Detailed: Why OBS Recording Choppy & How to Fix

If you see your just-made recording playing in jerky motion, or in another word choppy, you should first think of two things: your device issues and the recording software.

I know that's a bit broad. Let's move to a narrow field to discuss the choppy recording - OBS.

OBS is a free and powerful streaming-recording software. It's quite popular. But still, like many other recording tools, it brings unsmooth recordings.

Why OBS Recording Choppy?

As mentioned above, there are two main reasons - the device and the software. In most cases, an overloaded CPU is the main reason. As for OBS, the reasons will be much more complex.

1CPU Overload

When your device CPU is overloading, features relate to recording and playback will join a system source completion and lead to disrupted real-time processing.

For example, screen recording software like OBS must capture real-time frame buffer data from the graphics card. If a CPU is overloaded, slow response to graphics card interrupt requests will result in misaligned frames and missing images.

What's more, video encoding (such as H.264/H.265) requires a large amount of CPU computation. Insufficient system resources will cause delays in this process. As a result, it will make the recording choppy.

2Inappropriate Frame Rate Settings

The higher frame rate, the stronger the CPU required. Many set a high frame rate in OBS and finally causes choppiness.

Then, what is considered a high frame rate? 120+ fps.

3Incorrect Capture Method

One of OBS's primary strengths is its diverse capture methods; however, this also increases the learning curve.

For OBS recording users, it's quite common that they use a wrong capture method, especially in gameplay recording.

The capture method - Game Capture, is optimized to hook directly into a game's rendering process, and to capture frames efficiently with minimal overhead. With the right method, you can get a better recording performance.

4Others

● Multi channel video and audio signal interference: enabling both the camera and screen recording simultaneously can saturate USB bandwidth.
● Insufficient storage space: limited free space is unable to keep up with the data write speed required for recording. And this will cause the recording to stop or stutter.
● Outdated graphics card/sound card driver: incompatible with screen recording software like OBS.
● Recording blocked by DRM protected content: some platforms do not allow recording and you may see a frozen or black screen.

How to Fix OBS Recording Choppy Issues? 6 Ways

1. Allocate more system resources to OBS recording

Here's what you can do to fix the choppy issues caused by CPU.

a. Set OBS process priority as 'High': Go to Settings > Advanced > Process Priority > select High.

Explain: It determine how much CPU time OBS receives compared to other applications. In this way, you can ensure OBS is more likely to acquire the necessary resources for smooth encoding and recording, especially when the system is under heavy load.

b. Run OBS as Administrator: right-click the OBS icon > select Run as administrator.

Explain: This will make sure that OBS has full access to system resources.

c. Close unnecessary background applications: right-click the Taskbar > select Task Manager > in Processes menu - Background processes, find the one that use significant CPU > righ-click and select End task

2. Set frame rate as 30/60 fps

You can go to OBS's Settings > Video > Common FPS Values and set the value.

You can test your settings to find the best balance between smoothness and system performance. If your recordings are choppy at 60 FPS, try lowering to 30.

3. Choose a right capture method in OBS

• Game Capture:  This is the best option when recording gameplay.
• Window Capture: Use this when you want to capture a specific application window rather than the entire screen. It will save resources and space.
• Video Capture Device: This is for webcams or external capture cards.
• Display Capture: It captures everything on your monitor and is less efficient. You need a high-level device, otherwise can cause CPU overloaded.

4. Clean up storage space

OBS temporarily writes to system C: drive before moving the file to the target drive. So, to avoid OBS recording choppy, you can focus on cleaning up C drive.

Keep at least 20% of your total storage capacity free.

5. Set OBS encoder settings

If you're using an NVIDIA GPU or AMD GPU, you can set it up in OBS Settings > Output. Using GPU can reduce CPU load and bring best balance between video quality and performance when recording. This approach helps you achieve smooth, lag-free video.

Steps:

1) Switch to Advanced in Output Mode.

2) In Recording > Video Encorder > select the GPU you use.

6. Try another screen recorder software

OBS is powerful but not may not be suitable for all computers. If you have a low-end PC or with old Windows system, you can try a more compatible screen recorder, like Kingshiper Screen Recorder.

The higher the compatibility, the less you can reduce choppy recordings.