5 Simple Ways to Fix OBS Encoding Overloaded Issue [Solved]

Part 1. Why OBS Encoding Overloaded

Encoding refers to a process in which your computer converts some information to fit specific purposes. You should know that, encoding video demands a lot of CPU usage. When you get the OBS encoding overloaded message, it probably indicates encoder overload. While live streaming or recording, OBS will convert video to the specific quality of your settings.

If the computer can't support both processing the video/game and encoding the stream at the same time, you will experience high CPU utilization and get the OBS encoding overloaded prompt. In short, OBS encoder overload issue means that your settings are too high for your computer's hardware to handle.

Your computer can't encode video fast enough to maintain the settings you have set. In that case, OBS will prompt "Encoding overloaded!" on its status bar. In other cases, computer will degraded performance of other running programs on your computer.

Part 2. How to Fix OBS Encoding Overloaded Issue

The OBS encoding overloaded issue will cause the video freezing or periodic stuttering. It may also lead to OBS crash or bad performance of other running programs. So it's quite necessary to solve the OBS encoding overloaded problem.

Downscale output resolution to fix OBS encoder overload

You should know that, the output resolution has the biggest impact on CPU usage. When you downscale the resolution, you can easily reduce the CPU usage. So OBS can have enough CPU usage to encode video.

To downscale the output resolution, you can open OBS and go to Settings. Then click Video option and choose the Output (Scaled) Resolution. Here you can easily change how much you want to downscale. If you were encoding 1080p resolution, you can change it to 720p or lower. After that, you can re-start OBS and check if the encoder overloaded issue is fixed.

Change frame rate to fix OBS encoding overloaded

Similar to the resolution, you can also change the streaming frame rate to get rid of the encoding overloaded message. When your CPU can't afford the high usage of the encoding, you can try lowering the frame rate to something below 30 FPS.

Shut down other programs to fix encoding overloaded in OBS

If you are running other large software while the OBS streaming or recording, you should shut down some unnecessary ones to reduce the CPU usage. In that case, you can give more CPU to the encoding and guarantee the performance of OBS.

Upgrade computer hardware to fix OBS encoding overloaded issue

Different hardware and software combinations decide different thresholds for how high you can go. When you see the encoding overloaded message in OBS, you can choose to upgrade your computer hardware to get higher performance of CPU. By doing so, you don't need to downscale resolution or lower the frame rate. You can remain the high-quality live streaming or recording.

Get OBS alternative to fix the encoding overloaded issue

When you still get the OBS encoding overloaded issue randomly, you can turn to the best alternative to OBS, Aiseesoft Screen Recorder for the video and gameplay recording. With the adoption of the latest accelerate technology, it enables you to record high resolution 4K videos with a lower CPU usage.

Part 3. FAQs of OBS Encoding Overloaded

OBS encoder overload? After reading this post, you can know why you get the OBS high encoding warning or encoder overloaded issue. What's more, you can learn 5 simple solutions to solve the encoder overloaded problem. You can leave us a message if you still have any questions.