OBS recording using CPU encoding doesn't work at 1440p60fps (B580)

[Ptage]

I know this seems like CPU issue at first glance, but I am pretty sure the GPU might be the problem here.

So I used to record 1440p60fps gameplay using OBS, CPU encoding through x264 -- no problem.

Once I swapped to a new graphics card -- B580 -- a weird thing happens. Once I turn on recording with these settings -- my in-game FPS halves and the capture is a stutterfest. It's absolutely unusable.

Then if I switch it to record at 1080p120fps (maybe even similarly demanding) or 1080p60fps everything works fine. It seems like the issue lies in this exact resolution.

Proof: 

Stream VOD at 1080p60fps 

Stream VOD at 1440p60fps 

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Ptage,

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

I'd like to know more about your system details to fully understand the root cause of this issue. Please share the following information:

1) What is the current graphics driver you are using? *Please include the previous graphics driver versions you've tried as well.

2) Kindly share your system configuration so I can further investigate and be able to provide you with an appropriate fix by downloading the Intel® System Support Utility for Windows* software. When the download is complete, launch SSU.exe.

• Scan: Check the box Everything.
• Click Scan.
• Review: When finished scanning, click Next.
• Click Save (.txt). Attach the log file as you reply.
  • NOTE: If you do not wish to submit the SSU report then at least provide us with the following information about your system:
    • Processor make and model.
    • Motherboard make and model.
    • Amount of memory (RAM).
    • Operating System version/build number.
    • Power Supply make and model.

I will wait for your reply.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel®Customer Support Technician

[Ptage]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I attach the scan in .txt file.

The driver I use is the latest driver for b580 as of now (to my knowledge). 

The issue also occured on the previous driver (the first released for b580).

[essi2]

Since this is a OBS related issue it might be useful to have your 1080p and 1440p encoder settings aswell.

1440p encoding uses significantly more resources than 1080p encoding.

[Ptage]

These are the default ones.

I have impression you've missed me stating I had no trouble with this using the previous GPU.

And GPU shouldn't matter for this because it's CPU encoding. 5800X3D can handle recording in 1440p60fps on veryfast preset -- quite easily I would say. There might be problems of course in case the game would be super demanding for CPU. But in my setup the GPU is the bottleneck especially in 1440p, so it can't be possible, also the issue occurs in any game, CPU intensive or not.

[Rindane48]

After the new driver update, the same problems occurred on the arc a750. The screen recording of the OBS application does not work properly either. We want the screen game recording feature back in the Arc control panel, and for the sound, we want to choose to separate the game and microphone recordings.

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Rindane48,

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

I understand that you are facing the same problem with your OBS application and the missing screen game recording on the Intel Graphics software. However, I kindly request that you create a new thread for your case. This will allow us to focus on your specific problem and provide you with better assistance.  

Sincerely,

JeanetteC.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Ptage,

Thank you for sharing the information I requested. Since the newly released driver, version 32.0.101.101.6253 for Intel® Arc™ B-Series Graphics still did not fix the issue, then I will proceed checking internally and will post an update once available.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Ptage,

Good day!

Please be informed that we are trying to investigate issue where you encountered halving of the FPS of the games you used.

In order to further assess the issue, kindly clarify the following:

1. What games are affected by the issue?
2. Can the you share a CapFrameX of the affected games when streaming? (1 CapFrameX when not streaming a game and another when streaming the game) for comparison in our tests.

About CapFrameX

This is a 3rd party tool for frametimes capture and analysis based on Intel's PresentMon. The overlay is provided by Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS).

CapFrameX Installation instructions:

1. Go to https://www.capframex.com/download and download the latest version of CapframeX.
2. Go to https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download.html and download the latest version of RTSS.
3. Unzip both installers and install them.
4. Launch CapFrameX and then close it. This is so it creates the user Configuration folder.
5. Download and unzip the file OverlayEntryConfiguration_0.json (attached in this post) with the recommended RTSS configuration.
6. Paste this file to %userprofile%\Documents\CapFrameX\Configuration.
7. In the Capture tab, set the "Capture time" to 0. This is to remove the preset limit in capture time.
8. In the Overlay tab, uncheck "Auto-Disable OSD" and click the save icon.

Capturing the Performance Data:

1. Open CapframeX and do NOT minimize or close it.
2. Open the game and go to the part of the game you need to be to reproduce the issue. You should see the RTSS overlay in the top left corner of your screen, with the status "<game name> ready to capture…".
3. Press F11 to start capturing data and reproduce the issue. The Status in the overlay will change to "Recording frametimes XX s".
4. Once you have reproduced the issue, press F11 to finish the data capturing. The Status in the overlay will change to "Processing data".
5. Back to CapFrameX, you can find all the data captures in the left panel of the Analysis tab. Clicking any one of these captures will display the results on the right.
6. To export the data captured as a JSON file, right click the capture and click on "Copy/paste recording file(s)".

I will wait for your reply.

Best regards,

JeanetteC.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[Ptage]

Hi,

I'm attaching framecap.7z. "noissuecyberpunk" contains frametime capture when no issue occurs.

The "issuecyberpunk" contains capture when issue occurs, so after turning on recording in OBS. I don't know if issue exists if streaming through OBS with these settings, I have tested that. OBS gives you the option to stream, record or both stream and record at the same time. In case of this issue I have found it during recording only.

For me issue exists in any game, so it doesn't seem to be related to a specific game. Perhaps 1440p60fps recording on CPU puts strain on the CPU and that conflicts with Intel Arc drivers that seem to rely on CPU as well?

I am providing detailed steps to replicate the issue.

1. Turn on OBS and basically any game, but let's stick to Cyberpunk in this case.

2. Turn on OBS and use the following settings:

(note: issue doesn't exist if output resolution is 1080p instead of 1440p)

3. With these settings make a basic scene in OBS, in the scene add "game capture". It should start capturing Cyberpunk automatically.

4. In Cyberpunk turn some fps monitoring tool, note how much fps you get.

5. In OBS click "Start recording".

6. FPS in Cyberpunk should be half of the amount in step 4.

Please let me know if you have issues replicating the issue. It's best if you had similiar CPU in power because my guess the problem exists between CPU computing power and Intel drivers.

[RandyT_Intel]

Hello Ptage, 

Thank you for sharing this. I'll investigate it and get back to you as soon as possible. I'm going to look into the issue further. 

Randy T.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Felipe_Intel]

Hello! I wanted to let you know that this issue was reported to our driver development team. I'll be updating this thread when I have any news to share.

[dORSY]

I can also confirm OBS issues while recording.

Even GPU assisted quicksync encode has similar issues, altough I'm not sure it uses the media encoder engine at all, as in Task Manager the Video Processing utilization sits at 0% while recording.

edit:
Also affects Steam's gameplay recording. (https://store.steampowered.com/gamerecording) It's unusable, the output is a slideshow or runs to errors and the recording breaks, cannot be read.

Tested a video transcode with handbrake AV1 10bit Intel QSV preset. Tough performance seems good (1920x818 HEVC source converts at 1k+ FPS), I'm not sure what I'm looking at as only Video Decode seems to be loaded @task manager, and CPU usage seems high (has no iGPU, AMD 5600x).

Tried to get better info on the Media Engine load from Intel Presentmon, but could not find the corresponding metrics to track there.

[Felipe_Intel]

Hello @Ptage and all,

I'm running some tests with the latest public driver 32.0.101.6881 and I can't replicate the issue with every game or even just the desktop. Are you still experiencing this issue? I'd appreciate if you can share the specific details of the workload along with screenshots of your OBS configuration: Video, Output and Advanced. I wanna make sure we can test and validate specific scenarios where this is still happening.
Looking forward for your answer. 

[DestroyChu]

Using the same driver "32.0.101.6881" I am also encountering a mass decrease in performance. I have the A770 16GB Graphics card.

My main example is "Tom Clancy's: Rainbow six siege X"
The results in the images show before and after hitting record, using the in-game benchmark feature. I should note, The GPU's were fully utilized during these benchmarks and temps were around 60-65C for the GPU. I am stating this as you will see in the images, the rainbow six siege benchmarks always show "Not supported by your video card" for GPU usage and GPU temps.

I am used to dropping 10-15 fps when recording using obs. I even will provide my OBS settings in the screenshots. But I resulted in a 50+ fps drop from recording in AV1 codec at 1080p30fps. In some in-game scenarios depending on the map (Coastline is the best example) I can even go from smooth 235 fps and the second I record I'm straight down to 90-120fps with the frame-timing making it seem even lower and more delayed.

During these tests I should note that my "Video Decode" in task manager show around a 5-8% usage when recording at any moment.

[Felipe_Intel]

Hello @Ptage and all. More work has been done in our drivers and the most recent 32.0.101.7026 include some improvements that should address this issue (or at least most of it). 
I'd appreciate if you can test on your side and see how it performs for your use case and configuration. Looking forward for your comments