

Side note: Step 5 will need to be repeated before every stream or recording session. A minor inconvenience, but extremely worth it.

This process will completely eliminate screen tearing on a dual PC setup as we are now taking a high refresh rate feed and converting it locally before sending it to our Streaming PC. Now you can play and create content without the need to sacrifice quality for either you or your viewers.

What is Screen Tearing?

Screen tearing is a form of visual artifact that is caused by mismatched frame rates. If you play on a 144hz monitor but your capture card can only handle a max of 60FPS, you’ll start seeing tearing on your stream or recording in OBS.

This will be more prevalent in games with rapid motion like first person shooters or racing games, as it requires OBS to draw more mismatched frames per second.

Other Easy fixes to Reduce Screen Tearing

These fixes are meant as a temporary fix or if you are on a single PC setup.

Reduce Gaming PC refresh rate to 60hz

Obviously this is the least ideal, there’s no point in having a high refresh rate monitor if you aren’t able to use it to its fullest capabilities. 

By matching the refresh of your gameplay to that of your stream settings it will immediately fix the issue. If stream or recording quality takes priority over your gaming experience, then this is a viable option.

Enable VSYNC on the Gaming PC

Vsync is another option that will correct screen tearing once enabled. Much like the first suggestion above, it’ll match refresh rates across the board but comes with its own caveat. Vsync can cause input lag to your mouse and keyboard, which depending on your game of choice, can put you at a disadvantage.

Looking for a video version of this guide? Check out this video below!
https://youtu.be/zXIPMl84ufY