What’s Actually Happening
With HAGS ON, Windows offloads GPU scheduling to the Arc driver — which is great for games, but bad for OBS. Here’s why:
The Arc driver prioritizes 3D workloads (DX12) higher than encoding.
OBS’s QuickSync encoder (AV1 or H.264) competes for GPU cycles and VRAM bandwidth.
When both hit at once — say, you alt-tab, hit record, or your game spikes in frametime — the encoder queue chokes. OBS sees this as “Encoder Overloaded.”
With HAGS OFF, the scheduler is more balanced, so OBS runs smoother, but the game loses driver-level optimizations (hence the crashes and performance loss).
In short:
With HAGS ON, the Arc GPU is “too busy gaming” to encode fast enough.
🧩 Your Configuration’s Key Details
Ryzen 7 5800XT — no integrated graphics → can’t use Intel QuickSync’s fallback path.
Arc B580 Milestone (A580) — depends heavily on HAGS.
OBS using QSV encoder — no “psycho visual tuning” or “look-ahead” because those are NVIDIA NVENC-specific options.
Power draw fine (~250W) — PSU not the issue.
So we’re dealing with a driver scheduling bottleneck, not hardware failure or power.
Practical Fixes (Ranked from Easiest to Most Effective)
1. Switch OBS Encoder to AV1 via Arc GPU
If you’re using H.264 or HEVC, try AV1 instead. It’s better optimized for Arc cards on the latest drivers.
AV1 on Arc GPUs handles HAGS scheduling more gracefully than older H.264/HEVC encoders.
2. Enable “Game Mode” in Windows
Yes, really.
Windows 11’s Game Mode optimizes GPU scheduling for dual workloads (game + encode). It reduces stutter when HAGS is active.
This changes the priority queue balance slightly — enough to reduce encoder overloads in many cases.
3. Use OBS “Process Priority” Tweak
OBS can ask Windows for more consistent GPU time:
In OBS → Settings → Advanced
Under Process Priority, select Above Normal
Restart OBS
This helps stabilize encoder frame pacing when HAGS is on.
4. Lower OBS Rendering Resolution (not output)
This one’s subtle but effective.
If you’re streaming 1080p, try this:
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1080p
Output (Scaled) Resolution: 1080p (same)
Downscale Filter: Bicubic (Sharpened Scaling, 16 samples)
FPS: 60 → 59.94 (drops frametime spikes slightly)
The fractional frame rate helps keep OBS’s render thread in sync with Intel’s driver.
5. Try a Lower OBS Renderer
OBS → Settings → Advanced → Renderer → Direct3D 11
(avoid 12 or OpenGL for now; Intel’s 12 path is still flaky)
This ensures that OBS’s render thread doesn’t conflict with your game’s DX12 scheduler queue.
6. Use Separate Display Adapter for OBS (if available)
If your motherboard BIOS supports iGPU Multi-Monitor, you can:
Enable your CPU’s integrated GPU (if you had one — but Ryzen 7 5800XT doesn’t, so skip this).
Plug one monitor into the iGPU, one into the Arc GPU, and let OBS render on one while the game runs on the other.
Not an option for your CPU, but worth noting for others.
7. Limit Your Game’s FPS
This sounds counterintuitive but massively helps with Arc.
If your game runs uncapped, the GPU gets slammed — no room left for OBS’s encoder.
Use:
In-game FPS limiter (or RivaTuner)
Cap your game to 120 FPS (or even 90)
Avoid V-Sync unless it’s stable (input lag)
This frees up 10–15% GPU time for OBS encoding.
8. Optional but Effective:
Use OBS’s “Performance Mode” (View → Performance Mode) to disable all preview rendering.
That reduces GPU overhead by 3–5%, enough to stabilize the encoder queue.
