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How to stop dropped frames in OBS?

Several users of the OBS streaming and recording service have recently complained about dropped frames affecting their work. Dropped frames are usually the root cause of playback issues when streaming and recording. Excess dropped frames may even lead to disconnection from the streaming service.

In this guide, the most common solutions to dropped frames are examined one by one. You don’t even need to try them all out. Just work your way down the list, and chances are you’ll solve your problem before you even get halfway through.

What Do Dropped Frames Mean?

Dropped frames occur when your connection to the server becomes unstable. You can no longer keep up with the set bitrate. When this happens, the encoder will drop some of the frames in use to compensate for the unstable network or lowered bitrate. This is because the deterioration in network speed means that the network can no longer support the session at the current settings.

Dropped frames seldom have anything to do with the encoder or streaming service itself. Rather, they usually come about due to a network connection issue. When the frames keep getting dropped, the net result is either constant stream lags or disconnection from the streaming service. Either outcome is, of course, unacceptable to the user who paid their hard-earned cash to enjoy good services from the ISP and streaming platform alike.

When the stream frames are dropped, you’re going to know about it before too long. Your listeners/viewers will bombard you with complaints that the live stream is stuttering. In OBS, you can also check the stream status at the bottom of the OBS window. If your frames are dropped, the status display will tell you about it.

How to Fix Dropped Frames in OBS

  1. Check Your Hardware

How to fix dropped frames in Open Broadcaster Software? The first step is to rule out hardware malfunction. Only when you’ve checked that your hardware works fine should you troubleshoot the software side of things.

Is your router working properly? If it isn’t, you might be stuck with a slow connection. Test the connection on another device. You can also try connecting the router directly to your computer.

What about the USB or Ethernet cable? If you’re on a wired connection, check the cable for damage or fraying. Replace the cable if another one is available and test the performance.

If your hardware passes the test with flying colours, you should next take a look at your network driver.

  1. Update Your Network Driver

In some cases, dropped frames in OBS are caused by an old network driver. In general, an older driver is less capable of perfectly handling streaming at high resolutions.

You can do worse than update your network card driver if it’s obsolete. You will get new features and also a driver that better supports modern streaming technology.

There is no one correct way to check whether your driver is out of date. The best idea is to try updating it.

There are three safe methods of updating your network driver:

Manually

This method requires you to know the version of your current driver. With this information, proceed to the support or download page of your network card, computer or motherboard manufacturer and download the latest version of the driver for your network card. Make sure you’re downloading a driver that is compatible with your Windows architecture.

Using Device Manager

You can also update your driver via your operating system’s

inbuilt device hub. This method is very safe because Device Manager will only download official drivers that have been vetted by Microsoft.

Here’s how to update your network device driver with Device Manager:

  1. Right-click the Start menu icon and select Device Manager.
  2. Expand “Network devices”.
  3. Right-click your network card and select Update Driver.
  4. Select “Search automatically for drivers” on the next screen.

Wait a few seconds as Windows searches for the most recent official driver. If one is found, the system will install it automatically.

Automatically

If you’re in a hurry or lack the computer knowledge needed for a manual driver update, you can use a verified third-party tool to automatically install updates for your hardware drivers.

Auslogics Driver Updater will scan your system’s hardware components and identify all the drivers on your device. It will find the correct, latest manufacturer-released versions of the drivers you need. You just need to click a button, and the tool will download and install the drivers seamlessly.

This is how to use Auslogics Driver Updater to update your network adapter driver:

  1. Download Auslogics Driver Updater.
  2. Install the program and launch it.
  3. Click the Scan button so that the tool can check your system and detect missing and problematic drivers.
  4. When the result of the scan is displayed, click the Update button beside the network card to install the latest version of its driver. Note that this button will only appear if there is a newer version of the driver.
  5. You can also click the Update All button to immediately download and install the most up-to-date versions of all missing and obsolete drivers on the machine.

After updating your network adapter driver, restart the system and launch OBS. Any issue related to your network card driver will be resolved.

  1. Disable Your Firewall or Antivirus Tool

Your firewall or antivirus software might contribute to frames getting dropped in OBS on Windows 10.

Your firewall, in particular, might be blocking or interfering with inbound or outbound connections. You can disable it to check things.

The method to do this varies according to the software you installed. You can find out from the developer’s website or consult an in-app guide.

If you’re using Windows Defender Firewall, here’s how to turn it off temporarily:

  1. Type “firewall” into Search and click “Windows Defender Firewall” in the search results.
  2. When the Windows Defender Firewall page opens, click “Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off” in the left selection pane.
  3. Tick “Turn off Windows Defender Firewall (not recommended)” under “Domain network settings”.
  4. Click “Turn off Windows Defender Firewall (not recommended)” under “Public network settings”.
  5. Tick “Turn off Windows Defender Firewall (not recommended)” under “Private network settings”.

Windows Defender Firewall is now disabled on the machine. Close the window and restart OBS. Check whether the connection is now smooth and without frame drops.

If this method has solved the problem, you need to add an exception for OBS in your firewall. You must add both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of OBS — obs32.exe/obs64.exe — as an exception.

Here’s how to add an exception to Windows Defender Firewall:

  1. Type “firewall” into Search and click “Windows Defender Firewall” in the search results.
  2. When the Windows Defender Firewall page opens, click “Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall” in the left selection pane.
  3. In the “Allowed Apps” window, click the Change Settings button and grant permission if prompted.
  4. Click the Browse button and navigate to the OBS installation folder.
  5. Select obs64.exe and click Add.
  6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5. This time, select obs32.exe and click Add.
  7. Tick the Public and Private checkboxes for the two files and click OK.

Restart the system and try streaming on OBS again.

If it isn’t the firewall, it might be the antivirus tool. Like before, the best way to check is to disable it and compare how OBS performed before and after. If your antivirus is at fault, you may need to update or replace it.

Auslogics Anti-Malware is a versatile security utility that works in conjunction with your primary protection software to safeguard your PC against attacks of all kinds. It is lightweight and non-intrusive. Simply enable it and continue your work, safe in the knowledge that Anti-Malware won’t yield false positives or block legitimate programs.

  1. Use a Wired Connection

OBS Studio and other streaming services recommend using a wired connection. This is because a wireless network is relatively unstable when compared with a wired network.

The signal strength of a wireless connection fluctuates more wildly than that of a wired connection does. In fact, Wi-Fi is often unreliable for streaming and other activities that require plenty of bandwidth.

Another factor is that multiple devices could be automatically connected to a wireless router, meaning that your OBS connection is competing for bandwidth with other devices.

Connect your router or modem directly to your PC using a USB or Ethernet cable and you should notice a significant difference in streaming quality. You might be surprised that this can immediately solve the problem of dropped frames. If this happens to be the case, then your Wi-Fi likely has issues.

  1. Reduce the Stream Bitrate

Bitrate measures the speed of data transfer from one place to another. It’s literally the rate of transferring bits, a unit of data. The more bits are transferred per second, the better the quality of the stream.

If you’ve chosen a high bitrate, you need to use an excellent internet connection. An unstable network won’t be able to handle a high transfer rate.

Unfortunately, no network can be stable forever. Whatever network you’re using will likely fluctuate from day to day and even hour to hour. If you happen to be streaming at a bad time for the network and the frames are dropped, you might have no other choice than to lower the bitrate, at least temporarily.

By turning down the bitrate level, you set a rate that the network can handle. What you lose in quality this way, you gain in stability.

Here are the steps to lower bitrate in OBS:

  1. Launch the OBS Studio app.
  2. Click the File tab on the top left and then select Settings.
  3. Choose the Output tab in the tab selection pane.
  4. You will see the Video Bitrate option on the right with the current bitrate value. Lower the bitrate and then click OK to save your change.

You can change the bitrate to 90%, 80%, etc. of its current value until you achieve a level the network can handle.

On OBS Studio 24 and later, you can use Dynamic Bitrate to automatically adjust your bitrate according to the network conditions. Instead of the application dropping frames to compensate for the unstable network, Dynamic Bitrate automatically lowers the bitrate, helping you to avoid stuttering.

When the network situation improves, the feature automatically increases the bitrate to the previous level.

You have to enable this feature to make it active. Make sure you’re using OBS Studio version 24 or later as the feature isn’t present in earlier versions of the software.

Here’s how to turn on the feature:

  1. Launch the OBS Studio app.
  2. Click the File tab on the top left and then select Settings.
  3. Choose the Advanced tab in the tab selection pane.
  4. Under Network on the right, tick the option “Change bitrate to manage congestion”.

With this setting enabled, your bitrate will automatically match the network level. If this method works, you won’t have to manually change anything anymore; just focus on your recording.

  1. Try a Different Server

Most streaming platforms have multiple servers from which you can choose one to stream to, and OBS Studio is no different. Usually, the service either chooses a default server or recommends one for you. This is almost always the server that is geographically closest to you and therefore has the best ping.

There are times when the problem lies with your current server and not really the network connection. If the server you’re on encounters a problem, there’s not much you can do about it even on a super-fast internet connection.

You can check whether your server has anything to do with the frames getting dropped by switching to another server. If your server is having an off day, another one close to you will likely offer a better connection.

Don’t just stop at trying one or two servers before you throw in the towel. Test different servers until you find one that suits your needs. In general, avoid overloaded servers and choose those that are relatively free and with a server quality score of at least 80.

Here is how to test other servers in OBS Studio:

  1. Launch the OBS Studio app.
  2. Click the File tab on the top left and then select Settings.
  3. Select the Stream tab in the tab selection pane.
  4. Expand the Service box and choose the service you’d like to use.
  5. Click the Connect Account button.
  6. Enter your credentials to log into the chosen service.
  7. Expand the Server drop-down and select any server you want. It is better to choose a server that is within your region.

Keep testing out the servers until you choose one that you can stream smoothly with.

  1. Test the Connection with Another Streaming Service

It is possible that the issue lies not with your network or OBS but with your current streaming service. You can switch to another streaming service to test this theory out.

If you’re getting dropped frames with YouTube.com, you can try Twitch.tv, for example.

If frames don’t drop on the other service, the problem might be with the service you’re using. Perhaps their servers are down or something. If the same issues show up on the test service, then it’s more likely to be a general connection issue.

  1. Lower the Streaming Resolution

You must have heard of the saying “the more the merrier.” Well, this doesn’t always apply when it comes to the streaming world. Sometimes, the higher the stream resolution is, the messier the streaming becomes. It all depends on the capabilities of not just your network connection but your hardware as well.

If you set your stream resolution to a high value, your CPU is going to be doing a lot of work. Sometimes, too much work – if it’s just an average PC whose specs are nothing to write home about.

In that situation, try reducing the resolution a bit. This will lessen the work the CPU does and can also help to decrease the rate of frame drops.

However, if you’re using one of the high-end graphics cards from Nvidia or AMD, you can use hardware acceleration to transfer the work to the GPU. Certainly, the dedicated graphics card will be able to handle it comfortably.

To enable hardware encoding in OBS Studio if you run an Nvidia graphics card, follow the steps here:

  1. Launch the OBS Studio app.
  2. Click the File tab on the top left and then select Settings.
  3. Choose the Output tab in the tab selection pane.
  4. Click the Encoder drop-down in the right pane and select NVENC H.264.
  5. Click OK to save the change and exit the OBS Studio Settings page.

Doing this should improve the streaming situation. If the frame rate issue persists, try another solution.

  1. Manage Network Usage

If you’re doing a serious online activity, like streaming via OBS, you will naturally want all the bandwidth the system obtains to be directed to that purpose. However, you might have other open programs that are using the network and eating into your bandwidth. The more programs are using your network resources, the less bandwidth there is available for your streaming session.

Apart from open programs, there might be apps that are running in the background and using your bandwidth as well. If this goes on for too long, OBS might start to lag and you may experience frame drops.

The way out of this situation is to never be in it in the first place. Before you launch OBS, make sure that you’ve closed all the programs that like to guzzle your subscription data like water.

It won’t do to merely close open browsers and programs. You should open the Task Manager and end all the culprits from there.

Right-click any unoccupied space on your taskbar and select Task Manager. Note the apps and programs (and services) that hog bandwidth and close them one at a time. Right-click an offending program and select End Task. Rinse and repeat.

Restart OBS if you can and you should notice some improvement immediately.

Hopefully, our guide has been helpful in fixing dropped frames in OBS. If there are any questions or concerns you would like to share with us, please use the comments section below.