OBS Settings Explained: Bitrate, Encoder, and the Presets Worth Using
OBS has two hundred settings and about six that matter. Here's what bitrate, encoder choice, and keyframe interval actually do to your stream.
OBS ships with sensible defaults wrapped in intimidating panels. Most sliders you can safely ignore — but the handful that matter cause 90% of “why does my stream look bad” problems. Here’s what each one actually does.
Bitrate: The Only Number That Matters
Bitrate is how much data per second you send to the platform. Too low and fast motion smears into blocks; too high and your connection drops frames. Neither is fixable in post — it happens live or not at all.
Working values for 1080p60:
- Stable wired connection: 6,000–8,000 kbps
- Good Wi-Fi: 4,500–6,000 kbps (leave headroom)
- Shaky or shared connection: 3,500 kbps and drop to 720p — a smooth 720p stream beats a stuttering 1080p one
The platform’s maximum matters too. Some services transcode everything; others pass your feed through untouched. Check the cap for wherever you stream — exceeding it just burns bandwidth.
Encoder: Hardware Wins
| Encoder | Where | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| NVENC (NVIDIA GPU) | Dedicated graphics card | Use it — near-zero CPU cost, excellent quality |
| Apple VT / Media Engine | Macs with Apple silicon | Use it — efficient and clean |
| x264 (CPU) | Any | High quality but steals CPU from everything else |
Hardware encoders exist precisely so your CPU doesn’t have to compress video while also running everything else. If your machine has one, use it. x264’s “better quality per bit” only matters at bitrates below streaming reality.
The Settings That Bite People
Keyframe interval: 2 seconds. Platforms expect this. Longer intervals make streams take forever to start and recover badly from packet loss.
Rate control: CBR for streaming. Constant bitrate is what platforms expect for live ingest. Save CRF/VBR for local recording.
Output resolution vs. canvas. Streaming at 1080p on a 1440p canvas forces scaling; match them or stream at the canvas’s native resolution.
Audio bitrate: 160 kbps AAC. Anything lower sounds thin; anything higher wastes bits nobody hears.
If your stream looks blocky only during fast motion, that’s bitrate starvation — not a bad encoder. Raise bitrate or lower resolution; the setting can’t do both.
Profile vs. Preset
Encoder presets (Quality, Performance, Max Quality) trade encoding effort against speed. For streaming, the balanced/default preset is right — slower presets cost real CPU or GPU headroom for quality gains viewers won’t notice through platform re-compression anyway.
More config walkthroughs, including per-platform bitrate caps, live at Nungpo Cam Notes.