How to Fix a Laggy Stream – OBS Studio

Trying to fix a laggy stream while using OBS Studio can be a frustrating experience. Especially for streamers just starting out, trying to decipher which form of lag is your stream suffering from in OBS Studio can be rather difficult.

The first step is finding out exactly what issue your stream is having and what is the source of the lag. This usually falls under these 3 problems:

• Encoding Lag
• Rendering Lag
• Dropped Frames

Understanding and troubleshooting these 3 basic issues are fairly easy to fix and this guide will help. We’ll break down all 3  common errors found in OBS and give you relative solutions to each problem.

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How to Tell What is Making Your Stream Lag

OBS has a helpful Stats window you can open to monitor your stream in real time. This will help you see which of the 3 potential areas that are cause of the issue. Making it easier to fix a laggy stream.

Open OBS, go to –> View –> Stats

Using OBS stats to determine what is causing your stream to lag.

In this stats screen you can track if your stream is suffering from either encoding lag, rendering lag, or if you are dropping frames.

What is Encoding Lag?

Encoding lag happens when the CPU (x264) or GPU (NVENC) is at maximum capacity. Depending on which encoder you decide to use, most of the solutions tend to stem from the same issues.

The objective is to make any changes to either your OBS stream settings or in game settings, to lower CPU/GPU usage. Giving your PC the additional overhead it needs to encode.

The biggest indicator it’s an encoding issue is when the error “Encoding overloaded! Consider turning down video settings or using a faster encoding preset” pops up in the bottom left corner of OBS.

Another big pill to swallow, is your PC just isn’t powerful enough to game and stream at the same time. If you truly want to maximize your streams quality and potential, a Dual PC set up is the way to go!

Want to learn how Dual PC streams work?
You can check out our Dual PC set up guide here

What is Rendering Lag?

The cause of Rendering lag is due your GPU being at max capacity. OBS requires anywhere from 5-10% of your GPU to capture, process and render the footage before its sent out. This happens regardless if using either x264 or NVENC.

This is a common issue among single PC setups, causing creators to restrict in game fidelity for the sake of better stream quality. Especially when not being able to take advantage of higher refresh rate monitors. Below you’ll find the most universal fixes that apply to both Encoding and Rendering lag, as they tend to root from the same issues. It takes time to find what settings work best for your hardware, just need to find the “Sweet spot”.

What are Dropped Frames?

Dropping frames is the only symptom that is not hardware related and the hardest to fix a laggy stream. Meaning it has nothing to do directly with your PC’s components, but rather your internet.

When your stream drops frames, typically this means your upload speed is not capable of handling the bitrate set within OBS. This will cause your stream to buffer and have massive frame skips, making it unwatchable.

Fixes for Encoding & Rendering Lag

Limit or cap in game frames per second (FPS) to 60

CPU heavy games will push performance to its fullest in order to make the game look its best. Limiting your in game FPS will keep your CPU usage in check, leaving additional resources to OBS Studio. You can either do this either in the games settings, or using 3rd party software like RivaTuner.

Lower the Common FPS Value in OBS

Having a 60fps stream is the golden benchmark, but dropping it to 48 or 30 fps might be a good short term fix until the bigger issue is found.

Change the Output (Scaled) Resolution

While it may be tempting to stream at 1080p, it’s usually not ideal for non-partnered streamers. With Twitch’s bitrate cap being at 6,000 kbps, having a clear full HD stream is not obtainable. Drop it down to either 864p or 720p.

Delete unnecessary Browser Sources

Browser Sources are used to add custom alerts or effects to your stream. They also use additional CPU. Try condensing all alerts into one browser source and deleting anything you don’t need. This can also be OBS plugins or active overlays.

Lower OBS Base Canvas Resolution

Go to Settings –> Video tab –> change the Base Canvas Resolution down to 1280 x 720p. This will lessen the CPU/GPU usage OBS needs in order to downscale to a lower resolution. The only annoying part here, it will require you to resize any assets nested in scenes.

Disable Windows Game Bar

Game Bar is an overlay made by Windows made to assist gamer’s recording gameplay, taking screenshots, connect with friends etc. Game Bar can have an impact on your game or streams performance since it’s always running in the background.

Set OBS to run as Administrator 

Right click on the OBS icon –> Properties –> Compatibility Tab –> check the box that is listed “Run this program as an administrator”. Jim the creator of OBS worked with Microsoft directly make Windows prioritize the GPU for rendering when running OBS as admin.

(x264 Only) Switch encoding preset to “Very Fast”

The OBS dev’s have confirmed that setting anything slower than the very fast preset will yield diminishing results. This preset provides the best bang for you buck in regards to quality versus CPU usage.

(NVENC Only) Drop encoding preset to “Quality”

Much like with the x264 presets, Max Quality can often yield diminishing results.

(NVENC Only) Turn off Psycho Visual Tuning & Look ahead

If using NVENC to encode, turning off psycho visual tuning and look ahead give your GPU headroom.

Fixes for Dropped Frames

Check you upload speed

This might seem like a no brainer, but checking your upload speed routinely is a good place to start. As OBS doesn’t effect dropped frames directly, your ISP could be at fault.

Disable the “Auto” setting when selecting your ingest server

When server selection is left on Automatic, OBS will always default the best server option. There are instances though, where that specific ingest server could be experiencing heavy loads. Switching to another server inside the same state could improve your streams connection.

Enable Dynamic Bitrate

Dynamic bitrate is newer feature released with version 24.0 of OBS.
Once OBS notices any fluctuations in your network stability, it will adjust your bitrate to maintain a smooth stream.

Enable in SETTINGS –> ADVANCED –> NETWORK –> Check “Dynamically change bitrate to manage congestion”.

Whitelist OBS with your Firewall or Anti-Virus software

To Whitelist OBS in your Firewall settings:

Hit the Windows Button –> Type “Firewall” and select “Windows Defender Firewall” –> On the left hand side click “Outbound Rules” –> On the right hand side click “New Rule” –> Program –> This Program Path (C:\Program Files\obs-studio\bin\64bit) –> Allow Connection –> Leave all boxes checked –> Name the Rule”OBS” –> Click Finish.

Uninstall 1st party Motherboard Network drivers

Certain Motherboard manufacturer’s will pack in specific proprietary drivers that have been known to cause dropped frames. On a personal note, I had a previously owned Gigabyte Motherboard and was dropping frames like crazy. Removed the “Killer Network drivers” and it fixed the problem. The only thing it was killing, was my stream.

Call your ISP

If you’ve tried everything in your power to try and fix dropping frames, it might be time to call your ISP. They could send a technician out and test the line to see if there are any issues on their end.

If a video tutorial is more of you thing, check out the video version on this guide below:

Hope this guide helps fix your laggy stream! I’ve been there with these issues and know how much of a pain it can be. Streaming is a rewarding experience, but has it’s pain points and technical issues are at the fore front. If you have any additional issues or other suggestion, leave a comment below.

Happy streaming!