Weird stream thing I've noticed, less fps when streaming?

[Tim]

Hey guys, maybe you can help me theorycraft and troubleshoot something weird I've noticed.

Plain and simple, whenever I stream, the monitor I'm streaming from gets 1/2 the FPS in games as normal. I have plenty of CPU, plenty of RAM, everything is freed up, and my other monitor FPS is high.

So here is a full out explanation:

Spec:
2x Monitor
ATI 5870
12G RAM
Intel 980X EE (6core/12 cpu threads)
FPS Test Software: Furmark (but the same happens in games too)

Situation:

I stream my right entire monitor when I play, and my left monitor is used for Firefox, soundboards, etc.

Before I stream, I can get 45FPS on both the right and left monitor.
When I start my stream, my right monitor with Furmark running gets 25FPS instead of 45FPS, HOWEVER, if I simply click/drag move the Furmark window to my left monitor, the left monitor gets 45FPS, showing the GPU isn't the issue.

If I close the stream, the right window bounces back to 45FPS, but if I start it up, its back down to 25FPS.

While the stream is running, I'm under 10% CPU, over 10G free ram, etc. It isn't a resource issue, because while the stream is running, my left monitor gets the normal 45FPS but the right one (the one being captured) sits at 25FPS.

These same half performance indicators occur in any game. Eg, in World of Warcraft the right monitor will get 200fps, the left monitor will get 400fps. If I close the stream, the right monitor goes back up to 400fps.

So something is very weird going on here.

Any ideas?

[Lindline]

Maybe VHScrCap is screwing with Furmark?

[Tim]

Furmark is just something I use to judge FPS.

All FPS of all games goes down by nearly half when I start up the stream, so something is weird here.

The weird part is that the FPS only goes down by almost half on the Monitor 2, which is the one I capture for the stream. Monitor 1 stays the same full FPS.

[EaTCarbS]

My guess is that its either FME or VHscrcap.

[rhydun]

I've noticed issues just viewing streams and other flash videos.

I have 2 monitors on my main pc.

23" 1920x1080 (right side, primary monitor)
22" 1680x1050 (left side, secondary monitor)

When I display a flash video (ie: justin.tv) using the fullscreen button on my secondary monitor it will play the video in fullscreen mode but if I go out of fullscreen mode and go back into it then it will remove about 1/5th the width and 1/10th the height just leaving black space to the bottom and right side. The FPS is also cut down when this happens, only way I've figured to fix it is to leave the page and come back and reload it again - or popout a justin.tv channel then close it.

Doesn't happen if I use my primary display, only secondary. Happens with Youtube, JTV, any type of flash that can go into fullscreen mode.

Figure it might be a problem with Windows 7.

[Tim]

Stop hijacking the thread, its all about me!

But really, any ideas to troubleshoot it? It isn't a resource issue, since the cpu/gpu/mem aren't being taxed.

If you have 2 monitors, give it a try yourself. Stream on 1 monitor, then try and load a game (or Furmark) on that, and move between your second monitor and the stream one will be almost half as the other.

[ollee]

Originally Posted by EaTCarbS

My guess is that its either FME or VHscrcap.

WINNAR!!!

Thats it.

[EaTCarbS]

Originally Posted by ollee

WINNAR!!!

Thats it.

I mean really, what do you expect from a free software =P

When I would run a stream, it would max out my system even if I was just sitting on the desktop. Streaming is just one big mess imo. If I was going to get serious into it I would use a capture card.

[Tim]

I did some extensive testing and it appears to be more Adobe FME. The thing is, I'm not CPU, GPU, RAM, or HD limited. So what exactly is causing it to slow down? That really is the key here.