Game Mode is enabled automatically by Windows and disabling it is performed differently depending on your version of Windows 10. Game Mode tries to allocate all GPU resources to the current game in focus, starving OBS of the GPU resources it needs to render. The Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703) added Game Mode. On older versions of Windows 10, it is recommended you disable it. This feature used to cause major performance issues with OBS and games.

Settings App > Gaming > Captures> set 'Record in the background while I'm playing a game' to 'Off'.

Settings App > Gaming > Game DVR> set 'Record in the background while I'm playing a game' to 'Off'.

Game DVR can also cause performance issues, it is still recommended to disable Game DVR even if you don't plan on using hardware encoding.ĭepending on your version of Windows 10 the name of this feature changes. Game DVR and Geforce Experience(ShadowPlay) will often consume both of these sessions if enabled, preventing you from recording or streaming(or both simultaneously) when using NVENC. Game DVR can cause conflicts with OBS when using hardware encoding such as NVENC.Ĭonsumer NVIDIA GPUs for example are limited to two(2) encoding sessions.

Settings App > Gaming > Game bar> set 'Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game bar' to 'Off'.

The keyboard shortcut to open Settings is Windows + i. As of March 2019, as long as you're running 1809 or higher and have the latest Windows updates installed, it is now recommended to leave Game Mode enabled.Īll features can be found in the Windows Settings App under Gaming. It is recommended you disable them to ensure OBS performs at its best. Certain Windows 10 gaming features can cause rendering and encoding issues when using OBS.

Windows game bar not recording