After upgrading GPUs, my OBS recordings stutter (duplicate/near-duplicate frames) even though live gameplay is flawless. I systematically tested and eliminated everything I could think of over ~2 weeks. NVIDIA's built-in recorder captures the identical scene with zero duplicate frames, while all three OBS capture methods (Game / Window / Display Capture) show the same defect. Evidence and methodology below — hoping someone recognizes this or can point at something I missed.
Recordings look juddery — like the footage is lower FPS than what was played. Live gameplay on screen is smooth. Frame-stepping recordings in VLC (the e key) shows frames where the image doesn't advance (duplicates / near-duplicates), which matches the visual stutter exactly.
OBS Stats panel during recording: 0 frames missed due to rendering lag (0/14160), 0 skipped due to encoding lag (0/7269). OBS believes everything is fine.
System
- GPU: RTX 5070 Ti (upgraded from RTX 3080, which captured flawlessly with the same settings)
- CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- RAM: 64GB | Monitor: ASUS ROG PG278QR, 1440p 165Hz
- OS: Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200)
- Driver: 610.74 (32.0.16.1074), clean install via DDU
- OBS: started on 30.1, upgraded to 32.1.2 — no change
- Recording settings: NVENC (H.264 and HEVC both tested), CQP 18, P7, two-pass full res, 1440p60, MKV
- Main affected game: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced (also visible in Crimson Desert with Lossless Scaling)
Symptom
Recordings look juddery — like the footage is lower FPS than what was played. Live gameplay on screen is smooth. Frame-stepping recordings in VLC (the e key) shows frames where the image doesn't advance (duplicates / near-duplicates), which matches the visual stutter exactly.
OBS Stats panel during recording: 0 frames missed due to rendering lag (0/14160), 0 skipped due to encoding lag (0/7269). OBS believes everything is fine.
What I tested — no change
- OBS 30.1 → 32.1.2 (fresh install)
- H.264 ↔ HEVC, Psycho Visual Tuning / Adaptive Quantisation on/off
- Game Capture with and without anti-cheat compatibility hook
- Window Capture, Game Capture and Display Capture — same defect on all three capture methods
- WGC vs DXGI capture APIs
- G-Sync windowed on/off, VSync recipes in NVCP
- Monitor was manually set back to 165 after driver reinstall
- HAGS on/off, Game Mode, power plan (High Performance → Ryzen Balanced & Performance)
- Memory Integrity already off, DPC latency monitored — clean/green
- AMD chipset drivers present (3D V-Cache Optimizer + PPM Provisioning confirmed in Device Manager)
- CPU is healthy: ~18-23% utilization in game, no background load, no thermal issues (72°C max)
- No overlays (no Armoury Crate, NVIDIA overlay tested off)
