Random FPS drops in recordings to ~30 FPS while performance in-game is completely fine

[Linkyop]

First of, is Action! still supported? I was trying to contact and report some bugs through several ways (e-mail, Steam page, contact form on Mirillis page), but never got any response.

But if it does, then I would finally like to report annoying bug related to recording.

Action! 4.44.0

Main problem: while in-game FPS is completely fine and my laptop is not being overloaded by anything, finished recording contain parts where framerate drops to 30 FPS. Those moments are really random in video and there is no impact in-game performance in any way when those moments happens in videos.

My specs: i7-11800H, RTX 3060 (572.42), Windows 10 22H2, monitor refresh rate: 120 Hz (1920x1080). Laptop switched to use only dGPU.

In Action! , video settings are set to: game mode, file format: MP4, hardware acceleration: NVENC H264, video size: original/original, video framerate: 60 FPS CFR.

My settings are: app priority: High, video quality: High, bitrate: 100%, input range: 0-255 (full), multicore recording: enabled, hardware acceleration for video encoding: enabled for NVENC H264.

Could I please ask for help? I will be happy to give more info if needed. I really want this to be resolved.

[kentwoodard]

As for your issue, random drops to 30 FPS in the recording (while in-game FPS is stable) usually point to an encoding or frame pacing issue, not performance. A few things you could try:
Make sure V-Sync or any frame limiter isn’t interfering (try capping the game at 60 or 120 FPS).
Lower bitrate slightly — 100% can sometimes cause inconsistent encoding.
Try switching from CFR to VFR (or vice versa) to see if it stabilizes output.
Check if NVENC is being shared (e.g., ShadowPlay, OBS, browser playback in background).
Monitor GPU encoder usage (not just GPU load) — spikes there can cause dropped frames in the recording only.

[throwingglad]

Try lowering the NVENC bitrate or switching to CPU encoding—your in-game FPS looks fine, so it’s likely a recording/encoder issue.

[huskydog17]

This issue is present since version 4.45.0 and it's still not fixed. I just tested the latest Action version 4.48.0 and the issue still remains.
The most frustrating thing about this is that you cannot use the last usable version of Action (4.44.1) because it does not recognize NVENC with actual recent drivers, so you have to use old drivers for that.
The last Action version that is not affected by this issue is the 4.44.1.