OBS RECORDING SETTINGS GUIDE

💥 Find Your Perfect Balance Between Quality and File Size 💥

• Lossless (VMAF: 100): The gold standard. If you want flawless, uncompressed footage, this is it. The tradeoff? Massive file size—~240GB/hour. Best for ultra-critical recordings where you need every single pixel preserved.
  
  

• CQP 16-18 (VMAF 93-94): This is the real sweet spot. At CQP 16, you're getting a beautiful 94.3 VMAF with a file size of ~31.7GB/hour. Even at CQP 18, you’re still above 93 VMAF, and file size drops to ~24GB/hour. This range is perfect for high-quality archival footage without going overboard on storage.
  
  

• CQP 19-22 (VMAF 90-92): Still excellent quality, and even more space-friendly. This range gets you VMAF scores between 90-92, and file sizes between 14–21GB/hour. Great for general-purpose recording where you want clean, detailed visuals with a good file size trade-off.
  
  

• CQP 23-28 (VMAF 85-90): Here’s where the quality starts to taper off slightly, but still very usable depending on the project. At CQP 28, you’re sitting at a VMAF of 85.7, with file sizes around 6.8GB/hour. Just know that below 90 VMAF, compression artifacts may start to show—especially in complex scenes.
  
  

• CQP 29 and Beyond (VMAF < 85): Below CQP 28, quality really drops off. You’ll likely start seeing visible artifacts and degradation, especially in motion-heavy footage. I’d only go here if you're really tight on storage and can accept the compromise.

🧪 Bonus Testing: x264 vs. NVENC HEVC – VMAF Efficiency Comparison

I also ran a full test using x264 (CPU encoder) with CRF values, just to see how it stacks up against NVENC HEVC, which I used for all my main tests. Spoiler: If you have an NVIDIA GPU, NVENC HEVC absolutely dominates — especially when it comes to file size per quality level.

Let’s break it down based on VMAF score and show the file size required to hit each level.

🧠 Note: These 1-hour file sizes are theoretical extrapolations based on the sizes recorded during testing. Real-world results will vary depending on content complexity and motion, but the trend remains clear.

💡 As you can see: At every VMAF level, NVENC HEVC achieves the same or better quality at significantly smaller file sizes compared to x264. And that’s on top of being way more efficient in terms of performance — NVENC doesn’t tax your CPU nearly as much.

✅ Final Verdict: If you’re recording with OBS and you’ve got a modern NVIDIA GPU, use NVENC HEVC. You’ll get:

• Smaller files

• Equal (or better) quality

• No hit to your game performance

x264 has its place, but for recording? NVENC is a no-brainer. 🔥🎥

🔍 Where’s the Setting for AMD H.264 and Intel Quick Sync H.264? 🔍

I know a lot of you might be wondering about the settings for AMD H.264 and Intel Quick Sync H.264, but unfortunately, I don’t have an Intel CPU, Intel Arc GPU, or AMD GPU right now. As a small streamer, I’m making the most of what I’ve got, and once I’m able to invest a bit more into my setup, I’ll expand to cover more options. That’s the reality for us small streamers — we have to work with what we’ve got! 💪

If you happen to have an AMD GPU, Intel CPU, or Intel Arc GPU and would be up for collaborating, please reach out to me on Discord! I’ll make sure to credit you for any results we test together. Let’s work and grow as a community! 🚀🎮