OBS settings for a low-end PC: how to record and stream without losing FPS

On a low-end PC, OBS runs best when you cap the game’s frame rate, use your hardware encoder and only then, if you still need to, drop to 720p or 30 FPS. For streaming on Twitch with a tight setup, its broadcasting guidelines list 4500 kbps for 720p60 and 3000 kbps for 720p30, with constant bitrate (CBR) and a keyframe every 2 seconds.

You launch the game: 60 FPS. You open OBS: 48. You hit record and the video stutters. Your PC is doing two jobs at once, running the game and recording or streaming it, and when it’s tight you have to make room for both.

Quick Twitch settings for a tight PC

If your PC is struggling, I’d try one of these two first, using Twitch’s numbers:

Resolution	FPS	Bitrate
1280×720	30	3000 kbps
1280×720	60	4500 kbps

Use CBR and a 2-second keyframe. If your PC can handle 1080p, move up later. Get a stable stream first.

Let OBS run a first pass

Open Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard. According to the OBS quick start guide, the wizard tunes OBS to your hardware and to what you plan to do, recording or streaming. Run it, then test the actual game, away from the menus: somewhere with traffic, grass, water, particles or crowds. That’s where problems show up.

Find what’s maxing out

Open OBS’s stats before you change anything. There are three common failures, and each one has its own fix.

The GPU is maxed out

The GPU is your graphics card. It draws the game and also helps OBS put the final picture together. If the game takes 99%, OBS gets the leftovers.

The encoder can’t keep up

The encoder turns game frames into a video file or into the signal Twitch receives. If it gets more work than it can handle, OBS starts dropping frames.

Your connection can’t hold it

Here the PC can be running perfectly and the problem is your internet. If you try to push more data than your connection can sustain, the stream cuts out. Lowering the bitrate is the first test.

Figure out which of the three shows up before you change twenty things.

If the GPU is at 99%, cap the game’s frame rate

Your monitor runs at 60 Hz and the game is rendering 110 FPS. Your graphics card is working flat out to produce 50 frames a second your screen never shows, and OBS wants to use that card too. Cap the game at 60 FPS and the GPU stops making frames nobody sees. The headroom left over goes to OBS.

The OBS performance guide recommends exactly that: cap the game to your monitor’s refresh rate and, if it still struggles, to the frame rate OBS records at. A lot of the time, that fixes it.

If it’s still bad, lower some graphics settings

Start with the heavy ones: shadows, reflections, ray tracing, draw distance and effects. Lower one, test and check the stats. Then decide whether you need to touch another. That way you know what was causing the problem.

Use your hardware encoder if your PC has one

Under Settings > Output > Encoder you may see NVIDIA NVENC, AMD or Intel Quick Sync. According to OBS’s hardware encoding page, these encoders move the encoding work to a dedicated part of the GPU and take that load off the CPU with minimal performance impact. On a tight PC, the difference usually shows.

x264 does the same job on the CPU. Picture your CPU running the game, Discord, a browser and OBS, and now add video compression on top. It can hit 100%, and that’s when OBS shows the “Encoding overloaded” warning. If you have a hardware encoder available, try it before you lower anything else.

720p or 1080p

A 1080p frame has 2,073,600 pixels. A 720p frame has 921,600, less than half. OBS has to move those pixels 30 or 60 times every second, and the OBS performance guide confirms that lowering the resolution cuts the GPU resources it needs.

I’d try 1080p first. If it drops frames, 720p. Someone calling your PC “low-end” isn’t a reason to drop by itself: test your own game.

60 FPS or 30 FPS

At 30 FPS, OBS prepares half as many frames as at 60, which frees up a good chunk of performance. The same OBS guide suggests it if 60 isn’t working for you. For shooters, racing and fast games, I’d try to keep 60. If the PC can’t get there, 30. A steady video goes down better than one that breaks up every few seconds.

Twitch bitrate

The reference numbers from Twitch:

Output	Bitrate
720p30	3000 kbps
720p60	4500 kbps
1080p30	4500 kbps
1080p60	6000 kbps

Twitch asks for CBR and a 2-second keyframe. If 1080p60 gives you trouble and 720p60 runs clean, stay at 720p60. The same 4500 kbps covers either 720p60 or 1080p30, so the choice depends on your game: fast motion likes 60 FPS. The table gets you started and the test decides.

If you’re recording, use constant quality

A recording goes to your drive and never has to travel over the internet. OBS can use constant-quality rate control, CQP, CRF or ICQ depending on the encoder. The lower the number, the higher the quality and the bigger the file; the higher the number, the lower the quality and the smaller the file. My starting point is 18: record a minute, watch it and, if it looks good, leave it. The rest of the recording settings are in the best OBS settings for gaming.

Strip your scene down

Your scene might have the game, a webcam, chat, alerts, frames, videos, text and filters. Everything costs something. If OBS is struggling, build a minimal scene with just the game and your mic and test it. If it works, add the webcam and test again. Then the alerts. That’s how you find the element that breaks performance.

Browser sources deserve their own look. Chat boxes, alerts, widgets and overlays run like small web pages inside OBS: one costs little, five or six start to add up. The OBS performance guide flags both browser sources and filters, since every filter needs resources to compute its effect. If you have elements that barely show up on stream, remove them for a test.

If you play on console, the PC only records

With a capture card, the game runs on your PS5 or Xbox and your graphics card stops drawing it. The PC is left with OBS’s job: taking in the signal, building the scene and encoding. The Elgato Game Capture Neo, for example, captures at 1080p60 and passes the picture through to your TV at up to 2160p60. If your PC can’t run a demanding game and OBS at the same time, this is one way out. The options are in our GTA 6 capture card guide.

What to change if you’re still losing FPS

I’d go in this order:

1. Cap the game’s frame rate.
2. Lower one or two heavy graphics settings.
3. Switch to your hardware encoder.
4. Remove sources and filters you don’t need.
5. Drop from 1080p to 720p.
6. Drop from 60 to 30 FPS.

Change one thing at a time. If you change six at once and it gets fixed, you still don’t know what was wrong.

Two common cases

GPU at 99%. The game runs at 1080p with high settings and an uncapped frame rate, OBS records at 1080p60 and the recording drops frames. You cap the game at 60 FPS, GPU usage falls and OBS has room again.

CPU at 100%. The game, Discord and a browser are open, and OBS is encoding with x264. The “Encoding overloaded” warning appears. You switch to NVENC, AMD or Quick Sync if your PC has one, the CPU hands off most of the video work and you test again.

If it only holds 720p30

Use 720p30. It’s perfectly watchable for following a game. When you change games, PCs or graphics cards, test again, because what your setup can handle changes with them.

My starting point for a tight PC

For Twitch: 1280×720, 60 FPS if it holds (4500 kbps) or 30 FPS if you need headroom (3000 kbps), CBR, a 2-second keyframe, hardware encoder and the game’s frame rate capped. For recording: hardware encoder, constant quality, and 1080p at 60 FPS if it holds.

Then test. If something breaks, lower one thing and test again. If the stream looks fine but your face doesn’t, the fix lives outside OBS: streaming lights and streaming webcams.

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Primary sources: Twitch, Broadcasting Guidelines; OBS Project, Quick Start Guide, Hardware Encoding and Encoding Performance Troubleshooting; Elgato, Game Capture Neo technical specifications.

The order of fixes and the CQP 18 recording value are my personal starting point. The bitrates are Twitch’s official numbers. The pixel counts are our own math: 1920 × 1080 and 1280 × 720.

Last checked: October 1, 2026.