There are tons of screen recording and streaming programs out there but OBS Studio is by far one of the most popular and easy to use. However, it does require some setting up and misconfigured settings can cause problems. 

In this article, we’re talking about NVENC errors in OBS Studio, their causes and how you can fix them.

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What causes OBS Nvenc error?

As mentioned before, these errors are often caused by improper screen capture or output settings on OBS. That said, other common reasons include

• Outdated GPU drivers
• Unsupported GPU
• Too many concurrent NVENC sessions

Also read: How to fix the black screen on OBS?

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How to fix OBS Nvenc error?

Try out the following five fixes to resolve your NVENC issues.

Restart your PC

One of the first things you should do is restart your PC to free up any tied GPU resources that might be slowing the process down. Also, if you’re getting error messages indicating that you have too many concurrent sessions running, keep in mind that consumer GPUs can only handle three NVENC sessions at once, meaning a restart is important to free up GPU resources. 

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Update your GPU driver

Using the device manager allows you to keep an eye on all drivers to any peripheral on your PC. Here’s how you can update your Nvidia GPU drivers. 

Step 1: Right-click Start and select Device Manager from the menu.

Step 2: Under Display Adaptors, find your graphics card’s name, right-click on it and click on Update Drivers.

Step 3: Click on Search automatically for drivers. Windows will then automatically look for and download the latest drivers for your particular GPU.

In most cases, this will update your drivers just fine. However, if you’re looking for a fresh start, click Uninstall device and restart your PC to force Windows to install the required drivers. You can then update them later. 

Also read: VLC direct3d11 error: setthumbnailclip failed: 0x800706f4: 4 Fixes

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Switch to QuickSync

Switching to QuickSync is often helpful if you’re getting errors indicating unsupported hardware as it reverts back to software encoding. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open OBS, click on File followed by Settings.

Step 2: Head over to the Output tab and select QuickSync H.264 in the Encoder drop-down. Make sure you’re in the advanced output mode if you’re not seeing the aforementioned settings. 

Save your changes and OBS should work fine now. 

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Lower your resolution

H.264 can support up to 4K resolutions while H.265 supports up to 8K. The problem is that most streaming services don’t support H.265 yet. This means that if you’re using H.264, you need to limit your resolution to 4K or below based on your PC’s hardware. 

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Switch to software encoding

If you can’t resolve the error no matter what, switching to software encoding can fix the problem. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open OBS, click on File followed by Settings.

Step 2: Head over to the Output tab and select QuickSync H.264 in the Encoder drop-down. Make sure you’re in the advanced output mode if you’re not seeing the aforementioned settings. 

Also read: What is PPS6180?