Fraps lags after a few minutes of recording?

[acer0169]

Hi all.

So I've been playing NFS Hot Pursuit recently and wanted to make a few gameplay videos.

When I try to record the game, after anywhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes of recording, fraps starts forcing the game down to 2-3FPS, yet if I stop recording the game instantly returns to 60FPS. I have a more than able computer, with a 720BE X3 @ 3.6GHz, 8GB 800MHz RAM and two GTX 260 (216) in SLI.

What's annoying is that the first few minutes that are recorded are in perfect 540p res at 40FPS (I set it to record at 50%, while playing at 1920x1080). For game normally runs at a constant 60FPS (vertical sync on) with all graphics set to high. When it starts to lag, it's not like a normal lag where you might see it fall to 5-10FPS, but it's at least constant.. it's more like it's freezing. Playing at 40FPS for a split-second before freezing again.

I've monitored my RAM and NFS:HP uses 44% normally, and this goes up to around 50% while recording.. so it's not me running out of RAM.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JDFan]

Are you recording to the same HDD as the game is installed on ?? (Fraps streams the video directly to the HDD with no compression so uses quite a bit of the HDD time up writing to it so if the game is also trying to read files from that same drive there is going to be a lot of stuttering due to the reading and writing to the HDD.

 

[acer0169]

I am trying to record to the same hard drive yes. I have a WD 640GB Black (made for performance) drive, which is my OS and where I'm recording too. I think we can rule that out though as I can record games such as Crysis or GTA4 without issues, but with Hot Pursuit it seems to fail after a few minutes.

I might try recording to my second or third drive, and see if it helps.

Any other ideas?

 

[dEAne]

It also happens in video editing, use your second drive to save your videos (recorded clips).

 

[acer0169]

I will try this later, but if that was the case why would it record perfectly fine for up to 3 minutes before lagging? And why can I record other games for as long as I wish and this one I can't?

 

[acer0169]

Thank you both for your answers! It seems it was caused by recording to my OS drive and not a slave. I've just tested it (only quickly mind) and it does record without issues onto one of my external drives.

I though it might slow recording down, y'know - doing it through USB 2.0.. but no. I'm still recording at 40FPS and without lag :].

Thanks to both of you!

Mods - feel free to close this thread.

 

[acer0169]

For anyone interested.. http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfB14olZFgY&hd=1

 

[Timendo]

Incredible, I don't know why I've never seen this before, this explains so much about why I lag, I was considering buying a Caviar Black just replacing my Green overall, but I think I'll buy a low capacity black and use that as my Fraps Recordings HDD Thank you for this thread

 

[acer0169]

I'm glad this is still helping someone! I've been well happy ever since it was solved. For the record a Caviar Black isn't hugely faster than Green, but it is made for performance and not low energy.

Just record to any internet hard drive that isn't your boot drive and you'll be fine.

I've come to realise it doesn't even matter if I'm recording to the same drive the game is being run on, as long as it's not my boot drive.

 

[JDFan]

I've come to realise it doesn't even matter if I'm recording to the same drive the game is being run on, as long as it's not my boot drive.

That will depend on the game -- ie. if it is a linear game like NFS then that is the case but on a game that loads a lot of info at random from the HDD (ie. Skyrim, Oblivion, etc.) then using the same drive as the game files can cause some stutter (it comes down to the amount of info being streamed and the available throughput for that channel.) But for the most part having the system and swap files etc. on a seperate HDD from the game files helps the game run better and saving the video stream to a third location is ideal but as long as the HDDs are newer and decent performers with a decent size cache the video stream and game files can usually share the same drive without too many problems.

 

[acer0169]

I've recorded Assassins Creed, Skyrim, GTA and a few other sandbox type games without any stutter, all recording on the game drive. If I record them games onto the OS drive, I get huge lag after a few minutes.

 

[Grim Reaper]

I am trying to record MW3 gameplay using fraps, and I am recording the gameplay to a different HDD from the one that has the game installed on it. Also, its not the HDD where my operating system is installed, but still I am experiencing enormous lag and fraps stops recording randomly; sometimes after like 3 minutes, sometime 2 min etc. I don't know why is it so.

 

[acer0169]

Hi Grim,
I assume you're using a reasonably powerful computer and appropriate settings?

A can sometimes get lag when recording at 1080p and 60fps, so instead I record at half-size and 40fps. Also check things like having the latest version of Fraps etc.

Try different drives, external drives.. any different combination and you should find one that runs okay.