OBS is fairly a good example of a solution to a perfect homemade video, with its two representative components of recording and streaming, to those in need of screen recording and live broadcasting.

Unexpectedly, albeit the high-quality recording capabilities, OBS causes quite a lot of trouble to its users which people call OBS laggy recording. The OBS laggy recording problem is intimidating that once encountered, your OBS or even your computer may freeze, and most of the time, the output video will be full of stutters and gaps that make the video total futility.

To solve the OBS laggy recording problem, first, we need to understand why lags will occur. Then, we will focus on the solutions.

OBS Laggy Recording

Why my OBS recording is laggy

Now, let’s try to figure out the reason for your OBS choppy recording.

Overloaded CPU&GPU

An OBS screen recording is a heavy burden to your computer’s CPU and GPU. During the recording, if you are running OBS along with other heavyweight tasks like gameplay, YouTube playback, movie playback, well, your clapped-out hardware will crash due to the exceeded processes ensemble.

As a result, your CPU and GPU will be working overloaded to handle the processes which will cause lags to your computer as well as OBS.

Depending on the source of the error, the solutions can be divided into 2 parts, one is to optimize the capacity of your computer and the other is to reduce OBS’s hardware occupation by adjusting its settings.

You can check out the following methods to make the OBS record smoother:

Tips: OBS Alternative – No-lag Screen Recorder

OBS is indeed a powerful screen recorder, but it’s heavyweight at the same time. You’d rather not spend all day figuring out why and how about laggy recording. You can turn to a lightweight screen recorder to replace OBS, like Aiseesoft Screen Recorder.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder Record Video Audio

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder will be your first choice when you’re in pursuit of a smooth recording and a decent video. Once installed, you can start a recording immediately without a complex preset. Similar to OBS, Screen Recorder supports multi-sources video and audio recording, you can decide the content of the recording with the Advanced Recorder feature.

There’s no need to worry about the laggy problem since Screen Recorder offers hardware acceleration and its optimized framework, it’s currently one of the best no-lag screen recorders.

Save File

Besides, you can use custom settings to create a perfect video. You’re available to decide the resolution, frame rate, and quality of the output video. You can also decide on the hotkeys and mouse movements.

You may read the post ‘Screen Recorder No Lag – How to Record With No Lags‘ to find out more about this no-lag recorder.

Now, you can click the buttons below to download the app and start a smooth screen capture for free!

See how to record games and videos with Aiseesoft Screen Recorder:

How to make OBS record smoother

Check out the methods below to make your OBS recording smoother.

Method 1: Solve OBS laggy recording by optimizing your computer

If your CPU and GPU are overloaded, we can simply shut down some unnecessary processes.

Here’s how:

  • On your desktop, right-click on the task tray and choose Task Manager from the pop-out list.

Open Task Manager

  • The Task Manager window will appear, you can find all the ongoing processes on your computer, including those visible and hidden ones.

Select the unimportant tasks and click End Task to shut them down.

OBS No Lags End Tasks

Close the window when you finish terminating redundant tasks.

Tips:

Shutting down tasks is just a stopgap. To root out this laggy problem, you can try to upgrade your CPU and GPU or use an OBS alternative

Method 2: Solve OBS laggy recording by adjusting OBS settings

When the OBS process occupies quite a percentage of CPU usage, lags happen as well. We can adjust OBS properties to reduce lags.

First of all, launch OBS and open Settings. Follow these to simplify the OBS process:

On the Output tab:

  1. adjust Output Mode to “Advanced”;
  2. set Recording Format as mkv or flv (smallest file size);
  3. change Encoder to “Software (*264 low CPU usage, increases file size)” ;

Tip: You may choose a hardware encoder like QSV and NVENC if there are any on your computer.

OBS Studio Encoder

  1. set Rescale Output to 720p or 1080p;
  2. decrease Bitrate value down to 8,000 or lower;
  3. set CPU Usage Preset to “veryfast” or lower.

OBS Output Settings No Lag

Then, move to the Video tab.

  1. Set Output Resolution to 720p or 1080p;
  2. Set CommonFPS Value to 30 or 60.

OBS No Lag Video Settings

Tip:

  • 720p and 1080p are the figures of a high-definition resolution which will be enough for regular videos.
  • 30 or 60 fps will be fair enough since a public published movie will share something alike.

After the modifications, click Apply.

After all these modifications, a considerable reduction to CPU and GPU will be done. Supposedly, your OBS recording will not be laggy anymore.

Closing point:

Now you know what causes your OBS recording laggy and how to solve the problem. You can start to make your OBS recording smoother. Or you may switch to a lightweight application – Aiseesoft Screen Recorder to record your screen.

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