Best OBS Settings for Streaming Valorant: Twitch and YouTube (2026)

The best OBS settings for streaming Valorant on most PCs are a GPU hardware encoder (NVIDIA NVENC H.264, AMD HW H.264 or QuickSync H.264) in CBR mode at 6,000 kbps for Twitch, a 1920×1080 or 1664×936 output at 60 FPS, a 2-second keyframe interval and a Game Capture source pointed at the Valorant window, plus a frame cap inside Valorant so the GPU keeps headroom for encoding. On YouTube you can raise the bitrate and switch to AV1 or HEVC if your graphics card supports them.

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Quick settings reference

The YouTube figures come from YouTube’s own live encoder guidance, which lists a 1080p60 range of 6–17 Mbps for H.264 and 4–12 Mbps for AV1 or H.265, and 6–24 Mbps for AV1 or H.265 at 1440p60. For Twitch, OBS applies a 6,000 kbps video ceiling and a 2-second keyframe interval when Twitch is selected as the service, and lists H.264 as the supported codec for a standard Twitch stream.

Step 1: Pick the right encoder for your GPU

Valorant is a CPU-heavy game at high frame rates, so the CPU-based x264 encoder competes directly with the game for processor time. A dedicated hardware encoder on the GPU is the better default for single-PC streaming.

If you use NVENC, keep your driver current. OBS Studio 32.2 moved to NVIDIA’s version 13 SDK, which requires driver 570 or newer; an older driver is a common reason NVENC disappears from the encoder list.

Step 2: Set resolution and bitrate with the math in mind

The quality of a stream depends on how many bits each pixel gets per frame. Dividing bitrate by pixels per second shows why a slightly lower output resolution often looks cleaner on Twitch.

Valorant’s flat, clean art style compresses better than foliage-heavy shooters, so 1080p60 at 6,000 kbps is usually acceptable. If viewers see blocky smearing during fast flicks and utility-heavy fights, drop the output to 1664×936; you gain about a third more data per pixel. Use the Lanczos downscale filter when scaling from a 1440p or 1080p canvas.

Check your upload speed too. A 6,000 kbps video stream plus 160 kbps audio totals about 6.2 Mbps. Keeping the stream at roughly 70% of your stable upload means you want at least 9 Mbps of real upload for Twitch, and around 17–18 Mbps for a 12,000 kbps YouTube stream.

Step 3: Fine-tune the encoder

NVIDIA NVENC

• Rate Control: CBR; Bitrate: 6000; Keyframe Interval: 2 s.
• Preset: P5: Slow (Good Quality). Drop to P4 if OBS reports encoding overload, or try P6 on RTX 40 and 50 cards.
• Tuning: High Quality. Multipass Mode: Two Passes (Quarter Resolution).
• Profile: high. Look-ahead: off. Psycho Visual Tuning: on. Max B-frames: 2.

AMD and Intel

• AMD HW H.264: Rate Control CBR, Preset Quality, Profile High, Keyframe Interval 2 s.
• QuickSync H.264: Rate Control CBR, Target Usage around TU4 (balanced), Profile High, Keyframe Interval 2 s.

In Settings, then Video, set the Base (Canvas) Resolution to your monitor resolution and the Common FPS Value to 60. Leave Advanced color settings at NV12, Rec. 709 and Limited range unless you have a specific reason to change them.

Step 4: Capture Valorant correctly

Add a Game Capture source set to capture a specific window and choose the VALORANT window. Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat previously blocked OBS’s game capture hook; OBS 31.1 updated its capture hook signatures and fixed game capture for Riot titles that use Vanguard. If you see a black capture, update OBS (32.2.2 is the current stable release, with 33.0 in beta), then try running OBS as administrator. Display Capture is the fallback, but it also captures notifications and anything else on that monitor.

For audio, use an Application Audio Capture source for Valorant and a separate one for Discord or music, so each has its own fader. Team voice runs through the game process, so lower or mute Valorant’s voice chat volume if you do not want teammates on stream.

Step 5: Valorant settings that protect the stream

• Turn on Limit FPS Always and set Max FPS Always to a value your GPU holds with headroom. If GPU usage sits at 98–99%, OBS can show rendering lag and stutter on stream even when the game feels fine.
• Keep NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency set to On; it keeps the render queue short without needing a GPU maxed out.
• Use Fullscreen display mode with Multithreaded Rendering enabled.
• In OBS, open Settings, then Advanced, and set Process Priority to Above Normal so the encoder is not starved during heavy rounds.
• Consider a Stream Delay of 30–60 seconds in the Advanced settings to make stream sniping in ranked harder.

Fixing the most common warnings

Should you use Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting?

Enhanced Broadcasting is OBS’s multitrack video feature for Twitch. Your GPU encodes several quality versions of the stream at once, so viewers on slow connections get a quality selector even if you are not a Partner. It needs a supported GPU and current drivers, and it uses more encoder capacity and upload bandwidth than a single stream. OBS 32.2 added dynamic bitrate support to multitrack video, which helps on less stable connections. If your PC already shows rendering lag with one stream, stay with a single 6,000 kbps H.264 output.

Streaming Gear Worth Adding

Once OBS is tuned for Valorant, audio and camera quality are what viewers notice next. These are common upgrades for a stream setup.

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