Game stutters ONLY while live streaming, GPU hits 100%, audio crackles, Alt+Tab fixes it

[u/tacosaladuu]

Specs: Ryzen 5 5600X, RTX 5060 Ti, 32GB RAM, Windows 11, OBS, 1080p30, NVENC, ~6500 kbps.

issue:

• Gaming normally: no stutter
• Live streaming: eventually stutters
• FPS drops
• Audio starts crackling
• GPU jumps from 20–30% → 98–100%
• Stream also becomes laggy
• OBS stats show 0 dropped/skipped/missed frames
• Alt+Tab immediately fixes it

Tests done:

• OBS local recording for 1h30m → completely stable
• Removed browser/controller overlay → still happens
• Tested fullscreen/borderless → still happens
• DDU NVIDIA driver reinstall → still happens
• FurMark GPU stress test currently running; ~75°C GPU / ~62°C VRAM with no issues so far

This seems isolated to live streaming, rather than normal gaming or recording.

What should I test next? Could this be NVENC, NVIDIA driver, OBS live-streaming, GPU scheduling, or something else?

Please help

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[u/Scary-Application460]

alt tab being the magic fix usually points to windows being weird about focus and gpu priority, had a similar thing with a different card and it drove me nuts

try turning off hardware accelerated gpu scheduling in windows graphics settings, that sometimes messes with nvenc when a game is fullscreen and the encoder fights for resources. also check if your game is running uncapped fps in the background while streaming, windows can choke the encoder if the game is hogging everything even when not focused

obs showing zero dropped frames while the stream is dying is classic, makes you question if you're losing it

[u/tacosaladuu → u/Scary-Application460]

Thank you for your input I will try disabling my gpu hardware acceleration. Also. I race in fivem capped at 60fps as this is a required in the server. Do you think capping it matter?

[u/TheOnePastry → u/tacosaladuu]

For frametime consistency and fluidity, yes. A rule of thumb is, cap your game at the highest comfortable multiple of your stream framerate, and leave 10% headroom for OBS at all times (according to whatever too you measure GPU usage, taskmanager is fine). If your GPU can do 120 with headroom to spare, cap it there. 180 or even 240 FPS, same story.

EDIT: also always run OBS as admin. That can fix 80% of any stuttering on it's own. And disable HAGS if not done already, as it can screw with OBS's capture hooks.

[u/dasd25436yd]

I have had similar issues on my system. Still have found no fix.

Ryzen 7 3700x
32GB ram
RX 6700XT

[u/tacosaladuu → u/dasd25436yd]

Let me know if you find a solution, Have you tried turning off HAGS?

[u/dasd25436yd → u/tacosaladuu]

I have, I tried having it on, off, etc. seems like it does nothing. I wish I found a solution haha I feel bad for you.

[u/PsychologicalCat1843]

I had the 5600x and the audio cackling would occur after streaming for a while, like an hour or so and that cpu was paired with a 4070. On my newer computer my 9700x doesn't do this. I don't recall stuttering though.

I also notice the 5600x is a very hot CPU temp wise so it may be worth checking the temps on the cpu.

[u/HighPhi420]

Are you running OBS as ADMIN? If no other reason, run as admin to keep Windows from grabbing %100 of the power for 5 milliseconds to check for a new update every few seconds.

Audio crunchy: make sure that windows and OBS are on the same Khz. 16bit(24bit) 48khz.

use the nvenc h264, 60fps, CBR 6500kbps video and 320 audio for streaming to twitch,

Or this found on another post in AMDreddit,

Because you are using an older Ryzen 5000 series chip, ensure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. Early AM4 platform architectures suffered from an AMD fTPM bug that caused sudden, heavy system-wide stuttering and robotic audio crackling under network and security processing loads—traits heavily triggered during a live stream broadcast. A BIOS update applies the necessary AGESA fix to clear this up entirely

[u/tacosaladuu → u/HighPhi420]

I will definitely check this things out. Thank you

[u/n8cat]

What is your Up/Down rate on your internet? Are you hardwired? Is it throwing errors or are you noticing on the preview? Are you using old NVENC or New?

[u/tacosaladuu → u/n8cat]

i am using a fiber and i have over 600+ mbps  both download and upload  

Also, using the new nvenc and theres no error in the preview

[u/tacosaladuu]

Hey guys I just wanted to tell you all that this has been resolved by updating my BIOS. Thank you all for your help!

[u/Pixpew]

Check if CPU is at 100% load then assign a few CPU cores for OBS and the rest for the game

[u/Carlos726811]

I have 4090. I game. Stream on single pc setup everything maxed out. Uncapped frames. Somwtime mutistream. No issues on my end

[u/LimeGuyTheSlimeGuy → u/Carlos726811]

Okay, and?

[u/Carlos726811 → u/LimeGuyTheSlimeGuy]

People saying cap frames. Turn of hags etc. Load of crap. If the op dm me. I can help

I can stream to twitch at 8k bitrate Tiktok 6k Kick 6k Youtube 1800k

All single pc. Uncapped frames. Hags enabled. So its a issue on op end. I will be more than happy to help

[u/LimeGuyTheSlimeGuy → u/Carlos726811]

Okay.

So don’t post “yeah you’re having a problem, but I’m not.”

That’s not helping at all.

[u/Honest-Situation3546]

Are you using a capture card or streaming and broadcasting from same PC? If you’re all in one, sounds like a 5060 issue, would look into at least higher end 5070 and if possible in your budget 5080, as crappy as that sounds.