Massive stuttering in both the stream and preview window

I've been troubleshooting all evening and I'm pretty desperate for help.

I'm experiencing massive stuttering in both the actual stream and preview window. While this problem has been happening more with each update, after this update the problem presents constantly while in game. Stream and preview stop stuttering if I alt-tab out of the game, even though it continues to run as normal and is visible on the stream and preview.

OBS is being run as admin, top priority process, drivers all up to date, issue is identical regardless of using NVENC or x264 encoders.

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
GeForce GTX 1080 TI

• 0% frames missed due to rendering lag
• 0% skipped frames due to encoding lag
• CPU and GPU usage stay below 60% (according to Task Manager)
• RAM stays even lower (20-30%)
• Bitrate is consistent
• Internet up/down is consistent and stable (1GB down/800GB up)

Any ideas as to how I can solve this issue? Streaming is a big part of my bread and butter this time of year, so I'm pretty nervous about not being able to resolve this.

Here's the link to my OBS Log: https://obsproject.com/logs/GfspyXWQODEg4EJ1
Here's the link to the Analysis: https://obsproject.com/tools/analyzer?log_url=https://obsproject.com/logs/GfspyXWQODEg4EJ1

A few things to try, then some questions for further details.

Things to try (together, or independently)

1. Try not running OBS as admin
2. Try a fresh scene collection (Scene Collection -> New) with just a source or two

Questions:

1. Does this issue occur on all scenes, or just specific ones?
2. Do all sources lag, or just the window/game/display capture?
3. Does it happen with all games, or only DX12 games?
4. Does the "Missing Files" dialog show up at startup?
5. Have you tried downgrading your graphics drivers?
6. As you're on Windows 11, have you tried Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling? Instructions below.
* Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Change default graphics settings, set "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" to ON and reboot. If the issue doesn't go away, switch it back OFF and reboot again.
7. If you open a windowed projector of an unrelated source (right click in the Sources list), does the projector itself lag too?
8. You're sure you've seen the issue get worse with OBS updates, not GPU driver updates?

1. Does this issue occur on all scenes, or just specific ones?
- all scenes with game capture and camera capture

2. Do all sources lag, or just the window/game/display capture?
- every source except the game capture lags

3. Does it happen with all games, or only DX12 games?
- I've noticed it in Farthest Frontier and Valheim so far

4. Does the "Missing Files" dialog show up at startup?
- No missing files errors

5. Have you tried downgrading your graphics drivers?
- I haven't as this would interfere with other functions that I need for my PC (graphics work, video editing, etc)

6. As you're on Windows 11, have you tried Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling? Instructions below.
* Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Change default graphics settings, set "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" to ON and reboot. If the issue doesn't go away, switch it back OFF and reboot again.
- Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling is on

7. If you open a windowed projector of an unrelated source (right click in the Sources list), does the projector itself lag too?
- I'll give this one a try!

8. You're sure you've seen the issue get worse with OBS updates, not GPU driver updates?
- these have happened concurrently and over time, so I couldn't tell you specifically


New Update: I had been using Snap Cam for the filter effects for several characters I do (I'm a voice actor) and that seemed to help the issue. I know it's resource intensive, but I had been using it for years with no issue before. I've removed it for now and I'm rebuilding scenes to try to use less resources, but I haven't seen any signs that my rig can't handle any of this until the latest OBS update. (Even on my old GPU/CPU it was fine.)

I agree that based on your hardware and what you're doing with it, OBS and your computer should handle it just fine.

I'll think about it some more and probably suggest some more things to try, but for now - you mentioned that Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling is on - try turning it off, it can definitely cause issues similar to what you've described.

Alright, I'll turn it off and see what kind of change there is (if any).

I appreciate your thoughtful suggestions immensely!