OBS 'lag or frame drops' issue while streaming & recording gameplay comes to light

Open Broadcaster Software or OBS is an open source platform that’s easily accessible on Windows, macOS, Linux distributions and BSD. It is widely used by streamers for video recording and live streaming.

Notably popular amongst gamers, OBS is up to no good when it starts frame dropping during streaming and recording.

That said, some OBS users are facing a peculiar visual issue while streaming gameplays. Everything seems to be functioning fine but when streaming or watching their recording, it starts dropping frames and faltering (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8).

OBS ‘lag or frame drops’ due to an encoding bug

The OBS ‘lag or frame drops’ issue seems to have arisen because of an encoding bug on OBS Studio.

Most users say that their PCs are very capable but it’s their OBS that keeps serving them the ‘encoder overloaded’ error. We’ve added a few reports about the problem below for reference:

My OBS keeps giving the ‘encoder overloaded’ error, but when I check Task Manager when it’s running, only 6% of my CPU is being used, and 37% of my 16GB RAM is in use
Source

My PC is not laggy when I record, but when I check my recordings, they are laggy. Please someone help me fix this.
Source

There have been issues related to OBS system freezing and crashing in the past. But ‘lag or frame drops’ issue has left many quite startled:

There’s no jitter or stutter while I’m playing, but I’m noticing things like this in my footage. What has happened? I’ve properly installed the new GPU. I’ve updated drivers. I’ve reseated capture card and GPU. I can’t figure out what’s happening. Any thoughts? Again, I believe this to be a new issue. I’m honestly lost.
Source

Although, the ‘freezing issue’ was fixed with an update to OBS Studio in no time, an official acknowledgment about the OBS ‘lag or frame drops’ issue is still missing.

Unfortunately, there are also no workarounds that could help mitigate the issue temporarily. Granted, those affected might have to deal with it a little longer than expected.

We’ll keep an eye on the developments about the issue and update the article as and when the fix comes into effect.

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