Hello. I've been using Bandicam for a while and noticed the only way to get smooth recordings is to limit my in game FPS (Skyrim) to a stable number. I want to report why many of us are experiencing choppy recordings, because I believe I found the answer. It's actually very simple, but it took deep looking to find it!
***********Bug Report #1***********
Basically, Bandicam doesn't seem to record the frames consistently while the video card (GPU) is overworked. If I limit the FPS on my game, the GPU has more power available, and Bandicam records perfectly smoothly!
Example: (Bandicam set to record at 30fps, default preset)
Game: 46 fps (Unlimited) ~ 100% GPU usage - Choppy recording!
Game: 30 fps (Limited) ~ 70% GPU usage - Smooth recording!
Video demonstration: http://youtu.be/NGvx2I661ts
Bandicam vs Fraps vs OBS @ 100% GPU: http://youtu.be/9firhOJFH8E
More notes:
(Defining "smooth" and "choppy")
- Smooth: recorded video looks exact same as what you saw while recording.
- Choppy: recorded video misses/drops frames and stutters.
- You can use a tool like Process Explorer to check your GPU usage.
- To limit FPS properly, play game as normal and take note of the lowest average FPS your game plays at, and set your FPS limiter to or below that number.
- If the processor (CPU) is overloaded, Bandicam records smoothly still. It's only if the GPU is overloaded.
- Recently I noticed I can pick 60 fps and it will record smoothly, but then the game slows down. Odd...
- When your mouse lags, that's a sign of GPU overload. Limit FPS or decrease game resolution/detail
***********Bug Report #2***********
...Bandicam has a built in FPS limiting feature, but it doesn't function very well in my experience; the speed of the game fluctuates too much at random. By this, I mean sometimes Bandicam limiter will slow the game down to a slow FPS for a quick moment, when it wouldn't be that slow normally! This happens when both recording and not recording with FPS limiter on. Until this is fixed, I like to use Dxtory or Rivatuner Statistics Server to limit the FPS because they don't do that.
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My computer specs:
- AMD Phenom II x4 N950 2.1ghz
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, 1gb
- 4 GB RAM
- Windows 7 64 bit
- Bandicam 1.9.3.492
- I mainly play Skyrim