In this guide I list the minimum settings in OBS needed to record high-quality gameplay 1080p60 videos for uploading to YouTube – it takes less than 5 minutes to setup and is super easy.
I had 4 requirements for OBS recordings:
- Recording should have no noticeable effect on a game’s performance, e.g. making a recording shouldn’t result in meaningful loss of framerate while playing
- The recorded video should be high quality: good graphics clarity, no stuttering / dropped frames
- The recorded video should maintain the same resolution as the game at a high framerate, preferably 1080p60
- The recorded video should be reasonably efficient in terms of file size
Based on online guides for recording with OBS, I experimented with various detailed settings and compared the recorded videos. Many of the detailed settings that were recommended by other gamers were unnecessary. I determined the fewest settings needed to achieve the 4 requirements above, and those settings are explained in the following 3 steps.

