1. Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obs Pro
2. Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obs File
3. Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obsolete

OBS is an amazing, free tool for live streaming on Twitch, Mixer and YouTube, etc! It’s also great for recording computer footage for all kinds of content. But, let’s face it, the Output and Video settings in OBS are mysterious and confusing. How do we find the Best Partner OBS Settings? This article will attempt to demystify OBS settings for Partnered Twitch streamers.

1. The best OBS video bitrate settings depend on your upload speed. By default, the bitrate is set to 2500 which falls somewhere near the middle of the scale. Choosing a video bitrate for your live stream depends on what you want to achieve. If you want a pixel-perfect video production, then try to push your video bitrate to the maximum.
2. The best quality wise would be Full D1 resolution with a CBR (Constant BitRate) of 8000kbps for the video. This would allow for approximately 60 minutes per DVD recordable. If you use Half D1 resolution the BEST bitrate would be a CBR (Constant BitRate) of 5000kbps for the video. This would allow for almost 120 minutes per DVD recordable.
3. Bitrate is highly dependent on your internet connection speed and how well your streaming computer can encode video. Choosing the right encoder is a whole other guide ( which you can read here ), but for now, let’s focus on what bitrate you use to stream.

OUTPUT and VIDEO in OBS settings is the focus of this article. Everyone’s setup is different, so learning what these settings do and how to configure them will yield the best results, hopefully.

This article is for Partnered Twitch streamers. However, Twitch affiliates might find the companion article for new / affiliate streamers more suited for their needs. We’re assuming a SINGLE PC setup using an Nvidia video card. I will add Dual-PC OBS settings articles in the future.

Let’s get started on the Best Partner OBS Settings!

CBR or constant bitrate is the most widely used and accepted method. Generally speaking CBR also provides the highest visual fidelity, as it will aim to maintain a consistent specified bitrate. However, the downside to this is that it will require higher bandwidth. If you have limited upload bandwidth, then VBR or variable bitrate is a good choice. I am trying to record gaming videos in 1440p and 120fps but I don’t know which bitrate is the best in both storage and video quality, does anyone know what settings I could use? What is a good range for my purposes? I am on CBR right now for the video settings. Specs (Laptop): GTX 1070. 16gb 2400mhz ram.

Output

Encoder

Encoder is the encoding engine used to render and encode video to be output a stream. There are two, primary types of encoder available to most streamers in OBS. GPU and CPU. For the sake of information – x264 uses the CPU to render and encode video and NVENC H.264 uses the GPU to encode video. Generally, This article will concentrate on GPU encoding – Nvidia NVENC H.264(new).
Note: “Enforce streaming service encoder settings” set to CHECKED is important to avoid sending errors to the Twitch ingest servers.

Rate Control

Rate control determines the type of bitrate a stream well send to Twitch. CBR = Constant Bit Rate and VBR = Variable Bit Rate. For recording video, VBR works best as it uses more power to adjust the bit rate for higher quality. However, for live streaming, this variability can cause stutters and buffering. So, for live streaming CBR usually yields the best results.

Bitrate

Bitrate is the bandwidth OBS will use to send data to the Twitch ingest servers. Twitch has a cap of 6000 kbps for bitrate. Setting bitrate to the max at 6000 kbps is optimum if Internet upload speed can handle it. In general, bitrate should never be set higher than 80% of total upload speed. This means a total upload of 7500 kbps is needed to stream at 6000 kbps.
Note: Review this article for help in determining what your Internet’s upload speed is capable of handling.

Keyframe Interval

Twitch requires a Keyframe Interval of 2 seconds. That makes this one easy!

Preset

Preset sets the quality / performance ratio for the encoder. By default, try using the setting Quality for a good balance between a good looking stream that performs well. If you using a beefier gaming / streaming rig, Max Quality looks quite a bit better but at a cost of a heavier load on GPU. Try both and see which one works best for your rig’s capabilities.

Profile

The Profile setting determines how much CPU is used. In general, this is a good thing. Most streamers can leave this set to HIGH and be fine.

Look-ahead

The new NVENC encoder have a “smart” B-frame look-ahead feature. It doesn’t work as well as setting the Max B-Frames manually. Usually, I recommend leaving this ‘unchecked‘.

Psycho Visual Tuning

From the Nvida website: “This enables the Rate Distortion Optimization in the encoder, which greatly optimizes the way you use bitrate, improving image quality on movement. ” This is accurate, in my experience. Leave
Psycho Visual Tuning ‘checked’ to improve visual quality.

GPU

The GPU setting determines which GPU should be used for encoding. In most cases, leaving this set to 0 (zero) should be fine.

Max B-frames

If the LOOK-AHEAD option from above is ‘unchecked’, this is the option to manually set look-ahead frames. The more look-ahead frames the encoder has to sample, the better chance of a high quality frame being picked to render and encode – but at a cost of increased load on the GPU. Setting this to 4 Max B-frames gives a consistent quality result with minimal added performance hit.

Video

Base (Canvas) Resolution

Set the Base Resolution to 1920×1080 even if the game or content is a higher resolution. This sets a standard, more-readable ratio for overlays to in-game graphics.

Output (Scaled) Resolution

Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obs Pro

If bitrate can handle 6000 kbps, streaming at 1080p is possible. However, 1920×1080 at 60 fps requires 8000 kbps bitrate to avoid excessive artifacts and pixeling when there is a lot of movement or activity on screen. So, here’s a great secret: Setting the stream to 1600×1200 helps reduce this, right? Sort of! Encoding in OBS relies on older encoding rules which have the best results when the resolution is divisible by 8. In my experience, setting the stream to 1536×864 gives a close to 1920×1080 experience (while still divisible by 8) but with clear visuals even with fast movement and many effects in a game. Try it!

Downscale Filter

Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obs File

Set the downscale filter to ‘Lanczos’. In my experience, this gives the sharpest, cleanest picture when scaling the output to stream.

Common FPS Values

Utilizing the 1536×864 resolution trick mentioned above makes streaming at 60 fps a real possibility without sacrificing much visual quality. Super clear visual quality with buttery frame-rates. Success!

Happy Streaming!

Best Bitrate For A Laptop Obsolete

Will these be the Best Partner OBS Settings? With some fine tuning and trial-and-error, you’ll be getting compliments on stream quality in no time!