My game frames drop the moment I hit record. What do I do?

It's almost always an encoder problem. If the recorder uses its default software encoding (x264, CPU), it fights the game over the CPU and drops your frames. Switch the encoder to "NVIDIA NVENC" (GPU) and the encoding moves to a dedicated GPU chip, often cutting frame loss to single digits. If it's still heavy, drop fps from 60 to 30 and resolution from 1080p to 720p.

My recordings save as a black screen. What's the cause?

It's not performance, it's a screen-capture permission and method problem. The most common cause is the game being in "Exclusive Fullscreen," which monopolizes GPU output, switching the game's display mode to "Borderless" fixes it most of the time. Next, run the recorder as administrator and update your graphics driver.

Can I record games even on a low-spec laptop?

You can. Starting at 1280x720 resolution and 30fps from the get-go gives about a quarter of the encoding load of 1080p / 60fps, so your in-game frame loss is small. Turn on NVENC hardware encoding on top of that and it gets even lighter. Laptops have both integrated and discrete GPUs, which makes black screens common, so assign the recorder to the "High performance (NVIDIA GPU)" so it uses the same GPU as the game.

What exactly is NVENC?

NVENC (NVIDIA Encoder) is a dedicated video-encoding chip built into NVIDIA graphics cards. Unlike x264, which compresses video on the CPU, NVENC has the GPU's dedicated chip handle encoding so it barely shares resources with game rendering. That's why frame loss during recording is small. DOR uses NVENC by default, so it records light with no extra setup.

Sound is recorded but the screen comes out black. How do I fix it?

If the sound is fine, the recorder itself ran fine and it's a signal that only the screen capture path was blocked. It's almost always fixed by two things: (1) changing the game's display mode from fullscreen to "Borderless," and (2) running the recorder as administrator. If that doesn't work, switch from "game capture" to "display (monitor) capture."

Fix Game Recording Lag and Black Screen: Record Drop-Free

Two problems torment people more than anything else in game recording. First, the moment you hit record your frames tank (lag) and your actual gameplay falls apart. Second, the recording clearly went through but when you open the file the screen is pitch black with only sound. Both have fairly clear causes, and working through them in order solves most cases in 5 to 10 minutes. In this guide we'll use heavy games like Valorant, PUBG, and Battlefield 6 as our reference and walk through lag and black screens from cause to fix, step by step.

The big picture first: lag is a question of "does the CPU or the GPU do the encoding," and a black screen is a question of "does the recorder have the right permission and method to capture the game screen." Just separating those two gets you halfway there.

Problem 1: frames drop the moment you hit record (lag)

The moment you start recording, a game that normally runs 144fps collapses to 90 to 100fps and your mouse feels sluggish. This is almost 100% encoding load. Where the work of compressing your screen into a video file (encoding) gets handled determines whether your game frames live or die.

Cause: software encoding (x264) eats your CPU

Many recorders default to "software encoding (x264)." This compresses the video using the CPU, and the problem is that the game uses the CPU too. With the game and encoding fighting over the same CPU, the higher you push quality, the more your game frames drop. Check your CPU usage and it often spikes to 80 to 100% the instant you start recording. In CPU-hungry large-scale battlefields like Battlefield 6, this is especially severe.

Fix: switch to hardware encoding (NVIDIA NVENC)

The key fix is changing the encoder to "NVIDIA NVENC." NVENC uses a dedicated encoding chip built separately into your graphics card (GPU) to compress the video. Because game rendering and encoding then use different resources, the load that was hitting the CPU nearly disappears. On the same PC, the 20 to 30 average frames you lost with x264 often shrink to single digits (say, 3 to 7 frames) after switching to NVENC.

In OBS: go to Settings, Output, switch Output Mode to "Advanced," then under the Recording tab set the encoder to "NVIDIA NVENC H.264" (or HEVC).
If you don't see an NVENC option: update your graphics driver to the latest in GeForce Experience or the NVIDIA app. An outdated driver can cause the NVENC option to not appear at all.
On an AMD graphics card it's "AMD AMF/VCE," and on Intel integrated graphics it's "QuickSync," the hardware encoders that do the same job.
DOR applies NVENC hardware encoding by default, so there's nothing for you to choose.

Set resolution, fps, and bitrate "not too high"

If it still stutters after switching encoders, your settings are too high. Cranking recording quality blindly raises encoding and disk load to match. Real-world sweet spots look like this. For a typical 1080p game, 1920x1080 resolution at 60fps with a bitrate around 20 to 30Mbps is plenty. If your goal is rewatching and saving highlights rather than uploading to YouTube, there's no need to push to 40 to 50Mbps. Cranking bitrate alone barely changes perceived quality while ballooning file size and disk write load, which causes stuttering.

Pro tip: the order for killing lag is almost fixed. (1) Switch the encoder to NVENC, then (2) if it's still heavy, drop fps from 60 to 30, then (3) if still heavy, drop resolution from 1080p to 720p, then (4) bring bitrate inside 20Mbps. Working down one at a time, most people are done at the first step (NVENC).

On a low-spec laptop, start at 720p / 30fps

If you're on a gaming laptop or a PC with a somewhat weaker graphics card, we recommend dropping the ambition from the start and beginning at 1280x720 resolution and 30fps. 720p / 30fps has about a quarter of the encoding load of 1080p / 60fps, so your in-game frame loss is far smaller on the same PC. If the quality feels lacking, bump up to 1080p then. A lot of people start on max settings and end up assuming "recording is just supposed to lag."

Problem 2: the recording saves as a black screen

The recording clearly went through and the duration is normal, but when you open the file the whole screen is pitch black with only sound. The cause here is completely different from lag. It's not a performance issue, it's a permission and method problem where the recorder "couldn't capture" the game screen. Checking in the order below fixes most cases.

First: change Exclusive Fullscreen to "Borderless Windowed"

This is the most common cause of a black screen. When the game's display mode is set to "Exclusive Fullscreen," the game monopolizes the GPU output path and the recorder can't slip into that screen, so the capture comes out black. The fix is simple. In the game's Settings, Graphics (Display), change the display mode to "Borderless Windowed (Borderless / Windowed Fullscreen)." It looks nearly identical to fullscreen, but internally it's windowed mode, so the recorder captures the screen normally. Valorant and PUBG both have this option in their graphics settings.

Second: run the recorder "as administrator"

If the game runs as administrator while the recorder runs with normal rights, the permission mismatch keeps the recorder from accessing the game screen, resulting in a black screen. This is especially common in anti-cheat games like Valorant and PUBG. Try launching the recorder's executable (.exe) by right-clicking and choosing "Run as administrator." If doing that every time is a hassle, you can right-click the executable, go to Properties, Compatibility tab, and check "Run this program as an administrator."

Third: update your graphics driver

If your driver is outdated, the screen capture API may not work properly, causing black screens or flickering. Update to the latest driver in GeForce Experience or the NVIDIA app for NVIDIA, or Adrenalin for AMD. It's a good idea to reboot your PC once after updating. Quite often a driver update alone fixes lag and black screens at the same time.

Fourth: on a laptop, assign the discrete (high-performance) GPU

Gaming laptops have both integrated graphics (Intel/AMD) and discrete graphics (NVIDIA), and if the game runs on the discrete GPU while the recorder gets assigned the integrated GPU, the two end up looking at different screens, producing a black screen. Go to Windows Settings, System, Display, Graphics (graphics settings), add the recorder, and set its option to "High performance (NVIDIA GPU)." The key is making the game and the recorder use the same GPU.

When you get sound but the screen is black

If the audio is fine and only the video is black, almost always the first (fullscreen to borderless) or second (admin rights) item above fixes it. The fact that sound was recorded means the recorder itself ran fine, and it's a signal that only the screen "capture path" was blocked. If your program uses game capture, switching to "display (monitor) capture" is also a quick workaround.

Reduce these problems from the start: DOR

If tuning all this by hand every time is a hassle, using something that lowers the setup burden is also an option. DOR is a free game recorder, and it's designed to structurally reduce both problems covered in this guide. First, NVENC hardware encoding is the default, so you record with little lag from the start without having to switch the encoder to NVENC yourself.

DOR also auto-detects supported games like Valorant, PUBG, and Battlefield 6, records in the background, and automatically clips only key moments like kills, aces, and highlights. The "I forgot to hit record and missed the play" problem and the chore of "scrubbing through long originals to trim them yourself" both disappear. If you suspect a black screen, set the game to borderless windowed and run DOR as administrator just once, and after that there's almost nothing to worry about.

Recap: when you're stuck, follow this order

For lag (frame drops): (1) switch encoder to NVENC, then (2) fps 60 to 30, then (3) resolution 1080p to 720p, then (4) bitrate inside 20Mbps.
For a black screen: (1) fullscreen to borderless windowed, then (2) run as administrator, then (3) update graphics driver, then (4) (laptop) assign the discrete GPU.
If you get sound but only the screen is black: check just (1) and (2) of the black-screen list first.
If tuning every time is a hassle: start with DOR, which uses NVENC by default and auto-clips.

Check the recommended recording settings and auto-clip examples on the page for the game you play most: Valorant, PUBG, Battlefield 6.

How to Fix Game Recording Lag and Black Screens: Record Without Frame Drops (2026)