Stuttering stream? Viewers saying it's buffering? Here's exactly what's wrong and how to fix it — in the order you should try.
Few things are more frustrating than finally going live and having your stream stutter, freeze, or buffer. The good news: 90% of OBS lag problems come down to a handful of causes, and most of them take under two minutes to fix. Let's go through them in the order most likely to solve your problem.
OBS tells you what's wrong if you know where to look. While streaming, check the bottom-right corner of OBS. If you see "Dropped frames (network)" climbing, your internet is the problem. If OBS warns "Encoding overloaded!", your computer is the problem. These have completely different fixes, so check this first before changing anything.
Go to Settings → Output and check your video bitrate. The golden rule: your bitrate should be no more than 70% of your actual upload speed. Test your real speed at speedtest.net — if you upload at 6 Mbps (6000 Kbps), stream at 4000 Kbps max. For most beginners, 3500–4500 Kbps at 720p is the sweet spot.
This is the single biggest stability upgrade available, and the cable costs a few dollars. Wi-Fi speed bounces around constantly — a wired connection doesn't. If you can't run a cable, at least move closer to your router and get other devices off the network while you stream.
OBS sends your stream to a Twitch server, and sometimes the auto-selected one is having a bad day. In Settings → Stream, change the server from "Auto" to a specific server near your location. Try a couple — the difference can be dramatic.
In Settings → Output, look at "Encoder." If it's set to x264 (software), your CPU is doing all the work while also running your game. If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, switch to NVENC; on AMD, use the AMF/HW encoder; on newer Intel chips, QuickSync. Hardware encoding takes the load off your CPU almost entirely.
Streaming at 1080p sounds nice, but 720p at a smooth frame rate looks far better to viewers than 1080p that stutters. In Settings → Video, set your Output (Scaled) Resolution to 1280x720. This is what most small streamers should be using anyway.
If your game runs uncapped at 300fps, it's fighting OBS for resources. Cap the game at 60 or 120fps in its own settings. Your game will feel identical, and OBS suddenly has room to breathe.
Don't randomly copy "pro streamer settings" from YouTube videos. Their settings are built for their hardware and internet — not yours. A 8000 Kbps bitrate on a connection that can't handle it is exactly how you get dropped frames in the first place.
If you haven't finished setting up OBS yet, start with our first-time OBS setup guide — it walks through the Auto-Configuration Wizard, which prevents most of these problems before they start.
That's the classic sign of a network problem, not a PC problem. Your game runs locally, but your stream depends on upload speed. Lower your bitrate and switch to a wired connection.
3500–4500 Kbps for 720p is right for most beginners. Never set your bitrate higher than about 70% of your tested upload speed.
No — dropped frames are a network issue. A better PC fixes encoding lag. Check which warning OBS is actually giving you before spending money.
Now that your stream is stable, learn how small streamers actually get discovered.
Read the Growth Guide →